Inactive Pediatric Nurse for the past 10 years-advice

[mybabies2000]

Hi to all great nurses out there,

I have been out of the nursing profession for the past 10 years..I know the best thing to do is to renew your licence and take a refresher...but my dilemma is I have lost all the confidence in my skills..and now have developed the phobia of giving injections, or any other skill..I know I will be shaking to death if I have to give a shot to a real person...will I ever overcome that FEAR.. Where is the best place to start...

I left nursing because I was little intimadated by the whole thing...I worked in a pediatric long term care taking care of vents and trachs but never felt confident as was thrown in there without any training...

I am not even sure if I should be going back to this field again...do most nurses feel this way or am I a chicken?? and don't deserve to be in this field...I have worked in peds for about 2 years..but due to lack of training left the field...I guess also due to lack of confidence and always felt shaky and nervous..didn't have the peace of mind..and was not looking foward to the next day...Is this how most new nurses feel??

I am thinking of volunteering in a childrens' hospital in seattle to see if I will really enjoy nursing as a career again before taking the refresher course...Is this the way to go??

any answers will be appreciated!!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Volunteering would not be a bad idea. It would give you an idea as to how you will feel being in that environment. That may help you decide if getting back into nursing is something you want to do or not.

However ... for actually getting back into nursing, there will be no substitute for simply "sucking it up" and moving forward in spite of your doubts and fears. It's an old saying, but a true one. Courage is not the absence of fear -- it is being willing to act in spite of your fear.

[chloecatrn]

Volunteering will get you back into the hospital. I'm not sure if it will get you into a position to do anything clinical. Actually doing the refresher course is probably the best thing you can do for yourself. I think that, so often, we (the collective we) are are afraid to do things that we might not be good at.

You might not be a great high-tech care nurse, but you might be awesome in a nursing home, or on an adult med-surg floor. You might excel in a pediatrician's office. There are a lot of variations on nursing out there, and while it's a little difficult to find the perfect job right now, they all start with finding just a little confidence and starting that refresher course.

You'll do GREAT, and you'll be SO proud of yourself in the end!

[mybabies2000]

Thanks to both you awesome nurses to respond back. I know I have to get into the field to build some confidence...I know I will have my bad days at work and good days..and only practicing will make me perfect..

[jjjoy, LPN]

If you can find a refresher course with a clinical component that could be very helpful. Unfortunately, refresher courses can be expensive and hard-to-come-by. I was lucky that a community college only 1 hour away (non-peak hours) offered a very reasonably priced refresher course with a comprehensive skills lab and optional one-on-one preceptorship in a hospital. Most of the other nearby programs, private or public, had no refresher options.

I never really felt comfortable in the clinical setting but wanted to try again after some time away. In a much better job market, I was able to land some job offers with my very limited experience. I ended up deciding to steer away from clinical work and taking advantage of my bachelor's degree. Not working clinically greatly limits my job options. But when I'm being realistic with myself, it's limiting me from jobs that I wouldn't be happy in anyway. I'm working with health information now and am looking into learning more about information systems.