Nurse Revalidation Step By Step Guide

Secure Healthcare Solutions are committed to being a key support for all its nursing staff. Whilst the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have confirmed it is the responsibility of the registered nurse to complete their own revalidation, we believe that you should be supported as much as possible, and are here to explain to you the different steps of nurse revalidation and what they mean.

Our nurse revalidation model aligns with 4 P’s of the NMC’s code:

• Prioritise people by actively seeking and reflecting on any direct feedback received from patients, service users and others to ensure nurses are able to fulfil their needs
• Practice effectively by reflecting on your professional development with colleagues, identifying areas for improvement in your practice and undertaking professional development
• Preserve safety by practising within your competency for the minimum number of practice hours, reflect on feedback and ensure good practice through course professional development to cover any gaps
• Promote professionalism and trust by providing feedback and helping other NMC colleagues reflecting on their professional development and being accountable to others for your professional development and revalidation

We strongly recommend that you keep a portfolio with printed copies of documents and written evidence ready to present for appraisals, confirmations and revalidation. We can supply all your templates for this and give you access to our online portal to keep an online log of everything. This will also show you all work you have done through us and you may have a copy of any feedback forms received from our clients.

Here are the requirements for NMC revalidation:

1. 450 Practice Hours – (900 Hours for midwives)
You must be able to provide evidence of at least 450 practice hours (900 hours for midwives), which reflect your scope of practice over the three years prior to renewal of your registration. This can be documented using this template provided by the NMC . The NMC have confirmed that if you have practiced for less than the required number of hours, then you must successfully complete an appropriate return to practice programme approved by the NMC before the date of your application for renewal of registration. More information can be found here.

If you should be asked to provide further information to verify your declaration within your application, you will be asked to provide the below details:

• Dates of practice
• The number of hours worked
• Setting in which you worked
• Description of the work undertaken
• Scope of practice
• Evidence of your practice hours, such as timesheets and job specs
• The details of the organisations

Please ensure you record these in preparation.

2. 35 CPD Hours (20 Participatory)
CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. You will need to provide evidence that you have completed 35 CPD hours, with 20 of the hours being participatory learning which is relevant to your practice as a nurse, over the three years prior to renewal of registration. This can include: Conferences, webinars, online learning modules, reading, mentoring, etc. It can also include mandatory workplace training but only if the learning content is directly applicable to your area of practice.

You must maintain accurate records of the CPD you have undertaken. These records must contain:

• A description of the topic and how it related to your practice
• The dates on which the activity was undertaken
• The number of hours (including the number of participatory hours)
• The identification of the part of the code most relevant to the activity
• Evidence that you undertook the CPD activity

The NMC does not set any formal conditions on what does and does not constitute valid CPD. The only requirement is that any CPD undertaken produces learning outcomes that are relevant to your area of practice.

3. Five Pieces of Practice Related Feedback
You will need to be able to provide evidence for five pieces of practice related feedback obtained over the three years prior to your revalidation date. This feedback can be obtained from a variety of sources, including from patients to colleagues, your fellow nurses and healthcare professionals. The feedback can be presented in a formal or informal format and can be either positive or constructive. You will need to be able to make note of how this feedback impacted your performance.

When recording your feedback you must ensure that you do not record any information that may identify an individual. Please note that you will not have to provide copies of your related feedback when submitting your application to the NMC, however you will need to tick a box detailing that your Confirmer was satisfied with your five pieces.

4. Five Written Reflective Accounts
You will need to be able to provide evidence of five written reflective accounts written within the last three years prior your revalidation date. These reflective accounts can be of an event, CPD, feedback, or an experience within your practice. You must be able to note down what you have learnt from these and how you changed or improved your practice as a result of this experience and how this is relevant to the code. Again, when recording your feedback you must ensure that you do not record any information that may identify an individual.

Here are the recommendations for what to include when writing a reflective account:

• Title – make it easily recognisable and descriptive.
• Date – as previously stated, if it could identify a patient, just use MONTH/DATE.
• What was the nature of the CPD activity/practice-related feedback? – This is where you set the scene, what happened or what did you attend.
• What did you learn from the CPD activity and/or feedback? – After you attended the CPD or the event took place, what do you feel that you learnt from the experience.
• How did you change or improve your work as a result? – State what could be done to avoid or improve similar situations in the future. Remember, It does not have to be a criticism, it could be positive.
• How is this relevant to the Code? – The final part is to explain how you believe this relates to the Code. How do you prioritise people, practice effectively, preserve safety and promote professionalism and trust?

