The 8 Core Requirements for NMC Revalidation
1. Practice Hours
You must have practised for a minimum number of hours over the three years since your last registration renewal:
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Nurses and midwives: 450 hours (or 900 hours if you're registered as both)
-
Nursing associates: 450 hours
If you have been registered for less than three years, your practice hours will be calculated pro rata.
What counts as practice?
Practice hours can include:
- Direct patient/client care
- Management, education, or research roles
- Roles where you directly influence patient/client care
2. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
You must undertake 35 hours of CPD relevant to your practice:
- At least 20 hours must be participatory learning (involving interaction with other professionals)
- The remaining hours can be self-directed learning
Participatory learning examples:
- Attending workshops or conferences
- Taking part in clinical supervision
- Contributing to journal clubs or quality improvement projects
- Engaging in case reviews or team meetings with learning outcomes
Self-directed learning examples:
- Reading professional journals or research articles
- Completing online courses
- Reviewing policies and procedures
- Watching educational videos related to practice
3. Practice-Related Feedback
You need to obtain five pieces of practice-related feedback from a variety of sources:
- Patients, service users, or carers
- Colleagues (managers, peers, other healthcare professionals)
- Students
- Annual appraisals or performance reviews
- Serious event reviews or complaints
Feedback should relate to your practice and can be verbal, written, or formal/informal.
4. Written Reflective Accounts
You must produce five written reflective accounts that explain:
- What you learnt from CPD activity, feedback, or an event/experience in your practice
- How you changed or improved your work as a result
- How this relates to the NMC Code
Each reflective account should be approximately 500-800 words and demonstrate critical thinking about your practice.
5. Reflective Discussion
You must have a reflective discussion about your five written reflective accounts with another NMC-registered nurse, midwife, or nursing associate.
This discussion must be documented on the appropriate NMC form, signed by you and your reflective discussion partner.
6. Health and Character Declaration
You must provide a health and character declaration, confirming that:
- You have good health and character to enable safe and effective practice
- You have no new cautions, charges, or convictions
- You have not been subject to any adverse determinations by any regulatory body
7. Professional Indemnity Arrangement
You must declare that you have, or will have when practising, an appropriate professional indemnity arrangement in place.
This is typically provided by:
- Your employer (for employed registrants)
- Professional union membership (e.g., RCN, Unison)
- Private insurance policies (for self-employed practitioners)
8. Confirmation
You must obtain confirmation from an appropriate person that you have met all the requirements for revalidation.
Who can be a confirmer?
- If you're employed: usually your line manager (doesn't have to be NMC registered)
- If self-employed/multiple employers: another registered healthcare professional
- If no appropriate healthcare professional: a person who is regulated in the UK and understands the NMC Code
Common Revalidation Challenges and Solutions
Finding an Appropriate Confirmer
Finding someone to conduct your confirmation can sometimes be challenging, especially if you:
- Work independently or are self-employed
- Have recently changed jobs
- Work in a setting with no other healthcare professionals
Our Solution: Reflect & Revalidate offers independent confirmer services conducted by experienced NMC-registered professionals. Our confirmers understand the revalidation process thoroughly and provide objective, supportive confirmation sessions.
Writing Meaningful Reflective Accounts
Many nurses and midwives struggle with reflective writing, finding it difficult to:
- Choose appropriate experiences to reflect on
- Structure reflections effectively
- Link their reflections to The Code
Our Solution: We provide guidance on structuring reflective accounts, offer templates, and can review your reflections before submission to ensure they meet NMC requirements.
Documenting CPD Effectively
Keeping track of CPD over three years and ensuring it meets the participatory requirements can be challenging.
Our Solution: We offer advice on CPD record-keeping, help identify valid participatory learning activities, and can review your CPD records to ensure they're compliant.
Managing Revalidation with a Busy Schedule
Healthcare professionals often find it difficult to dedicate time to revalidation whilst balancing clinical responsibilities.
Our Solution: Our structured support packages help you break down the revalidation process into manageable steps, with clear timelines and reminders to keep you on track.
