A principal requirement in the revalidation process is evidence of continued professional development or CPD.  The requirements are:

• 450 practice hours, or 900 if renewing as both a nurse and midwife
• 35 hours of CPD including 20 hours of participatory learning

The NMC’s revalidation guidance states: “One purpose of revalidation is to help you to maintain safe and effective practice. Revalidation does this by encouraging you to update your knowledge and develop new skills. The NMC publishes and regularly updates standards of proficiency for everyone on our register. These set out what we expect students to know, understand and be able to do to apply to  join our register and to practise safely and effectively. It is important for you to become familiar with the most recent standards, identify which ones relate to your scope of practice and identify your training needs. This will help you to advance your practice and also means that you will be equipped to supervise and assess students if this is part of your role.

It is important that you speak to your employers about the types of continuous professional development that will help you achieve this.”

The requirement relating to practice hours places an obligation on registrants to maintain a record of practice hours completed including (among other things):

• dates of practice
• the number of CPD hours undertook
• scope of practice
• work setting
• a description of the work you undertook, and
• evidence of those practice hours should be recorded.

If a nurse, midwife or nursing associate has practised for fewer than the required number of hours in the three year period since your registration was last renewed or you joined the register, 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.

In addition to practice hours, there is also a general CPD requirement of 35 hours relevant to the scope of practice the nurse, midwife, nursing associate or combination in the three year period since your registration was last renewed, or when you joined the register.

Of those 35 at least 20 must have included participatory learning.

The NMC has produced guidance for nurses, midwives and nursing associates on the types of activities they could do to meet the CPD requirement.  The guidance includes examples of the type of evidence to retain also.

Read more:

NMC Revalidation Part 1: Revalidation

NMC Revalidation Part 2: CPD

NMC Revalidation Part 3: Reflection

NMC Revalidation Part 4: Declarations

NMC Revalidation Part 5: Right of Appeal