Coventry nurse questions safety of careers for older nurses

Published: 16 May 2012

A Coventry nurse has used the platform of the biggest event on the UK’s nursing calendar to speak out about the challenges facing nurses and health care practitioners in light of the proposed increases to the retirement age.

Phil Noyes, who works as a nurse at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust and as a steward for the Royal College of Nursing, put forward a resolution for debate to more than 3,000 nurses and health care practitioners from across the UK at the RCN Congress 2012, which started in Harrogate on Sunday 13 May.

The resolution asked whether, in view of the increasing retirement age, RCN Congress believed that careers will exist for older nurses to work safely.

The resolution was passed by an overwhelming majority of voting members (95.69%), and RCN Council – the organisation’s governing body – will now lobby employers to ensure they are meeting their legal responsibilities by recognising and providing for the needs of an ageing workforce.

Phil, who put forward the resolution on behalf of the UK Stewards’ Committee, said: “This was a fantastic opportunity to highlight what is going to become a huge issue for the health service.

“As an RCN steward in the NHS as it is now, I have seen more members facing the end of their ability to work as a frontline nurse due to physical health issues in the last 2 years than I had in the previous 13 altogether, and that was before the Default Retirement Age was scrapped in October 2011.

“But now nurses and health care practitioners face the expectation that, by 2046, they will be working clinically – moving and handling patients for example – to the age of 68 as part of the changes to the NHS Pension Scheme pushed through by the government.

“While there’s no evidence that the capacity of older employees to work decreases before 70, the nature of hands-on clinical nursing has enormous relevance. The physical and mental demands of working in the police, fire service and armed forces continue to be recognised by a lower retirement age. Why not nursing?

“The other big question is, are employers going to try and make use of older nurses’ experience and knowledge, perhaps through mentoring and supporting newly qualified nurses, or by enabling them to work reduced hours to lessen the reliance on agency nurses?

“Or are they going to start going down the route of enforced early retirement on ill health grounds or through sickness absence and dismissal on capability grounds due to ill health?

“This would not only be a wasteful and deeply disappointing way to end someone’s nursing career, but would also represent a loss of nursing skills and expertise which we can ill afford with an ageing patient population and a struggle to maintain a nursing workforce.”