NMC Revalidation: A Step-by-Step Guide for Nurses and Midwives

The Six NMC Revalidation Requirements at a Glance

The Requirements Explained: Stage by Stage

You must have worked a minimum of 450 hours as a registered nurse, midwife, or nursing associate in the three years before your renewal date. The hours must relate to your registration — clinical practice, management, education, research, or another role that draws on your nursing or midwifery skills and knowledge all count, provided they are performed in your registered capacity.

If you hold both a nursing and a midwifery registration, you need 450 hours for each. If you cannot meet the practice hours requirement, you will need to complete a return to practice programme before you can revalidate.

You must complete 35 hours of continuing professional development relevant to your scope of practice, of which at least 20 hours must be participatory — meaning they involve interaction with one or more other people, rather than self-directed reading or e-learning alone.

Participatory CPD includes: attended courses and workshops, group supervision, peer learning sessions, case discussions, team training days, and online learning with interactive elements or facilitated discussion. All CPD must be recorded and each entry should include a written reflection on what you learned and how it is relevant to the NMC Code.

You must collect five pieces of practice-related feedback over the three-year period. Feedback can come from patients, service users, carers, students, colleagues, or employers. It does not need to be formal or structured — it can be informal verbal feedback, a written card, a patient survey response, a colleague's comment in supervision, or a formal appraisal extract.

What matters is that the feedback is genuinely practice-related and that you reflect on what it tells you about your practice. Each piece should be recorded in your portfolio with a note of its source and date.

You must write five reflective accounts over the three-year period. Each account must reference a piece of CPD, a piece of practice-related feedback, or an event or experience in your practice, and must explain how it relates to the NMC Code.

The NMC provides a standard form for reflective accounts but you are not required to use it. What is required is that each account is written, references a specific NMC Code standard, and demonstrates genuine reflection rather than a descriptive summary of what happened.

For detailed guidance on how to write these accounts effectively — including worked examples — see our guide to writing reflective statements for regulatory purposes. The same principles apply fully to NMC revalidation reflective accounts.

The NMC is clear that reflective accounts are not a test and are not shared with the NMC itself — they are shared only with your reflective discussion partner and your confirmer. This means you can be honest and specific in your reflection without concern that you are creating a regulatory record.

You must have a reflective discussion with another NMC registrant — a nurse, midwife, or nursing associate — about your five reflective accounts. The discussion partner does not need to be your confirmer or your line manager. They must be NMC registered and currently revalidated.

The discussion should cover the content of your reflective accounts and how they relate to the NMC Code. Your discussion partner will sign the NMC's reflective discussion form to confirm the conversation took place.

The final stage of NMC revalidation is confirmation. Your confirmer — who must be an NMC registered nurse or midwife who is themselves revalidated — reviews your portfolio, discusses your revalidation evidence with you, and signs the confirmation form to confirm that you have declared that you meet the revalidation requirements.

Your confirmer is not independently verifying every hour of your CPD or every piece of feedback. They are confirming that you have made the required declarations and that nothing they are aware of suggests your fitness to practise is impaired.

When to Submit and What Happens If You Miss Your Deadline

The NMC will notify you of your revalidation date in advance. You should submit your revalidation application via your NMC Online account before your registration renewal date. Applications can be submitted up to 60 days before your renewal date.

If you do not submit a valid application by your renewal date, your registration will lapse. You will no longer be able to practise as a registered nurse or midwife until your registration is restored. Restoration requires a separate application and fee, and the NMC may require additional evidence before restoring a lapsed registration.