The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Working Lives and Retirement Timing of Older Nurses in Ireland.

Áine Ní Léime,Margaret O'Neill

doi:10.3390/ijerph181910060

Abstract

COVID-19 profoundly affected Irish citizens. The effects have been especially pronounced for nurses in front-line, clinical and management roles. This article discusses the national and employer policy context relevant to nurses in Ireland. There have been staff and bed shortages in public hospitals since austerity policies were introduced following the global financial crisis. Government measures responding to the pandemic include initial ‘cocooning’ of older citizens, travel restrictions, changed working conditions and restricted availability of childcare. This article draws on interviews with 25 older nurses in 2021, sixteen women and nine men, aged 49 or over in Ireland. It explores older nurses’ experiences of COVID-19 and asks what are the implications for their working conditions and retirement timing intentions. A gendered political economy of ageing approach and thematic analysis reveals that while some nurses responded positively to the pandemic, some experienced adverse health impacts, stress and exhaustion; some reported a fear of contracting COVID-19 and of infecting their families; several women nurses decided to retire earlier due to COVID-19. The implications of the findings for employer and government policy and for research are discussed.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) inMarch 2020, has given rise to an unprecedented global health crisis
The findings provide insights into the ways in which the pandemic affects the working lives of older Irish nurses, the ways it impacts on their health, how it influences their own and the publics’ perceptions of their role as nurses and the impact, if any, on their retirement timing
Their tiredness was often exacerbated by the fact that colleagues sometimes had to absent themselves from work either because they had COVID-19 or had a false positive diagnosis, with the result that some of the nurses had not been able to take annual leave for over a year in order to cover for their colleagues

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) inMarch 2020, has given rise to an unprecedented global health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in. In Ireland, which has a population of close to five million, 5179 people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, at the time of writing [1]. There is limited international research on the impacts of the pandemic for the working conditions and lives of older nurses and no research on this topic in Ireland. Understanding the experiences of older nurses is important to facilitate them to work for longer if they wish. This exploratory study, based on interviews with 25 nurses, provides valuable insights to help inform organizational policy and will contribute new insights to the literature on the impact of catastrophes on the timing of retirement. The need for research on retirement in the face of uncertainty has recently been highlighted in the context of the promotion of extended working lives in OECD countries [4]

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