To think I can't keep this up till 67?

[GodImTired]

I' work in acute paediatrics in the NHS. We work 13 1/2 hour shifts with usually only 3/4 of an hour for break. I have a step counter and average 13500 steps on every shift sometimes nearly 20000. It's a mentally demanding job we are constantly under staffed and we are increasingly seeing more and more exceedingly unwell children. Our doctors are also stretched to their full capacity. I and nearly all my colleagues go above and beyond what we're meant to do for both the children in our care and their parents we know this as we frequently receive verbal and written comment to this effect. But we also receive endless trivial complaints about the food, the view out the hospital window, and other which are demoralising.
At the end of many shifts I'm mentally as well as physically drained.
I'm 51 due to time out to bring up my children I haven't paid enough pension to retire early so will work till 67. I'm increasingly thinking that this won't be physically or mentally possible. Also the NHS is literally falling to pieces I started nursing over 30 years ago I cannot believe it's got this bad. But I love my job have tried less demanding areas and hate it.
I'm aware it's not just nurses who are struggling many others in other occupations particularly the public sector must feel the same. What are we all going to do? Many are my age are leaving in droves pension or no pension. Are the jobs we love and feel passionately about eventually just going to wear us down? What are we going to do? Or AIBU should I thank my lucky stars I have a job hopefully till 67 (that's what are management tell us).

I agree with Lazy. I'm appreciate that a physically demanding job can be a problem in your 60's but there's no way that the vast majority of people need to retire in their 60's and 60's. We do need to forward plan what we are going to to but it's not realistic to expect to be retired at that age if you're in good health.

My dad is 66 and still working full time in a high level senior role and most of his friends are still either working or consulting well into their 70's. In fact, our treasurer at work must be pushing 80 and is still an integral part of our team. My mum is still teaching at 63 albeit part time but that's nothing to do with health.

I seriously hope that I can still work in my 60's and if I'm healthy plan to. I'm 42, I've not slowed down, I'm not any less sharp than I was before and now that my kids are older and I'm getting some sleep I can easily give the 20 somethings a good run for their money.

I don't think nurses are of more value to society than most other workers. We all need each other to fulfil our roles. OP needs shoes so she can spend all those hours on her feet, therefore people who make and sell shoes are important too. Likewise refuge and sewerage workers - medics jobs would be impossible without them but we don't hear them moaning about their back breaking work and having to work past 50.

any minute now someone is going to mention race to the bottom

So it's the fact she's a nurse and is daring to complain then, is that what you're taking umbrage with?

Mentally and physically I cannot carry on nursing, I'm demoralised, exhausted and packing it in. At 63 I've nursed since I was 18 and because I cannot give patients the care they need and deserve I'm walking away.
I don't get a state pension for 2+ years; I'll find some other work to eke out a living until 2018. My NHS pension will be some help but I haven't always worked in the NHS so it's pretty meagre.

Daisy, I didn't compare nurses to most other workers, but some of us are doing stuff that is particularly pointless! I also agree that you seem to have taken against OP for some reason, your tone is a bit like that, and we don't know what option she is going to take.

I actually think it's a shame we are all living longer, I don't think it leads to more quality of life but just more working years. Pfft.

Grays - No, I'm taking umbridge with all the public sector whingers who think they are entitled to retire before everyone else. Teachers whinge even more than nurses on MN. Though not so much in real life.

You don't have to work until 67. You have to work at 67 to get the maximum possible NHS pension. You can stop sooner and get less NHS pension.

Check your state pension entitlement, you can likely live quite happily on the two combined even stopping before 67. (I know I there will be a gap before 67 on this scenario where you would only have your NHS pension and your state one hasn't started. But if you own your home and will have paid off your mortgage you may be able to live on less.)

OP came for support. Not you on some war against public sector 'whingers'. Perhaps you should look at these people as individuals and think deeply into why so many of them feel the way they do instead of wanting them to put up and shut up.

You keep creating arguments, there's another one in your most recent post. No-one said they thought they were entitled to retire before anyone else.

Oh give over Grays! OP asked if she was BU 'to think I can't keep this up until 67'. Then lots of others piled in to say how hard done by they are. if you can't physically or mentally continue in your role then find another one!

I think the only one who should 'give over' here is you and the arguments you've created in your head.

She came for support, got it as well as getting advice about options she can take. Hopefully she will take that away. What she didn't deserve is you coming on crusading about entitled whingers in the public sector

On another note, I wonder how our young people will cope when there's no jobs because our older people (which will include myself) are clinging on until their retirement age.

My DM worked in the same field OP and became disabled due to work at 43, had to take medical retirement and has been in severe and ever-increasing, chronic pain ever since.

Please take care of your health.

Daisy it's perfectly OK to question whether some jobs are too demanding to keep doing in to old age without being a "whinger"

Sometimes it is not even about age but whether or not you can continue to to provide what is required after doing certain jobs over a long period of time. My job in mental health involves a lot of misery day to day, year on year and I'm not sure it's healthy to do this for 40 years for anyone.

