Organizations now need to consider adding adult day care to assist older nurses who are responsible for their aging parents. One hospital that I worked for in California even had elder care as well as child care as part of its earthquake disaster plan because administrators knew that in a disaster, the older nurses and other staff would be able to stay and care for patients if they had a safe place to care for their young and old dependents. Ergonomic issues are important for staff of any age, but additional attention must be given as the staff ages. We re relying more on computers, too. Walk into any nurses station and you ll probably find chairs with broken or no backs and computers without wrist pads.
Chairs can contribute to back injuries and the lack of wrist pads to carpal tunnel syndrome.
Patient-lifting equipment almost always seems to be inadequate, even though we know that you can pay for a lot of lifting equipment by saving the cost of just one injury. To have a successful nursing profession, we need the energy and knowledge of the young nurses as well as the experience and wisdom of those who have been in practice for many years. Working together, each group will become stronger. Only the organizations that meet the needs of both groups will be successful in the future.