If ever Princess Margaret Hospital needed an advertisement for its return to nursing campaign, Sue Jones-Parry is it. GEOFF BENNETT spoke to the woman who says: "It's great to be back."

WHEN Swindon's newest nurse recruiter calls returning to nursing "a wonderful experience", she's not just spinning you a line.

That is because Sue Jones-Parry, 39, took five years out from Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust before rediscovering the joys of nursing last year.

And after 12 months working at Princess Margaret Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department, she is set to begin 2002 encouraging other nurses to come back as she did.

"I will tell them that it's a wonderful experience and urge people to come back," says Sue, who lives in Marlborough and has been nursing all her working days since she left school in her native Australia.

She also worked as a midwife in Swindon before taking time out to look after her three children, Marc, nine, Huw, seven, and Sian, five.

But then fate in the guise of the Evening Advertiser's health reporter Ben Fitzgerald took a hand.

Sue picked up a copy of the Adver to look for jobs, and instead found Ben's article about a PMH drive to encourage former nurses back into the profession.

It prompted Sue, who was just coming up to her five-year deadline for re-registration as a nurse, to apply to join the three-month refresher.

"I just felt I had skills that I wanted to use," says Sue. "I suppose I never stopped being a nurse. I constantly took myself off for study days or to do a bit of work here and there.

"It's something I knew I would return to it was just a matter of time."

Now Sue is in charge of recruiting nurses who have been out of practice for less than five years for a five-week return to practice course.

She said people returning to work at PMH had a lot to look forward to not least the move to the new Great Western Hospital at Commonhead in November.

Asked what she would recommend about nursing, she replied: "The whole thing. You get to work independently and use your own judgement.

"You are working with people and getting the best out of them: helping people not just to get well, but to improve their life experiences.

"There's nothing I've found yet that's as good, and I've certainly looked. I've never found anything else I wanted to stick with."

Anyone interested in finding out about returning to work at PMH should contact Liz Jaffray on Swindon 426505 or click on the Return To Practice icon on the PMH website www.swindon-marlborough.nhs.uk.