Here are some examples of statements that could be used depending on the situation:

Recognising that you could improve: “To avoid similar situations, I will ensure that I always double check the drug administration documentation before I issue the prescription to the patient.”
Observing a positive action of your own: “I believe that in this situation I followed the nursing Code and correctly administrated the right prescription drug. I will continue to practice at this standard.”

When an event occurred from no wrongdoing of your own: “I recognise that I could not have known of the outcome of this situation. All documentation and practice was correctly administered to the patient, however, the situation had a huge impact on me emotionally, therefore I will look to find another NMC registered nurse who I can talk to about my feelings should events like this ever occur again.”

Before you submit your revalidation application you will need to have a reflective discussion about your accounts with another NMC registered nurse. Once they are happy that you have correctly recorded and reflected your five pieces, they will then sign a copy of the mandatory reflective discussion NMC form. It’s important to note that you will not need to submit your reflective accounts as part of your revalidation application; however you do need to keep a record of them for future reference, but also, should you be part of the NMC random sample asked to show their evidence. Please note that you must use the mandatory form provided by the NMC to record your reflective accounts, which can be found here.

5. Health & Character Declarations
When submitting your application, you will be asked to complete a health and character declaration to satisfy the registrar and demonstrate that you are capable of safe and effective practice.The NMC states that “good health means that you must be capable of safe and effective practice without supervision. It does not mean the absence of any disability or health condition.’

In addition to this you will be required to inform the NMC if you have been cautioned, charged or found guilty of a criminal offence. When making these declarations, please refer to the following NMC links:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/staying-on-the-register/informing-us-of-cautions-and-convictions/
https://www.nmc.org.uk/education/becoming-a-nurse-or-midwife/when-studying-to-be-a-nurse-or-midwife/

6. Professional Indemnity Insurance
When submitting your revalidation application you will be required to declare that you are covered by the appropriate indemnity insurance. All practicing NMC registrants must be covered with professional indemnity insurance by law. If you are not covered, you can be removed from the register.

While the appropriate arrangement does not need to be individually held by you, it is your responsibility to ensure that appropriate cover is in force. Find out more about professional indemnity insurance for NMC registrants here and you can download the guidance here.

7. Reflective Discussion
You will be required to participate in at least one reflective discussion with a registered NMC professional. This can be a colleague or somebody within your professional network. Your reflective partner does not necessarily need to be registered on the same part of the NMC register.

The reflective discussion is an opportunity to reflect on your five written reflective accounts and to discuss how these accounts relate to the NMC code. Your discussion must be completed within the 12 months leading up to your revalidation date. The NMC registered nurse is required to record their NMC Pin, email, professional address and postcode as well as the date of the discussion. If you are unable to complete your discussion face-to-face then it can be done via video call. It can also be undertaken in-line with your confirmation, where appropriate.

Please note that you must use the mandatory form provided by the NMC to record your reflective accounts. The NMC will require you to tick a box to confirm this was completed and you will need to provide your reflective partner’s details when submitting for revalidation. However, your confirmer will need to see a copy of the completed form.

8. Confirmation
You will need to have your confirmation from your confirmer within the 12 months leading up to your revalidation application. Your confirmation can be completed by a non-NMC registrant. However, it is strongly recommended that the confirmer is either your line manager or somebody of a similar scope of practice to yourself.

Using the mandatory form provided by the NMC, the confirmer will go through the revalidation documents you have provided and will check that you are able to demonstrate that you have met the revalidation requirements.

Your confirmation must be face-to-face and if your confirmer is an NMC registrant they will also be able to do this in-line with your reflective discussion. It is likely that your confirmer will also conduct your annual appraisals.
The NMC will notify you at least 60 days before you application for revalidation is due. You can then log in to NMC online and submit all the evidence collated and ready, or register here. Don’t forget that you must also pay your renewal fee, and you can see guidance about that here.