ProNurse

Hi Janice,

Welcome to ProNurse! I'm sorry to hear that you've been hitting a brick wall but you've come to the right place? Are there any uni's in your area that you can check online to see if they do the Return to Nursing course? Who have you contacted in the past? Nobody seems to respond to emails these days, you've got to keep calling! Don't give you, you will get there.

You could do some agency shifts to help you gain some experience and of course some extra cash :) How long have you been out of nursing?

Cx

Are there other jobs going in other trusts near you besides Tommys and Guys? You could join the hospital agency and take it from there. They will ensure that you update your mandatory training which is a start as you've been out for awhile. Does Greenwich do a return to nursing course? I'm sure they did but it could all have changed now. I'll have a look for you. Kings are normally good but I have found that there are wrong numbers and email addresses which is a pain! Have you tried to contact the tutor directly? They may still be trying to catch up on stuff from before the hols - no excuse I know as you just want an answer.

Don't give up. You sound so passionate about wanting to return to practice.

Cx

Hi Claudia,

Thank you for that information I really appreciate that, I will call the number for city of london tomorrow and see if I have any joy. Ironically I applied for an HCA post on the renal unit at Bart's as that is my speciality and I received an e-mail today to say that it was and error and had been withdrawn. Oh well I will keep plodding on.

Hi Janice,

                 I have just started a Return to Nursing Course, I am having to travel approx 80miles to attend lectures once a week and 20 miles to carry out my work placement which will also be hopefully once a week.  I am also having to pay over £500 for the 'priviledge'.  This, I have heard is cheap compared to other trusts, some of whom were apparently charging up to £1000.

  After many,many phonecalls and 'overlooked' emails I was told that our local trust would not be running a Return to Practice course for the forseeable future as there is no longer a high number of vacancies to be filled.

  Anyway I don't know why I am telling you this, but I just wanted to say don't give up!  Just keep pestering, but phonecalls are better it is not so easy to be ignored then! 

I am enjoying my course, and even if I don't get a permanent job after it I will just be pleased to be a Registered Nurse again.

Good Luck, I hope you find a course nearby.

Hi Janice and everyone

I dont know if youve found a Return to Practice Course as yet, but i had the same problem. Took me thee years before I got on one, but thats another story! Ive just finished last December 2008 and currently waiting for results.

 I wrote a book about my experiences with links to places that do offer the course with other helpful advice that I wished someone had told me. I just uploaded it to Lulu.com today http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=944010. it's called 'So you want to return to Nursing? for £4.50 and £2.50 for the download. A portion out of each sale is going towards NurseAid.

I hope that was helpful. Or send me an email anytime if you need any support.

Good luck

Candy

I am having the exact same problem ..why is no one doing the return to nursing course? I live in the west midlands btw...and was told there was no funding for this course in the forseeable future!!

hi,

feeling a little heartened now that I have read that there are others in the same position - I trained as an RNMH (learning disablities) many moons ago and recently have toyed with the idea of returning to nursing. But I would like to convert to general and there is even less info out there about this.

 I'm sure in the 'old' days as a RNMH I would have been the equivalent of an enrolled nurse if working in general nursing ( as did my junior surgical and medical modules but not the senior ones in the last 18 months) and they then offered conversion courses lasting 18 months for them to become registered. But now I'm faced with 3 years training as noone seems to have a clue about accredited learning and prior training - aarrgghh!

Why is it so difficult?  Have found NMC and RCN sites useless, sorry if this statement offends :o)

 Hi, I'm currently on a Return to Practice course at Grantham through University of Nottingham. It takes about 4 months to complete with 8 days in Uni. There's a minimum of 100 hours clinical practice, also a 4000 word portfolio of proficiencies. These are NMC requirements. It cost £1000 and I had to find my own placement which is of course unpaid. I think it's terrible that I had to pay to do this when I have friends in comparable professions, ie teaching, who are actually paid to go back.

Hi simpli_c_y2005,

Well done Candy for producing a book, it is easy to do just that, to help others and earn a little bit of cash.   Very clever - a good example to others.

You just need to increase your keywords to increase your sales - you could add return to practice, return to nursing practice, nurse, nursing, etc.   This will increase your profile, your hits and your sales.   Excellent.

Nev.

It's sad to find out that many nurses are having trouble returning to practice.

We must be very lucky in Wales as the Welsh Assembly will fund nurses to return to practice through NHS Trusts over 12w. I'm just looking into my phlebotomist returning to practice. She's bored with taking bloods and wants to return to nursing. I'l lbe supporting her all the way as I know she will be an asset to our team. I'm not going to give up. We need more nurses!

@mata

Hi, Mata.

Welcome to Pronurse.

Good luck with you search for a suitable course.

Take care.

Mo x

Hi,Mata.

That's good news.

Good luck with everything.

Take care.

Mo x

Come over to Wales. The Welsh Assembly pays.

Hi Can anyone help me find a return to practise course in Scotland I will be self funding the NMC website is no real use at all and I tried surfing the internet