NMC revalidation: the record you need every three years

Revalidation happens every three years, and the requirements have not changed in a while. What changes is how much of a scramble it becomes, and that comes down entirely to whether you kept a record along the way.

The full list

Over each three-year period you need:

• 450 practice hours (900 if revalidating as both nurse and midwife, or 450 in each part if you hold two registrations)
• 35 hours of CPD, of which at least 20 hours are participatory
• Five pieces of practice-related feedback
• Five written reflective accounts on your CPD, feedback or a practice event, each linked to the NMC Code
• A reflective discussion with another NMC registrant
• A health and character declaration and professional indemnity arrangement
• A confirmation from a line manager where possible, or another suitable confirmer

Participatory CPD - the bit people get wrong

Participatory CPD involves interaction with other people. Study days, workshops, clinical supervision, group training, live sessions with discussion, mandatory training delivered in person, peer review. Non-participatory CPD is learning alone: journals, e-learning modules, podcasts, reading policy or guidance.

Both count towards the 35. Only the first counts towards the 20. If you log each activity with that tag at the time, you always know where you stand. If you do not, you find out in month 34.

Feedback is easier than people think

Feedback does not have to be formal. Patient thank-you cards, comments in a team meeting, complaints and what you did about them, audit results, student feedback, an appraisal comment. Write down what it was, where it came from and what you did with it. Five pieces over three years is roughly one every seven months.

Reflective accounts

Each account needs what you learned, how you changed your practice, and how it relates to the Code. The easiest way to write five good accounts is to have a one-line reflection attached to every CPD entry as you go - by the time you sit down to write, you are editing rather than remembering.

The three-year timeline that works

• Log CPD as it happens, tagged participatory or not
• Note feedback in the same log when it lands
• Draft a reflective account roughly every six months rather than five in one weekend
• Book your reflective discussion at least two months before your date
• Give your confirmer time; do not ask them in the final week

What the NMC can ask for

You are not required to upload evidence when you revalidate, but you must keep it, and the NMC verifies a sample of registrants each year. Keep your log and supporting documents for at least the length of the revalidation cycle.

Keep your CPD in one place

A record only helps if it exists before you need it. Our free CPD tracker logs an activity in seconds, tallies your hours automatically, keeps your reflections with the entry, and exports a clean PDF whenever you need evidence. Free for life for individuals - and the record belongs to you, not your employer.