I am looking to change things but as a single mother of teenagers with a full time job and a long commute my opportunities for re training are some what limited. People who started their training just a couple of years before me are retiring at 55 as it was recognised that we do a particularly demanding job.I know that this is no longer sustainable but for those of us for whom the goal posts keep changing pension wise I think it is OK to have a moan.

I think for women my age (46) and older the change in the pension age during our working life has been a major adjustment. When I started work in 1994 my state pension age was 60, it is now 67. I am fortunate to be in a position where I can plan for the change but it doesn't stop it being a significant change to come to terms with. Many women entered jobs expecting to retire at 60 and have seen 7 years added on. Even though it makes economic sense and I accept the rationale, I think I am allowed to be slightly hacked off on a personal level.

Surely those with mortgages would have paid them off long before entitlement to State Pension, so could work part time?
Those who rent - not a clue what would happen - how would you keep up with the rent on an OAP?

I do get it that with people living so much longer either it gets pushed back by age, or a lot less is paid out 9and probably both in the future with a growing population)

I think my generation is one that's going to struggle though BMW given how difficult people are finding it to get onto the housing market at all.

I get the pension changes financially, but practically... well. It's based upon the assumption that living longer = being able to work longer. I was reading that changes could see pension age going up to the 70s :(

I feel your pain OP
I work in the voluntary sector in a very demanding stressful job and will retire at 67 or later if they push it up again
I'm not sure how I will cope without a breakdown - I do a lot of extra work in my own time to make sure everything is up to date and that vulnerable people get the help they need
Some evenings I'm so shattered I go straight home from work to bed without even bothering to eat
I will have very little of a private pension as I was unable to work for s while due to serious illness
As a single parent for most of DC lives I've not been able to save, even now have a large mortgage which will only be paid off when I'm 65

Jane that's crap. Have you thought about anything in the future, where you could transfer your skills to?

I've been thinking a lot lately. Im young but my god some days cripple me. I'm the same as you, go home and don't even bother eating. There's been a few days where I haven't been able to walk properly when I've got home. I'm already thinking about things I could do to end up with a more cushty job when I'm older, but even then things change so quickly whatever plans I make might not even be viable in the future.

have tried less demanding areas and hate it
OP, liking your job is also a luxury and the time might come when circumstances force you to take a position within your profession that you like less - or that you hate. Some people spend all their life in a job they hate but they do it because they have to. Liking your job is an added bonus, not an entitlement, however sad this is.

Grays - sounds like you need a new job now if it's crippling you.

I had juvenile arthritis and now it's just regular old arthritis. I manage it quite well, lost a shed load of weight to make it easier to manage too, but it still some days I come home and have to shuffle on my bottom up the stairs. I'm in my late 20's, I'm not ready to give a job up I've worked so damn hard, studied hard and worked to get - a niche role too. Not when I manage well at work it's just when I finally sit down at home and rest that the pain kicks in.

But I do know my limitations and have looked extensively into options for the future. I'm actually debating another degree to aid this but need to look into funding.

Adult Critical Care nurse here. Not read the whole thread as I'm shattered and start the first of 3 x 13 hour shifts in ICU tomorrow. From your first post, OP, YANBU.

It's soul destroying at the mo. Love my job, love the profession but sick and bloody tired at the way we're treated by the fuckers in power. No one chooses to be a nurse for the money. We are nurse because we want to be. Anyone remember Megan in Casualty's iconic speech about it being a vocation "cleaning up the blood, the shit and the vomit" etc? I think there is a vocational element, certainly, but there's also a huge and varied career to be had in nursing. We need to be respected and paid accordingly though. No pay rise, even in line with inflation, means that we've had a 14% PAY CUT over the last 8 years. It's unsustainable. Our house is now on the market as we can no longer afford to live so "centrally" (zone 5).

Nursing, certainly in my line, is physically back breaking, emotionally exhausting and requires a lot of additional learning and update. Technology in ICU is moving at an astonishing rate. I dread to think how I'll cope with it all when I'm in my 60s!

It's not safe and it's not fair.

(Sorry for the mega rant )

Nation - I have no words . This thread is .....

This is another thread entitely but nation in regards to your vocational comment, I had an argument about this recently and I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

It's about this new nursing associate role (or associate nurse as they first wanted to call it) coming in. I'm not a nurse btw, but work closely by you and the medics.

Now this role is going to be an apprenticeship. People are like 'woo yay it's going to make it accessible, I couldn't pass the uni maths test so now I can do nursing, oh its going to make it easier for people to be nurses', talk about how 'nursing is a vocation and lots of non academic people should be able to do it and just learn on the job'. I think this is actually a bit scary. People having the title, and doing most of the jobs of a nurse yet without the learning that is supposed to come with the reg role. It seemed to me that a lot of people seemed to have little understanding of the nurses role.

Hmmmmm. V interesting, Grays. Would you mind if I came back to it, though? I'm super tired and need to be up at 5.30