"Jeg skal jobbe absolutt så lenge som jeg kan" : en kvalitativ studie av sykepleiere i slutten av yrkeslivet : forhold og opplevelser som kan ha betydning for pensjoneringstidspunktet

Abstract

The background for the study is an expected increased shortage of nurses in Norway and internationally. The purpose of this study was to get new knowledge from senior nurses' own experiences. The goal was to visualize conditions that held senior nurses longer in the job. I wanted to look at how they described their professional life, their experiences as being a senior at work and thinking about how it would be to retire. This is a time- relevant issue and it has been little research on this topic in Norway. This was a qualitative study and nine senior nurses who work shifts in home care were interviewed. They were on average 61,9 years old. The findings of this study were that nurses had high levels of satisfaction in work, and none had decided when to retire. They were happy in their work and worked to be there for patients, meet colleagues and to get out. Salaries and pensions appeared to have secondary importance. The nurses worked because they wanted to, "stay", and not because they had to, "stuck”. But on the other side they experienced many challenges. Several of the interviewees experienced physical challenges in relation to health and the nurses experienced not to be heard when they asked for different devices and help to organize working days. Stress and time pressure influenced everyday life, with great responsibility and burden, and sometimes insecurity. The relationship between these two extremes became more clearly using Lazarus (2006) coping strategy. The nurses showed good ability to use different coping strategies when faced challenges and stress. It can illustrate that they mastered the tension between positive and negative relationships and experiences, and further explain that they still have jobs. The title: "I'll certainly work as long as I can” is taken from one of the nurses I interviewed and reflected that most of the interviewees conveyed, in contrast to the cover photo «En sykepleier nærmer seg pensjonsalder» (2013) that is a symbol of my own prejudices before the study began. The nurses had no economy as the main reason to work, it was satisfaction and a genuine desire to work.