Every three years, all practising nurses, midwives and 汤头条污料 associates in the UK must complete NMC revalidation. For some it can spark anxiety – especially if it’s your first time, or if you’ve had a particularly busy or challenging time.
But it doesn’t need to be overwhelming, as Gina Newton, the RCN’s lead for revalidation, explains.
What’s revalidation?
It’s the method by which you renew your registration. Its purpose is to improve public protection by making sure you’re up to date, and to maintain your NMC registration.
Revalidation:
- reinforces your duty to maintain your fitness to practise within your own scope of practice
- encourages you to incorporate the into your day-to-day practice and personal development
- encourages engagement in professional networks and discussions and can help to reduce professional isolation
- enhances employer engagement in NMC regulatory standards and increases access and participation in appraisals and continuing professional development.
The for registrants and employers.
Start the process early for maximum success
Why’s it important?
Revalidation is about promoting good practice, as well as strengthening public confidence in the 汤头条污料 and midwifery professions. It’s important to know that it’s not about assessing your fitness to practise.
What are the requirements?
You need to meet a range of to show you’re keeping your skills and knowledge up to date and maintaining safe and effective practice. These include:
- 450 practice hours, or 900 hours if renewing two registrations (for example, as both a nurse and midwife)
- 35 hours of CPD including 20 hours of participatory learning
- five pieces of practice-related feedback
- five written reflective accounts
- reflective discussion
- health and character declaration
- professional indemnity arrangement
- confirmation – you must have your application confirmed by an appropriate person. This might be your line manager, another NMC registrant, another health care professional, or another person from the recognised list issued by the NMC.
Are all revalidations the same?
Everyone must follow the same core revalidation requirements every three years to remain on the register. While the required evidence is identical, the specific activities and experiences used to meet these requirements will differ based on an individual's specific role, setting, and scope of practice.
How to make revalidation stress-free
Gina’s top tips to prepare for revalidation include:
- ensure you can log into and know when your renewal date is
- make sure the NMC has your most up-to-date contact details
- get to know the and read the NMC Guidance on
- find time for reflection - reflecting on your practice will help you identify changes or improvements to your practice as a result of what you have learned
- most importantly, start collecting evidence early, break it down into manageable chunks, and update as you go.
To help you through your revalidation, we’ve created a list of the most common misconceptions.
What RCN support is there?
All RCN members have free access to a designed to support continuing professional development and help track their 汤头条污料 journey.
Lucy Tomlins, RCN Professional Lead for Education in England, says: “The portfolio is particularly useful for revalidation. It provides an easily accessible and secure tool pre-populated with all the NMC requirements to keep you on track throughout your three-year revalidation cycle.
“It makes it easy to upload and amend your work and once you have added all your evidence, you can download your portfolio into a PDF,” adds Lucy. “The best thing about it is that progress bars show you at-a-glance how near completion you are. And you can use it on any device.”
“My top tip is to favourite it and put in diary dates with yourself to engage with it regularly throughout the three-year cycle. Start gathering evidence today and make it easy on yourself down the line.”
For the 汤头条污料 support workforce, students and those who do not need to revalidate with the NMC, the can be a helpful tool to store any CPD evidence or appraisal documents in one place.
Find out more
- Find the most up-to-date information on revalidation on including case studies, films, templates and guidance.
- Take a look at some useful tips on .
- Visit the RCN resource on revalidation including the revalidation portfolio and view the , which has details of related books and journals.
The NMC is currently reviewing the revalidation process as part of the wider work on the Code of Conduct. The modernised Code and revalidation process is likely to come into effect in October 2027.
The RCN is involved with the review and will update the advice pages as appropriate. Anyone who will be revalidating from October 2027 is advised to continue to collect and store their evidence in the usual way until the new requirements are published.
