My previous nursing career had been varied and I’d worked in different areas: neonatal, practice, child health and school. But I had literally forgotten how to do the many clinical skills I had gathered over the years. I was reminded at my RTP interview that you’re never an ’ex’ nurse, you’re just not on the active part of the NMC register. The prospect of doing drug calculations particularly terrified the life out of me. As well as that, having being trained the ’old-fashioned’ school of nursing way, university enrolment was a little daunting, as was the prospect of academia.
I received a massive amount of support from the minute I went to the interview. I was reminded of my status as a nurse and encouraged to return to a placement that felt familiar and comfortable. And former colleagues were my cheerleaders, facilitating meetings and sessions with frontline staff and placement opportunities for me.
My course mentor turned out to be someone I’d worked with years ago and the staff on the unit where I did my placement gave me a massive amount of support and encouragement too. It all helped facilitated the return of a lot of knowledge that had been hidden deep in the recesses of my mind!
University work was supported by the RTP course tutors and E-Learning was brilliant. We were given access to a couple of apps that we could use to practice.
My course fees were paid and I had a bursary of towards travel and books etc. My family helped me financially so I could give up my office job and concentrate on submitting my coursework and applying to re-register as quickly as possible.
