Celebrating nursing: why would I want to retire?

As 2020 is the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, it is important to celebrate our profession. I always wanted to be a nurse and I cannot remember a time when this was not going to be my chosen career. In July 2019, I turned 55. When I started my nurse training, 55 seemed a lifetime away. Now a lot of my nursing friends and colleagues have retired, or are thinking about retiring. I, however, cannot think that my nursing career is almost over. In my 37 years of nursing I have never wanted to be anything else, and I am not ready to slow down.

My school days were great, but I was never a high achiever. I had to work hard to gain my CSEs, but I achieved what I needed in the end. I loved being a pupil nurse and had so many wonderful experiences. During my training every person I met influenced my career, and affected how I was to shape myself as a nurse—good experiences, bad experiences, good mentors, bad mentors, kind patients, not so kind patients—all left a impression on me and made me understand the type of nurse I wanted to be.