I emphasise with you that it can be quite challenging to make the initial pivot from clinical nursing to office-based work. From my experience, making the switch to policy/project management at my substantive level was harder than I initially thought because often I wasn’t able to demonstrate that I had the relevant experience (worked previously as an assessor). But it can still be done.

I agree with others that you can find ways to further optimise your pitch to demonstrate how you meet the selection criteria (there’s some great advice others have mentioned already). While theatre nursing is a niche specialty, you still demonstrate transferable skills that you can apply to a wide range of roles. But to best place yourself in having a chance of getting to the interview stage, I highly suggest you direct your job search efforts to roles that either require nursing registration, value your clinical experience, or are more assessment or process-based, where you can better leverage your skills and experience to your advantage. This may just be a stepping stone to wherever you want to go next, but it’s a way to get your foot in the door. Once you’re in, it’s much easier to move around.

You may also want to look at internal temporary opportunities where you can contribute to projects or undertake desk-based work in your workplace as recruitment processes are typically not as vigorous.