I agree with Leonard Leonick's ideas about creating a retirement plan for nurses to improve recruitment and retention ("A Modern Proposal,"Viewpoint, June). However, he seemed out of touch with the fact that thousands of nursing school applicants are turned away because of the lack of professors.

I am a new adjunct nursing professor and was offered a full-time position at a community college. But I would have taken a 40% pay cut to work three times the hours I do as a bedside nurse. I have looked at doctorate education, where the pay is slightly better in the beginning, but what is expected of me would increase dramatically. However, my chances of promotion would improve, and the research opportunities are beyond what I can imagine, so I am pursing a doctoral degree.

I am at the end of the baby boomer generation and don't have any fantasies about ever being able to retire. I keep myself in shape, invest in my retirement, and diversify my skills and education so that I can be better qualified and able to do jobs that are less physically intensive later in life. We do have a national financial and health care disaster ahead of us if we don't change the current system. I don't know the answers. I just know that it's going to be very hard to be old when I get there.

Mary Anne Vincent, MS, RN, CCRN

Houston, TX