Do you feel that your years of experience, in the workplace, aren't valued?

My best friend is a nurse and we have had this exact conversation. She feels the same way. Too much paperwork, too much computer work and less patient care. She understands the reason for so much paper work, a lot of it is to cover your ass, but at the expense of the patient?

I’ve noticed the same thing in nursing. I’ve only been a nurse for a few years, but management wants the nurses to do more and more and it cuts into the time the nurses get to spend with the patients. It doesn’t seem like they really care about retaining the nurses they have.

I think a lot of time experience is undervalued, in may fields. Youth, energy, knowledge of the latest technologies are important, but there are things, very valuable things, that can only be learned with experience and I don’t think enough employers and businesses understand that.

well. I don’t have an occupation as critical like the medical field but before I became self employed in the home repair business I was pretty much 1 of many on a crew. There was the typical workplace politics(backstabbing) and all the snafu’s that come with multiple people on the job. Even the customers will tend to look through you if you are part of a crew. Not sure what the people are like personally in nursing but in construction there are lots of unsavory people who do that work, Lot’s of alcoholics, drug abusers and those with a history of incarceration. Not saying that it makes people bad by itself but it’s hard to work with this kind of people most the time. I get a lot of repeat business because I’m good.and I know how to treat people, which was something that was never going to happen till I got out of the crab bucket. I get noticed so I shine better and so the money is better, and I get a great deal more respect from people, vendors, and others in the trade. I am a brand now. My work has much more value now compared to those hourly working for the man days. If there is a down side it would be that it never gets easy however that is fine with me. I have a secure trust in anyone who has been at their job for a long time which is reflected whenever I have to be in a hospital I’m always hoping the nurse staff has the experience to handle anything. This will happen if those on duty have been around a long time enough to have seen everything. I’m already half nervous whenever I go there so if there is someone there who has my back with the most experience it helps.

Perhaps you should get together with other senior nurses and start your own service.,

Seems to me that your combined years of personal experience should be very valuable….

Relate yes indeed. i was with my police department for 44 years. i was on an IOD(injured in the line of duty) for thirteen years. after i was approved to return to active duty, i was required to complete our whole police academy a second time. i was 58 years old at the time. the average age in my classe was 26. was i ever a minority. the younger men and women thought they could run circles around “the old man”. i managed to outshoot and outrun most of them(with help from above). my overal 2nd police academy graduation score was 92.9. this beat most of my classmates. sure, i had to learn all the modern techniques of using a computer, but that did not stop me. i was determined to be the only officer, at my age, to ever complete the police academy a second time in one lifetime. with all this experience under my belt, i was proud of my accompishment. i was respected more than i ever hoped for by my fellow officers. bottomline is this….you can do whatever you set your mind to do. its sometimes difficult at an older age, but somehow the guardian angels will see you through. just keep your faith.

@john65pennington

Good work! Congrats!

Yes, it’s an issue I’ve had to deal with my entire career. But yesterday was payday, and guess what, that is really the only thing my company owes me.

Bend Dover, thank you.

LOL…that’s Ben Dover, not bend over!

Oooh….I thought it was something different than both of you…

my bad.

Your’s is a common problem in health care. I am a medical imaging specialist, and worked in the same job for 21 years. I was continually passed over for the brown nosers and corporate climbers, so I did further study, and now teach in University. Best thing I ever did.

My wife is an RN, and from her experience, the same thing applies. There is no appreciation, and very poor pay, for the hard work that nurses do. This seems to be endemic in the system. Not sure what country you’re in, but certainly applies here in Australia.

Thanks for your response. I live in the northwestern United States. Sorry you too, are experiencing this. It’s really a shame.