I miss hands-on care. Now I just manage. What now?

You took the job that pays more, carries more weight, and respects your skill. Now you sit in meetings about staffing while someone else does the work that got you through the hard years. That ache is real. Do not pretend it away. But look honestly at what you traded. You gave up direct contact for wider reach. Every protocol you write touches patients you will never meet. Every shift you staff correctly is care delivered by someone else's hands, because you decided it should be so. You cannot hold both roles at once — the one with your hands on the patient, and the one with your hands on the system. Decide which you are doing now. Then stop mourning the version of you that did both.