To counteract the shortage of nurses in the workforce, healthcare organizations must encourage experienced nurses to extend their working lives. Intensive care (IC) has higher nurse-to-patient ratios than other settings, which includes a particular susceptibility to staff shortage. This qualitative study investigated how older IC nurses experienced their working life and their reflections on the late-career and retirement. Semi-structured interviews with 12 IC nurses in Sweden (aged 55-65 years) were analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach. The results showed that nurses planned to continue working until the age of 65 and beyond. When reflecting on their late-career decisions, nurses considered nine areas covering individual, work, and organizational factors as being central to their ability and willingness to stay. Overall, the nurses had good health and were very satisfied and committed to their job and to the organization. They mentioned having both the job and personal resources required to cope with the physical and mental job demands, which were perceived as motivational challenges, rather than hinders. They also reflected on various human resource management practices that may promote aging-in-workplace. These findings may inform organizations aiming at providing adequate conditions for enabling healthy and sustainable working lives for IC nurses.

BACKGROUND: There is a shortage of nurses worldwide, and a large number of older nurses will be entering retirement in the near future. Older nurses have rich nursing experience, and their retirement is a major loss of resources for the nursing profession. Returning to work after retirement is becoming increasingly popular among retirees today, but there is limited knowledge of the perceptions of older nurses regarding continuing to work in a nursing career after retirement.
OBJECTIVE: To explore older nurses\' perceptions of continuing to work in a nursing career after retirement.
METHODS: We conducted a descriptive, qualitative study of older nurses from two public hospitals of different levels in China in 2018.
METHODS: A total of 27 older nurses aged 50-60 years were recruited, 15 from a tertiary hospital and 12 from a secondary hospital.
METHODS: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with older nurses. An interview guide was developed to explore nurses\' perceptions of continuing to work in a nursing career after retirement. Thematic analysis was used for the data analysis. We developed an interview guide and analysed the data based on the three essential conditions of the framework for understanding behaviour.
RESULTS: Based on the definition of the three essential conditions of the framework for understanding behaviour, 14 subthemes emerged from the data were categorised under this framework. The three main themes were as follows: the nurses\' perceptions of their capability, motivation, and opportunity related to engaging in a nursing career after retirement. A number of older nurses with rich clinical experience have the ability and motivation to engage in nursing a career after retirement. However, discrimination against nurses, burnout, and the effects on young people\'s employment are barriers to older nurses considering working in a nursing career after retirement. Regarding re-employment after retirement, older nurses also expressed concerns about their physical health, family responsibilities, and salary as well as lack of managerial and policy support.
CONCLUSIONS: These themes confirmed previous findings and offered new perspectives on older Chinese nurses\' perceptions of working in a nursing career after retirement. These findings will influence future policy development and research directions. Policies for facilitating a prolonged working life should be developed. Future research should focus on how to address the challenges confronted by older nurses.

BACKGROUND: In Singapore, employees aged 62-65 can continue to be employed if they meet the re-employment eligibility criteria. This policy, coupled with an ageing workforce, calls for age-friendly initiatives, specific to work-related challenges faced by older nurses.
OBJECTIVE: To determine work-related challenges faced by older nurses.
METHODS: A mixed method sequential explanatory study was conducted with nurses, aged 50 and above, working in a healthcare cluster in Singapore. In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire was administered to 534 nurses to elicit work-related challenges, then in-depth interviews with 30 nurses were carried out to help explain why certain tasks and work circumstances became harder.
RESULTS: Results of the survey indicated that the top three challenges were coping with changes, working with computers and reading labels. Place of work, salary range, gender and race were significantly associated with different work-related challenges. Five themes emerged from the qualitative data: physical demands of work and workload, new technology, need for further education, working with younger nurses and in intercultural teams, and changing public expectations and professional image.
CONCLUSIONS: The study supports the current literature on the challenges older nurses face with technological advancement. However, older nurses in our study reported less aches and pain as compared to that reported elsewhere. There is a need for specific strategies that will address changes in work processes and environment in order to retain older nurses.
UNASSIGNED: When devising age-friendly work improvement initiatives, it is important for nurse leaders to factor in the needs of nurses working in different care environments, who are of different ranks, or are from different ethnic backgrounds.