Many nurses shed their gowns just a few years into their career. In fact, they are one in two who after ten years leave their position as a hospital nurse, according to a study carried out by the Directorate for Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES). If the study doesn’t address the reasons for these departures, we learn that some turn to other employers when others change jobs entirely.
Of those who entered the profession between 1989 and 2019, only 54% are still working as salaried hospital nurses ten years after their first position. However, 11% have the profession of salaried nurse for another type of employer such as an Ehpad, a public administration or on a temporary basis.
7% left the profession to retrain in the hospital, in an administrative position, for example, and 7% became liberal, are unemployed or have completely changed course. Some become, for example, school teachers.
The trend is clear: the longer the career years go by, the more likely they are to leave salaried employment at the hospital. In fact, 84% of them practice there after two years of their career, and more than 48% after 15 years.
It is also a question of generation. Those who started practicing in the late 2000s are only 50%, while the proportion of their seniors who entered the profession in the early 1990s is 60%.
the liberal attracts
Many of them decide to enter the liberal profession: this is the case for one in ten hospital nurses after a ten-year career. They can only become self-employed after they have worked as a paid nurse for two years or if they have six months of experience as a substitute nurse. This proportion of self-employed nurses increases over time and then slightly decreases after ten years of their career.
“These percentages are significantly higher than those observed in other professions, where self-employment is much rarer,” says the DREES statement.
The proportion of people, former nurses, classified as unemployed in mainland France, whether they are unemployed or have gone abroad, goes from 5% five years after the first job to 11% ten years later.
Being a mother does not explain the exits from the profession
There is also the legitimate question of motherhood because this profession is practiced by 83% of women. This could potentially explain these departures from the hospital environment. But is not the case. Being a mother does not lead women to retire from their jobs.
However, the first ten years of a career usually coincide with the birth of children because “access to a stable job increases the probability of living with a partner and having children,” the study underlines. At the beginning of their career (the average age is estimated at 28 years), 26% already have a child. A figure that rises to 79% ten years later.
As in many other industries, many nurses who become mothers do so part-time. But the reason for the abandonment of hospitals by nurses must be sought elsewhere…
Source: BFM TV
