Categories: nursing
Tags: registration, nursing
Date: 25 September 2008 20:06:05
I got my letter from the NMC (Nursing & Midwifery Council) this week confirming that come the 1st of October (next Wednesday!) I will no longer be on the register. It also had all sorts of blurb about what that means and stuff about returning to practice in the future. I was really pleased that they stated that it does NOT mean I've lost my qualification - I can still call myself a qualified nurse, I just can't give the impression that I'm on the Register or that I'm currently practising, and I can't put RN/RHV after my name any more (not that I ever did, apart from on patient/client notes where I had to). However, it was very vague about returning to practice, and gave the distinct impression that in order to get onto a return to practice course you had to have 5 years or more out of nursing practice. I wanted to do the course this time next year, when I will have been out of practice for 4 years, and was getting very wound up at the thought of having to delay it a year.
But, miracle of miracles, I phoned the NMC yesterday and, probably for the first time ever, actually got through to someone sensible. She told me about a provision which isn't in the letter but which means that actually I may not need to do a return to practice course at all. The registration criteria are that you have to have worked at least 450 hours in the last 3 years (which I haven't, hence coming off the register), BUT if you can show that you have worked at least 750 hours in the last 5 years then you can just pay a reregistration fee and get back on the register without doing a course. So, looking back from this time next year (if that doesn't sound too Back to the Future!), the previous 4 years I will have been doing the PhD and therefore not practicing, apart from a random couple of weeks a couple of years ago, but the year before (ie year 1 of the previous 5 years) was my last full-time year in London, so I'll more than meet the 750 hours criteria. This really made my day, as I was starting to get stressed out a. about having to do a course and b. about having to delay doing it and c. wondering who was going to fund me while I did it. I suspect I'll still have to meet the PREP requirements (the continuing professional education stuff - which can be courses but not necessarily - you just have to demonstrate that you have done 35 hours of professional development to keep your practice updated), but that will be easy enough. I bet I could dig out some PhD-related stuff which could be relevant to nursing, and there are quite a few self-directed learning resources out there, by Nursing Times, Royal College of Nursing etc. So this means that, this time next year I can get myself back on the register and apply for nursing jobs again - I think ideally, if I've not quite finished writing up my thesis, I'd like to get a job for 3 days a week and spend the other 2 days finishing off the thesis. So that has made me feel much happier about the future, and taken off a lot of pressure (that I was putting myself under).
OK, not the most riveting blog entry, but I'm happy about it anyway! :)