For many nurses, revalidation can be stressful and intimidating. This is particularly true for agency nurses, who may feel they are left to go through the process alone, without colleagues to turn to for advice and support. In this blog, we’ve outlined what you need to know about revalidation and some top preparation tips to make the process run smoothly and ensure a successful outcome.
What is revalidation?
Revalidation is a process every nurse, midwife or nursing associate is required to undertake every three years to renew their registration with the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC). The NMC is the regulating body for nurses, and you must be on its register to practice as a nurse in the UK. Revalidation was introduced in 2016, to ensure good practice and high standards are upheld in the healthcare industry.
Revalidation benefits
While it is often seen it as a laborious administrative task, revalidation is not an assessment of your abilities. Instead, it serves as a reminder of your purpose as a nurse and how your work impacts patients. It can also be a great opportunity to share knowledge with other healthcare professionals, as well as consider where you would like to develop your career further.
Preparing for revalidation
We’ve put together some top tips to take the stress out of revalidation and help you get the most out of the process:
- Know your renewal date
Revalidation is far less daunting when you are prepared. You can set up a free account with NMC online to check your revalidation date, so you can start collecting the information you need well in advance, making the whole process much less stressful. The NMC will also notify you at least 60 days before your application is due.
- Check the requirements
Even if your revalidation date is a long way off, you need to be thinking about the requirements early, to ensure you have enough time to meet them. Some of these requirements, including a minimum of 450 practice hours and 35 hours of CPD training, can’t be achieved quickly, so it is best to check as soon as possible to ensure you’re on track.
- Start collecting feedback
For your application, you’ll need a minimum of five pieces of practice-related feedback. This can be from colleagues, students, patients or service users, given verbally or via forms, cards, emails etc. If you keep this in mind and seek opportunities for feedback in your day-to-day work, this requirement will be easy to tick off when the time comes for you to revalidate.
- Identify a confirmer
To revalidate, you’ll need to appoint a person as your confirmer. They will look through all the information and evidence in your application to verify you have met the requirements for NMC revalidation. It’s important to consider who you might want this to be; it could be a manager, colleague, or another healthcare professional.
- Get support
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of revalidation, the good news is Go Tec is here to help. If you’re one of our registered nurses, we’ll help to support you through the revalidation process. You can contact us for advice on your application at any time and we can also act as the confirmer for your application. We can also provide information on your practice hours and any CPD training undertaken with us.
Interested in becoming a Go Tec nurse? Get in touch with us today to register.
Keep up to date with our latest news via social media. We are on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
