Abstract
BackgroundEarly retirement (before age 65) is the norm among registered nurses (RNs) and allied health professionals (AHPs) employed in Canada’s public system. As a country whose population is rapidly aging, it is in Canada’s best interest to try and extend the work lives of RNs and AHPs.Objectives(1) To test the predictive validity of our conceptual model of early retirement among publicly employed, Canadian RNs and AHPs and (2) to compare, across professions, model fit and factor significanceMethodsWe conducted multivariable logistic regression in two data sets, one consisting of 483 retired RNs and the other of 177 retired AHPs. The number of AHP respondents limited our ability to comprehensively test the model.ResultsEighty-five percent of RNs and 77% of AHPs had retired early. (1) Results indicate that 25% of variance in RN early retirement and 19% of variance in AHP early retirement was explained by included variables. (2) Organizational restructuring increased odds of early retirement by more than 100% among RNs and AHPs. Among RNs (but not AHPs), both financial possibility and caregiving responsibilities predicted early retirement at statistically significant levels, while a “desire to stop working” predicted retirement at or after 65 years of age.ConclusionsClearly, there is much more to learn about RN and AHP pathways to early retirement. Further research, ideally research exploring the role of workplace characteristics, attitudes, and beliefs towards retirement and work-related factors, could deepen our understanding of the phenomenon of RN/AHP early retirement.
Highlights
Retirement is the norm among registered nurses (RNs) and allied health professionals (AHPs) employed in Canada’s public system
Delaying retirement is of particular importance in health care, which is affected in two ways by the aging of the population: first, per capita health expenditures and requirement for health services increase with age [3], and second, the health care workforce is aging [4]
The majority of publicly employed, Canadian RNs and AHPs retire before age 65
Summary
Retirement (before age 65) is the norm among registered nurses (RNs) and allied health professionals (AHPs) employed in Canada’s public system. Elder’s [10] Life Course Perspective guided our conceptualization of retirement; notably, this perspective encourages interdisciplinarity and recognizes the value of micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors in the study of individual life courses [10]. This perspective is commonly applied in studies of retirement [11,12,13,14,15]. All identified factors were incorporated into one of eight categories of predictors of early retirement among RNs and AHPs. Categories included lifestyle and health, attitudes and beliefs, work-related, organizational factors, sociodemographics, broader context, and family and workplace characteristics [10]. In the analysis reported below, we were unable to empirically test all factors included in the conceptual model
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