All nurses and midwifes in the UK now need to revalidatewith the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council)every three yearsto maintain their registration. 

How to prepare for revalidation

Initiated in April 2016, revalidation is designed to promote good nursing practice and encourage a culture of sharing, reflection and improvement throughout the nursing profession. All nurses and midwives will have to revalidate every three years to renew their NMC registration.

Revalidation is not an assessment of a nurse's performance, it's a work-based process that encourages nurses and midwifes to use the Code in their day-to-day practice and professional development.

The revalidation process includes:

• 450 practice hours
• 35 hours of CPD, including 20 hours of participatory learning
• Five pieces of practice-related feedback
• Five written reflective accounts
• Reflective discussion
• Health and character declaration
• Professional indemnity arrangement
• Confirmation

Who needs to complete the revalidation process? 

All healthcare professionals who perform direct clinical care or practice management must revalidate their NMC registration every three years. This includes: adult, general, children's and neo-natal nurses, mental health professionals, midwifes, occupational health nurses, health visitors and learning disability nurses.

The role of employers

It is the responsibility of employers to support their staff through the revalidation process.

Each nurse will need to maintain accurate records of their practice hours, CPD activities, written accounts and reflective discussions to meet the revalidation requirements. As you can imagine, managing revalidation portfolios for all your nursing and midwifery staff could be challenge.

With an eportfolio – rather than a paper-based portfolio – learners can create an online record of all their activities to fulfil the revalidation requirements. It means you won't have to find spare filing cabinets to store piles of paperwork, as learners will be able to complete their portfolio online using any device.

Becoming a confirmer

Employers of nurses and midwifes could also be asked to act as a confirmer – to decide whether a healthcare professional has met the revalidation requirements.

This is an important role to play. Confirmers will assess each nurse's validation portfolio and complete a confirmation discussion before signing off their work.

Confirmer decisions may be checked during the verification process to ensure their confirmations are accurate, so it's a good idea to encourage your nursing staff to keep accurate portfolios. Using an eportfolio, like OneFile, is the best way to track staff progress and ensure confirmers are making correct judgements.