A Graying Population, a Graying Care Giver Work Force

[Elmore Furth]

The only thing worse than dramatically increasing Baby Boomer health care requirements is the aging of the Care Giver workforce.

The average age of RNs is projected to 44.5 years by 2012 and nurses in their 50s are expected to become the largest part of the nursing workforce.

Based on finding from the Nursing Management Aging Workforce Survey released in July 2006, 55% of surveyed nurses reported their intention to retire between 2011 and 2020.

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Media/FactSheets/NursingShortage.htm

In an aging population, the elderly are increasingly being taken care of by the elderly. Professional caregivers — almost all of them women — are one of the fastest-growing segments of the American work force, and also one of the grayest.

A recent study by PHI National, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of caregivers, found that in 2008, 28 percent of home care aides were over age 55, compared with 18 percent of women in the overall work force.

The organization projects that from 2008 to 2018, the number of direct care workers, which includes those in nursing homes, will grow to 4.3 million from 3.2 million. The percentage of older caregivers is projected to grow to 30 percent from 22 percent.

Caregivers often nurse their own aches and pains, or manage their medications, as they tend to those of their clients, said Dorie Seavey, director of policy research for PHI National. Clients who have to be lifted may not be suited to some older workers, she said.


A Graying Population, a Graying Work Force