Aged over 50 years and practising: separation and changes in nursing practice among New Zealand's older Registered Nurses.

Aim To describe temporary and permanent separation patterns and changes in nursing practice over 5 years, for the 2006 cohort of nurses aged ≥50 years in New Zealand. Background As ageing populations increase demand on nursing services, workforce projections need better information on work and retirement decision-making of large 'baby-boomer' cohorts. Design Retrospective cohort analysis using the Nursing Council of New Zealand administrative dataset. Methods A cohort of all nurses aged ≥50 years on the register and practising in 2006 ( n = 12,606) was tracked until 2011. Results After 5 years, a quarter ( n = 3161) of the cohort (equivalent to 8·4% of all 2006 practising nurses) was no longer practising. There were no significant differences in permanent separation rates between the ages of 50-58; between 18-54% of annual separations re-entered the workforce. On re-entry, 56% returned to the same clinical area. Annual separations from the workforce declined sharply during the global financial crisis and more of those leaving re-entered the workforce. In 2006, half the cohort worked in hospitals. After 5 years, the number of cohort nurses working in hospitals fell by 45%, while those in community settings increased by 12%. Over 5 years, weekly nursing practice hours declined significantly for every age-band. Conclusions To retain the experience of older nurses for longer, workforce strategies need to take account of patterns of leaving and re-entering the workforce, preferences for work hours and the differences between the sub-groups across employment settings and practice areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]