Advice needed on returning to practice (or not)

[farmmommy2]

Hi everyone! I'm new to these forums and looking for some advice from people with experience on my situation. I'm at a crossroads in my life and trying to decide whether/how to get back into nursing.

Some background: I graduated from a local ADN program in 2007 with a 4.0 average and passed the NCLEX right away. Although I had great grades, the program I graduated from was pretty lame - limited training, clinicals only in Med/surg at a small rural hospital. I left nursing school with a pretty limited skill set and not a lot of confidence in my clinical ability. I also got pregnant in my last semester of school (I'm married). I decided not to start work until I had my baby. After she was born I took a job at a pediatric office because I thought it would be too stressful to be a floor nurse with a new baby. Long story short, I hated working in the peds office. Rude co-workers, patronizing doctors, work was boring and stressful at the same time. After almost a year I decided to quit and stay home with my daughter full-time.

Fast forward 4 years, I now have two kids ages 6 and 4 and stay home with them. My husband

works long hours to make ends meet and it works, but we are always pinched for money and I also sometimes feel guilty/unfulfilled for not doing more with my life. I have kept my license active just in case, but I've been out of nursing so long that I don't even know where I'd start to jump back in. I am contemplating taking a refresher course when my youngest is about to enter kindergarten, but don't want to waste money on that if I'm not sure I can even get back in the field. I also would want to make sure I could get into something much more challenging and interesting than the peds office I was in before.

So my question, to anyone who might have experience with my sort of situation is would you try to take a refresher and jump back in? Or have I waited so long and have so little experience anyway that I might as well just start over doing something non-nursing? If I did do this, where sould i start trying to get a decent job? Any advice would be so appreciated. BTW, I also have a Bachelor's degree (liberal arts) - not particularly useful but is a credential I guess.