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Job Opportunities Abound for Retired Nurses
Linda Childers | Monster Contributing Writer
If you’re a retired nurse looking to keep your skills current and pick up some extra cash, you have an edge. With the current nursing shortage, the healthcare industry offers a wide selection of part-time, on-call and even seasonal job opportunities for retired RNs and LPNs/LVNs. Here’s a look at some of the options.
Work in Home Health
Lesley Peterson, office manager at Addus HealthCare, a national home healthcare agency, says her company employs approximately 30 retired nurses in its Concord, California, branch alone.
Critical Care Nurses Need a BSN
To qualify for home health nursing jobs through Addus, nurses must have one year of recent acute-care nursing experience. “If a candidate has good assessment skills, we can train them on how to work as a home health nurse,” says Peterson, who notes the agency’s continual need for qualified nurses.
Nurses can work four- to 12-hour shifts visiting continuous-care patients who live close to their own homes. “Some nurses choose to work one four-hour shift a week,” Peterson says.
Although home health agencies traditionally pay less than hospitals, home health work is also typically less physically demanding and offers nurses the chance to work independently. Nurses are paid weekly, and those who work 32 hours a week or more are eligible to receive benefits.
Be a School Nurse Sub
Most public school districts keep a registry of nurses who are available to work as substitute nurses. These jobs require an RN degree and a current nursing license in the state in which you wish to work.
“When our regular school nurses are absent, we rely on substitute nurses to fill in for a four- to eight-hour shift at one of our schools,” says Darlene Covell of the Shawnee Mission School District in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, where substitute nurses are paid $110 a day.
To register as a substitute school nurse, contact your local public school district. You will be placed on the district registry and called when you’re needed.
