A Tanzanian woman who twice failed her nursing licence exam, and at one point returned home to work on her mother’s farm, has opened up about the long road that eventually carried her all the way to Saudi Arabia.
Regina Nyamicho shared her story on Instagram on September 3, 2026, describing the shame and uncertainty that followed each failed attempt at the licensing exam.
Rather than frame the setbacks as the end of her story, she looked back on them as early chapters in a journey that would take her further than she ever imagined.
After failing the licensing exam a second time, Regina did not immediately try again.
Regina returns home to work in her mum’s farm
She went home, and for a period she worked on her mother’s farm, a humbling experience for someone who had trained to join one of the world’s most respected professions.
It was during that quiet season that she made the decision to sit the exam one more time.
The third attempt changed everything. She passed.
Regina becomes nurse, works and travels
“The world didn’t end,” she wrote, reflecting on that moment. “I became a nurse. I worked. I grew. I travelled. I experienced things I once couldn’t even imagine.”
Roughly two years before her post, Regina packed her entire life into a single 23kg suitcase and relocated to Saudi Arabia, where she has since built a nursing career and seen parts of the world she once only dreamed about.
Her message was aimed squarely at nurses, nursing students, and graduates who feel they have failed one too many times.
Regina’s word of advice to her peers
She urged them not to allow a single exam result to define their entire future.
“You are not a failure because you haven’t passed yet,” she wrote.”Sometimes, you’re simply still on your way.”
She encouraged her followers to keep going, noting that a third attempt or the next opportunity could be the one that changes everything.
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Regina’s story cuts through a common but rarely spoken fear among nursing graduates across East Africa, where licensing exams can feel like final verdicts rather than steps in an ongoing process.
Her willingness to speak openly about failure, and about working on a farm while her peers moved forward, gave her post a raw credibility that resonated widely.
For anyone currently staring down a result they did not hope for, her parting words offer both a reality check and a reason to continue: the world, as she put it, really did not come to an end.
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