[writeRN]

I'm looking at the possibility of coming back to nursing after having been out of the field for eleven years. I was an ACLS-certified ER nurse, did some supervision, and some ICU and Med-Surg, and worked for ten years. Then got the deal of a lifetime and took it, and worked at a second career for eleven years.

Have any of the rest of you retired from nursing, then come back to it? How tough is it? It's been a few years since I've come home from work, fallen into bed, and spent the night dreaming of doing codes and checking my technique as I dreamed. Been a while since I've done a jugular stick or tubed somebody. And I know the meds have changed -- they changed every fifteen minutes anyway. But what else has changed -- aside from the fact that there are HMOs now?

How tough it is to get the license out of mothballs? What are the obstacles I'm not seeing?

[All41]

Wow, you are brave and fair play to you! We need your expertise and experience. My understanding is that you have to take a refersher course if out for greater than 5yrs. but that probably is different state to state. I don't think that much has changed if you break it down. You should be able to catch up easy enough. Come on board!!!

[writeRN]

Thanks for the encouragement.

In some places -- Florida, for example -- you basically can't get there from here. If you're bringing your license in from out of state, it has to be active. If it isn't active, you have to sit the boards again. Which is insane, considering if ever there was a state that needed more experienced nurses, it would be Florida.

Georgia has a decent re-entry program.

I'm looking around elsewhere, too.

[2ndtimer]

I was in almost the exact situation as you. I was out of nursing for 12 years working in a university laboratory (no nursing contact at all). I recently decided to go back to the hospital-both a personal and professional decision. I took a 6-week refresher course given by an accredited nursing school. I feel it was invaluable for getting my confidence back, even though we only had a few weeks of clinical exposure. Nursing practice was the same but the technology was different, down to the IV pumps, syringes, etc. Trying to get a job in a hospital was nerve-wracking; some recruiters would only consider me for a med-surg position and some of the more prestigious hospitals in the area were not welcoming me with open arms, if you know what I mean. I eventually took a position at a smaller community hospital in a telemetry unit (the kind of unit in which I had worked before leaving nursing). I had an 8 week orientation and am now on my own. Everyone has been very supportive, which I take to be a byproduct of the current nursing shortage. I have seen several people try to re-enter the nursing field, and have made some observations. 1. If you did not like nursing before, being out of the field for a while does not change that. 2. Preceptors are more willing to help you out if you are prepared before you come in and can at least function at the level of a nursing student. 3. You will feel as green as a nursing student sometimes, and will have to re-develop skills such as appropriate assertiveness around physicians and staff (unfortuantely, some people like to take advantage of other's uncertainty). I find that it is unpredictable who will be able to make the transition and who will not. I think the main factor is how involved in nursing you were before and your reasons for leaving (and getting back into it). People who are doing it mainly to fund something like a child's college education or because of the current economic situation seem to have more trouble.
I hope you have made your decision to come back. It is not that bad. Try to find as supportive of a nursing environment as you can and push for an extended orientation. This will increase the odds of success.
Good luck!