There is clearly the issue of the challenging nature of the work, the fact that it's hard work. But we also need to acknowledge that most of the nurses in the country are unionized. Many in the current cohort of retiring nurses have diploma degrees. They started working relatively young and have probably acquired 35 years of experience, with a pension. One social phenomenon is that their husbands would be a bit older. Such social phenomena play a big role in the age of retirement of nurses. Most of the provinces, except Quebec, I think, are now requiring a bachelor's degree to be a nurse, so you would expect in the future that they would retire a bit later. But after 35 years of service and a full pension, why would you continue to work?
On April 25th, 2012. See this statement in context.