Frustrated

Hi everyone.

I am sharing this with the hope someone out there may have helpful tips or advice that may be of help to me.

So.. I moved here(NC) exactly a year ago with my family and felt I needed a break from working for a while to get everyone including myself, settled. The year before we came here had been quite hectic. I was very busy with work, we had a very traumatic experience with a house fire, my mum passed away and then there was the issue of moving from one continent to another.

So I finally felt ready to return to work. Registered and took the NCLEX on the 5th of December and happily, I passed. So now job hunting.

My current issue is that the board is yet to post my license and I am feeling a bit anxious about getting that first nursing position here in the US.

I have now been away from direct patient care for 4 years because I worked as a clinical research nurse / coordinator for the 3 years before we came here. My work was pretty much a desk job and more academic than clinical. I would love to get a research position as I thoroughly enjoyed my most recent job but I am finding the opportunities for that limited and also worry that no one will take me on. All my research experience was in HIV and what is mostly available here is oncology.

I am frankly worried about returning to ward level work because not only do I not have the experience of working in the US health care system, I have not practiced direct patient care for 4 years now. My confidence level in that regard is rather low I must confess.

I have BSN and a Masters degree in Public health. I am beginning to feel all my previous accomplishments will go down the drain here and I will have to begin again:unsure: