Retaining older experienced nurses in the Northern Territory of Australia: a qualitative study exploring opportunities for post-retirement contributions

Introduction: Many countries are facing an ageing of the nursing workforce and increasing workforce shortages. This trend is due to members of the ‘baby boomer’ generation leaving the workforce for retirement and a declining pool of younger people entering the nursing profession. New approaches to engaging older nurses in the workforce are becoming common in nursing globally but have yet to be adapted to remote contexts such as the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. This article reports findings from a qualitative study of 15 participants who explored perceived opportunities for and barriers to implementing flexible strategies to engage older nurses in the NT workforce after they resign from full-time work. Methods: The study used a descriptive qualitative design. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with NT nurses approaching retirement (six nurses aged 50 years and over) and their managers (n=9). Clinicians were employed in practice settings that included hospitals, community health and ‘Top End’ (north of and including the town of Katherine), as well as Central Australian remote area communities. One participant who was employed as primary health centre manager in a remote community also held a clinical role. Managers were employed in both senior and line management positions in community and remote health as well as NT hospitals. Results: Three major themes emerged from the data. First, interview participants identified potential for flexible post-retirement engagement of older nurses and a range of concrete engagement opportunities 'on and off the floor’ were identified. Second, the main barriers to post-retirement engagement were an existing focus on the recruitment of younger Australian and overseas-trained nurses, and the remoteness of nursing practice settings from the residential locations of retired nurses. Third, existing informal system of post-retirement working arrangements, characterized by ad hoc agreements between individual nurses and managers, is poorly suited to scaling up. Conclusion: A knowledge and change-management approach is required to change employers’ views of the value of older nurses. Better engagement of those nurses may assist the NT Department of Health address the severe nursing workforce shortages and prevent the loss of significant remote area nursing knowledge

\u27Walkabout Tourism\u27: Is there an Indigenous Tourism Market in Outback Australia?

Outback areas of Australia account for much of the landmass with just 5% of the population, many of whom are Indigenous Australians. Despite tourism being an important industry for Outback economies, it has declined in recent decades prompting a search for new and expanding tourism markets. While Indigenous tourism in the form of visits to Indigenous communities, attractions and sites to obtain the Indigenous ‘experience’ has been pursued it has, along with other niche markets, delivered at best limited and isolated successes. But Indigenous people are themselves highly mobile, making frequent and regular trips away from home. In the past these trips were labelled in a derogatory way as ‘walkabout’. The characteristics of these trips posit them firmly within accepted definitions of tourism but, excepting one study on homelessness, there is a vacuum in research on the potential of people ‘on the move’ as a tourist market. Consequently, we do not know the potential size or characteristics of the market, an awkward contradiction given the historical focus on generating tourism at places where Indigenous people live. This study is the first to analyse data for Outback areas from the perspective of providing baseline information about that market. While results are mixed in terms of the potential to support a flailing tourism industry, this study finds that Indigenous people on the move should not be ignored