As nurses registered with the NMC we must revalidate every three years in order to continue practicing. Revalidation was introduced in 2016, following publication of the Francis report in 2013.
Revalidation ensures that our knowledge and skills remain current and up to date and more importantly, we continue to provide safe patient care.
Revalidation is a straightforward process and should not take up too much time or cause worry. Many of us however, find revalidation to be a daunting process, often putting collection of evidence off, until close to the deadline for submission.
Concerns about meeting the requirements to revalidate
If you are concerned that you do not have sufficient evidence to revalidate, the NMC will provide support due to the following reasons:
- Pregnancy or maternity leave
- Disability
- Any life event that impacts your ability to meet the requirements
Depending on reasons for the support needed, the NMC can offer “reasonable adjustments’ e.g revalidation forms in other forms, help with NMC online or a short extension.
Deadline for Submission
We are able to submit our evidence up to 60 days before the deadline for submission.
The deadline for submitting our evidence is the last day of the month we are due to revalidate i.e if we are due to revalidate in January, our evidence should be submitted by 31st December.
What are the requirements of NMC Revalidation?
450 practice hours over three years
We must work a minimum of 450 hours in practice over the previous three years. That means we only have to work 20 days Per year or 60 days over the three years to be able to demonstrate that we have worked the necessary practice hours.
35 hours of CPD
35 hours of continuing professional development relevant to our practice, over the previous three years. A minimum of 20 of these CPD hours must be “participatory learning”.
Participatory learning is any study that involves learning with other people e. g. Conferences, Webinars, professional networking or meetings where new subjects, or ways of working are discussed
BAUN can help meet a substantial amount of the NMC revalidation requirements.
Examples of BAUN participatory CPD activities
- BAUN Annual Conference counts – 16.5 hours Participatory CPD
- Webinars -1.5 hours participatory CPD
- Involvement in guideline development – variable
Just by attending the BAUN Conference once and all of the available webinars over three years, adds up to 34.5 hours participatory CPD.
Examples of non participatory CPD activities
The NMC lists several activities that count towards the maximum 15 hours of non participatory CPD. Examples include:
- Mandatory training relevant to our specific role
- Reading and reviewing publications e.g. BAUN’S peer reviewed IJUN and BJN urology supplement
Evidence of CPD activities
The NMC states that accurate records of CPD activities must be kept. Learning logs can be found on the NMC Website to help us keep our records.
BAUN provides certificates of attendance for all their CPD activities, which can be used as evidence of our participation.
Five pieces of practice related feedback
As nurses we are often given informal feedback by our patients. managers and our peers as part of our roles. Feedback can also be given by tutors if we are undertaking CPD activities and from students.
Formal feedback can be given as part of our annual review (appraisal) process, complaints and compliments. Feedback to the team as well as individual feedback can be collected as part of our evidence.
Five Written reflective accounts
Each reflective account must be written on the NMC approved form and relate to our nursing practice. The five reflective accounts must include:
- A CPD activity we have taken
- A practice related feedback we have received
- An event or incident we have experienced
- Two others of our choice
Reflective accounts must explain how they relate to the Code.
Reflective discussion
We must have a reflective discussion using our reflective accounts, with another registrant.
Some employers recommend that this is our line manager, but can be any other registered nurse. The choice of who we have our reflective discussion with, is ours and could be a colleague we work with on a regular basis.
Following our reflective discussion, we and the person we had the reflective discussion with must complete the NMC reflective accounts discussion form.
Professional indemnity insurance
We are asked to declare that we have professional indemnity insurance.
As practicing nurses, we are legally required to have professional indemnity insurance. Most employers will provide this. If we do not have professional indemnity insurance as an employee, or are self-employed we will need to ensure that we have this in order to revalidate.
Declaration of health and character
- A declaration of health and character is to ensure that we are safe to practice.
- The declaration of health is completed online by answering a series of questions.
- We must declare any criminal action against us, that has not been previously declared, on application for revalidation. This includes any criminal charge, conditional discharge, formal caution or conviction.