Pflege Zeitschrift
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Due to the increasing life expectancy and population ageing, the post-professional phase of life is becoming more and more important to the individual and to society as a whole. The perception of the potentials of elderly people and, hence, the call for self-directed and independent activities in the post-professional phase are becoming more intense. The relation between retirement and work in nurses has not been of scientific importance so far. ⋯ The results indicate that the transition to retirement is often accompanied by problems, that retired nurses do not fundamentally refuse to continue to work and that the willingness to continue to work is subject to certain conditions. Reasons and conditions for and against profession-based post-professional activities were revealed. Consequentially, concepts for the systematic identification of potentials of nurses in their post-professional phase of life should be developed.