Within nursing, career breaks have an impact on women's career outcomes. However, the causal mechanisms that explain the transfer of women's relative reduced career outcomes remain unclear. This article examines the relationships between career breaks, part‐time working, and access to training/updating skills in determining nurses' career outcomes. We consider this to be a mechanism of transferring disadvantage both within and between genders within nursing.This qualitative research involved in‐depth interviews with 32 registered female nurses with and without children. They were employed in “acute” nursing and worked as registered Band 4 to “senior nurse managers” and were between 25 and 60 years old. They worked or had worked under a variety of employment conditions. Some, but not all, had taken career breaks or requested or attained postregistration training.We found that restricted access to training for part‐time nurses and limited opportunity to update their skills following a return from a career break are determining factors affecting the career outcomes of nurses. The findings suggest that it is related to rationing of training for those returning from career breaks, based on the availability of a supply of newly qualified nurses meeting the numerical demand, financial constraints, operational imperatives, and organizational values.