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My Experience of …Return to Practice

In the third of our series of ‘My Experience of…’ articles Chris Gill tells us her experience on the Return to Practice course when she returned to nursing in 2003.

I started my RGN training in October 1982 as an eighteen year old with very little life experience, no history of nursing in my family and just a mildly socialist view that I wanted to work in a profession that contributed something to society.

The training then was paid and mostly ward based, and like most others I found the course difficult to adjust to at first. Student nurses were seen as part of the work force and I had a tough time on my first ward through inexperience.

I persevered and found that despite severe nerves each time I had to change wards (often accompanied by gastritis) I loved the many learning experiences my training offered. It was a small hospital so by the end of my third year I knew where I wanted to work and had more or less been offered a job.

Once qualified I worked two and a half years on a Colorectal and Vascular Ward, then moved to Medical Nursing working first in Elderly Rehab and ending up on a female medical ward specialising in Respiratory Disease.

I found that my life outside of work influenced the choices I made with my career. I moved from Surgery to Medicine rather than fight it out for a promotion around the time my father died and I got married.

I moved to part time nursing when my children were born (losing an E grade when I went part-time) and then further damaged any chances of development by moving to nights every weekend once my girls had started school.

I mention this as I think this is a common experience for women in nursing. What I did gain was a very sound knowledge of hands on nursing and experience of dealing with sick people overnight when the hospital resources are scarce.

I also got mental stimulation outside of nursing by learning Russian, being a School Governor and involvement with Rainbow Guides.

When the crunch came and I decided to leave nursing to carry on my mother’s business after she had died, I really thought that I had left nursing for good. I think the lack of development and working nights for seven years had resulted in burnout.

I needed a break from nursing to appreciate what it was that I loved about it, and although I made a success of my mother’s Boarding Cattery business I found that it was lonely and ultimately unsatisfying.

In 2003 I made the break, sold my mother’s house and business and moved back to the village we lived in prior to her death. I enrolled on the Return to Practice course at the same hospital I had originally trained at. I had been out of nursing for 4 years.

I was fortunate to have been paid a small amount to do the Return to Practice course, as previously it was something that you paid to do, as I think it is now. The course lasted six months and required us to arrange 150 hours of ward experience.

I elected to do my experience back on Surgery, as this was the area I had most enjoyed as a student. I would advise anyone returning to nursing to do likewise and choose an area they enjoy rather than perhaps the one that they had more recent experience of.

The reactions of my fellow course members were interesting; most had been out for far longer than I. The temptation was to criticise the current working patterns and to glorify the perceived high standards of the past.

Although understandable such negative reactions proved a block to making the best of learning experiences. It was also difficult to know how to act as a supernumery student as I had never had the experience of being one.

After a short hesitation I relished the chance to direct my own learning and to see how other departments operated, but it did take a major change in thinking.

The academic basis and focus of our portfolios was also a challenge, mainly due to the jargon than the principles behind them. Nursing itself still required all my old skills, and it was surprising how quickly they returned, but I also had to learn about many new practises such as Patient Controlled Analgesia.

The course also gave a really good grounding on the latest changes to the structure of Health Services.

I found a job on a Surgical Ward Specialising in Urology straight after the course, was promoted to Senior Staff nurse a year later and am now a Band 6 Deputy Sister on a different Surgical Ward.

I’ve been piloting a new Surgical Assessment Area in A&E for the past few months as well as becoming part of a Leaders for the Future Management Programme. I am enjoying nursing more than ever.

My Return to Practice course was pivotal in sparking my success ad renewed ambition in nursing. It allowed me to develop a new more questioning and more positive attitude to healthcare.

Being a student fairly recently has also given a real boost to my mentoring skills and last year I was one of the nominees for my hospitals Mentor of the Year.

I would recommend a Return to Practice course to anyone interested, just take an open mind, a desire to learn and I’m certain you will do well.

Chris Gill. February 2009.

Other article in this series include:

My Experience of… Theatre Nursing by Mo Mossman

My Experience of… Trauma and Orthopaedics by Claudia McMonagle

Could you be next? We want to hear the experiences of all different types of nurses, student nurse, or people who are studying to get on a nursing course. Just send me a message via the site.

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