News

Revalidation already proving a success, says NMC

61% of early registrants have started or completed the process ahead of official April 1 launch

Revalidation, the new system for nurses to prove they are fit to practise, starts on April 1 with almost 16,000 nurses due to go through the process in April alone.

All 685,000 people on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register will experience revalidation over the next three years.

At an NMC council meeting yesterday (Wednesday, March 23), chief executive Jackie Smith revealed that 61% of the April cohort had already started or completed the process.

Ms Smith claimed the figure proved the success of the new system. ‘Most registrants left the process it is replacing – prep (post-registration education and practice) – to the last minute,’ she said.

Revalidation requires nurses to fulfil the following for every three-year period:

  • 450 practice hours
  • 35 hours of continuing professional development
  • Five pieces of practice-related feedback
  • Five written reflective accounts
  • A health and character declaration that includes a disclosure about any criminal convictions

During the meeting, NMC chair Dame Janet Finch declined to comment on the claim raised in the discussion that one analysis suggests 7% of registrants – about 47,000 nurses – might decide revalidation is too complex and leave the profession.

‘We don’t know what the drop-out rate will be,’ she said, adding that an analysis of revalidation will be undertaken for three years to ascertain completion rates.

Salford Royal Hospital lead clinical skills tutor Cate McConnon was one of the first to revalidate during a pilot.

She claimed it only took 40 minutes to revalidate online alongside a 30-minute confirmation meeting with her boss, the dean of the hospital.

Asked to sum up the experience to nurses worried about the process, Ms McConnon said: ‘My daughter is a nurse and needs to revalidate in August.

‘I say to everyone what I told her – “It’s not difficult”.’

For more on revalidation click here