AIBU to feel trapped after giving up my nursing registration? I need my independence back

[Tokaboka]

I was a qualified nurse. Stupidly gave up my registration about 3 years ago and have done thing since - all with the encouragement of DH who has supported us both since.

nothing is wrong - money is fine … but all of a sudden I’m shitting myself. I’m trapped now aren’t I? wtf was I thinking?

Can anyone talk me through getting my independence back?? I’m 45. Autistic and now suddenly very overwhelmed by the whole thing

In the meantime - should I try and get a carers job?? I can’t think straight

Get a different job (part time, care bank work maybe) or do the return to nursing course

As a Nurse you have lots of transferrable skills. Incredible people skills, multi tasking, prioritisation etc. and i’d struggle to think of a profession with more hard-working individuals. I would hope that should the need arise you would be able to get some kind of work but it may not be at the level you did previously.

If you want to return to nursing you could do a return to nursing course and then work part time just to keep your hand in.

General practice or district nursing teams are always looking for great nurses to join the team.

https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/returning-to-the-register/return-course/

Go back. Or retrain as a Practice Nurse or District Nurse. Or in palliative care. You need your financial independence and you need to be contributing to a pension.

As far as I know would still need to be on the NMC register first before doing the training for these specialities. This means a return to practice course first.

As others have said you can do a Return to Practice course. I did one in 2022/23 after 10yrs out of Nursing. Depending on where you live, you may have to travel as not all Universities do the course.
I would say that nursing jobs are few and far between right now - there are many newly qualified nurses who are graduating with no jobs for them to go to.
Good luck!

Could you use your nursing experience to become an aesthetician? Adding in botox and fillers etc can be quite profitable and flexible on your time.

Without going into detail I've changed career from clinical side of NHS to manual trade. I've also handed my clinical registration back. I've been applying for jobs and AI gave me a right old talking to because I fell into the trap of feeling sorry for myself because I didn't have any other experience or skills.

Wrong!! You've got customer service experience. (From everytime the OPD computers went down and you had to keep apologising to everyone and deal with worried Patients, frustrated relatives and grumpy Consultants while not letting anyone take advantage of the situation). You've skills in persuasion and negotiation (Remember Mrs Jones in Bed 4 who didn't want to accept she needed to go into that respite rehabilitation place on discharge? And just thought she'd be alright with her Son popping in twice a week). You've got experience of liaising with multidisciplinary teams and other external services (from that time the water leak from the ceiling flooded the ward linen cupboard, and you had to apologise to the housekeeping team, help organise urgent cleaners, direct the porters to move stuff and keep taking calls from the maintenance team plumbers to pass onto your boss over when they could manage to fix it).

Please do not underestimate the skills and experience that employers will see you have when they see "Ex-NHS staff for 20+ years" on a CV. You dealt with the general public for all that time. You turned up and grafted in a high pressure environment for all that time. Sometimes that alone speaks volumes rather than specific experience. Employers want someone reliable, not necessarily someone whos done an exact job before.

You did a fucking hard job for all those years and that counts for so much. Do.not let me hear you say you have no experience in other things, ok?

I would do the course%work to get it back.

You could keep it up with bank shifting. I didn't work full time in nursing for years (as I have another qualification too) but I would never give up my registration.

Do an OT masters

I canf see anyone has mentionnes it but you can apply for readmission if you jave 750 hours in the last 5 years.
I know you gave it uo 3 years ago but in the 2 years before that if you worked at least 12 hours a week, even accounting for annual leave ect, youre well over the requirement.

Please don't think you need to do an rtp straight away. Once you're readmitted it gives you a buffer anyway when you have your license and can decide how to proceed.

Struggling to understand the rationale of letting to expire/lapse, and how you have got to the point of panicking now that you have done so.

Is your current situation unhappy and you want to leave?

If happy then no need to panic Op. lots of people have given very good advice and with some effort on your party you can regain your qualifications. At 45 you are young so I would definitely recertify for peace of mind and options of ever needed. No need to panic though.

OP I was in your shoes, I remember the day I didn’t renew and honestly it was one of the biggest regrets of my life. I’m now stuck in home care on a terrible wage. I was stuck in the countryside with no help three small children and a selfish husband so couldn’t commit to shifts but I wish I’d figured something out back then.

Think i’ve read one of your posts before were you worried about pension in a previous post? But you’d stoped responding to the thread.
If that was you I suggested looking into if you could sign up for NI credits via UC. You would probably only be eligible for NI credits because of your DH income meaning you probably won’t have to job hunt.
I think the pathway back to nursing could be a good option for you as short term money isn’t an issue. Part time could also be a good option for you, as you’re less likely to burn out.
Social care probably isn’t less stressful than nursing but presumably is less well paid.
You could try nursing outside the NHS, they need nurses in social care. Or the NHS but in a different setting? Or transferable skills for a different field? What sort of jobs have nurses that you worked with in past left for?
I know someone who has a background in nursing and social care and works in a doctor’s surgery taking bloods. Regular hours no shift work, better pay than social care but probably not as much as nursing.

You could do a short return to nursing course if you need to get another nursing job. If you’ve only been out of nursing 3 years it’ll be really straightforward. .

They should come to Ireland . Absolutely crying out for nurses everywhere here .

Do a back to nursing course. Nurses are always in demand.

Sorry am I missing something??

Just do the return to work course and get a job

Stop panicking

www.nmc.org.uk/education/approved-programmes/

Sadly not due to job freezes.

There are lots of newly qualified nurses and midwives who are unemployed at the moment.

Just do a return course and then just enough casual work for hours?

How much of your course did you do and can you find out if you can return? ‘Trapped’ is very dramatic unless you’re having marriage difficulties and yes you could get caring work easily (you tell them you made a mistake leaving nursing and you love the caring profession)