Revalidation is the process every nurse and midwife registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), and every nursing associate registered in England, must complete every three years to renew their registration. It is designed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to help you stay up to date, reflect on your practice, and show that you continue to meet the standards in The Code.
Revalidation is not a test of competence and it is not an appraisal. It is a structured set of requirements that supports safe and effective practice, strengthens public confidence in the professions regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and keeps the Code at the centre of everyday work. The official overview is on the NMC website: What is revalidation?
This guide summarises what the Nursing and Midwifery Council expects, where to find primary guidance, and how to keep evidence organised across your three-year cycle. Always check the latest NMC publications if anything is unclear, because the Council's own materials are the authoritative source.
Why the Nursing and Midwifery Council requires revalidation
The Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced revalidation so that renewal of registration is based on continuing practice, learning and reflection, not just payment of a fee. In practical terms, revalidation helps you to:
- Protect people who use services by keeping your knowledge and practice current.
- Live the Code through regular reflection on professional standards set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
- Capture learning and feedback in a way you can discuss with another NMC registrant and your confirmer.
- Demonstrate accountability when you renew with the Nursing and Midwifery Council every three years.
You must still pay your annual registration fee every year to remain on the register. Revalidation renews registration every three years; the fee is separate. See the Council's main hub: NMC revalidation.
Who needs to revalidate with the Nursing and Midwifery Council
You need to revalidate if you are:
- a nurse registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK;
- a midwife registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK; or
- a nursing associate registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in England.
If you hold more than one registration (for example nurse and midwife), check the practice-hours requirement carefully. The Nursing and Midwifery Council asks for more practice hours where you are renewing two registrations.
NMC revalidation requirements at a glance
In the three years since your registration was last renewed (or since you joined the register), you must meet all of the requirements set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The Council publishes a clear requirements list under What you need to do. In summary:
- Practice hours: at least 450 hours (or 900 hours if renewing two registrations).
- Continuing professional development (CPD): at least 35 hours relevant to your scope of practice, including at least 20 hours of participatory learning.
- Practice-related feedback: at least five pieces of feedback.
- Written reflective accounts: five reflections recorded on the NMC form and linked to the Code.
- Reflective discussion: a discussion of those accounts with an NMC-registered nurse, midwife or nursing associate.
- Health and character declaration: confirmation that you remain fit to practise.
- Professional indemnity arrangement: appropriate cover for your practice.
- Confirmation: a confirmation discussion with an appropriate confirmer.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council's detailed handbook is the document to keep open while you prepare: How to revalidate with the NMC (PDF). It includes the checklist of requirements, evidence expectations, anonymity guidance, and mandatory forms.
Practice hours
You must show that you have practised for the minimum hours required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council during the three-year period. For most registrants that is 450 hours. If you are renewing two registrations, the Council requires 900 hours.
Practice hours should relate to your role as a nurse, midwife or nursing associate. Keep a clear record of where you worked, your role, dates, and hours. Your confirmer will need to be satisfied that you have met the practice-hours standard. Official detail: Practice hours.
Continuing professional development (CPD)
The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires 35 hours of CPD relevant to your scope of practice in each three-year cycle. Of those hours, at least 20 must be participatory. Participatory learning means activity involving interaction with other professionals. That can be face to face or virtual; you do not have to be in the same room.
The Council does not prescribe a fixed list of CPD activities. You decide what is most useful for your development, but you must keep accurate records. NMC guidance expects records to include the method, topic and relevance to practice, dates, hours (including participatory hours), the part of the Code most relevant to the activity, and evidence that you undertook it.
Primary sources:
- Continuing professional development on the NMC website
- The CPD section of How to revalidate with the NMC
- The Code, which should shape how you plan and reflect on learning
Practice-related feedback
You need at least five pieces of practice-related feedback in your three-year period. Feedback can come from colleagues, managers, people who use services, students, or other people you work with. It can be formal or informal, written or verbal.
What matters to the Nursing and Midwifery Council is that you use feedback to improve practice and that you can reflect on it later. Keep enough detail to remind yourself what was said, the context, and what you changed as a result, without including information that could identify a patient or colleague. See Practice-related feedback.
Five written reflective accounts
You must complete five written reflective accounts on the Nursing and Midwifery Council's reflective accounts form. Each account should be based on your CPD and/or practice-related feedback and/or an event or experience in your practice, and each must show how it relates to the Code.
These accounts are central to revalidation. They are what you take into your reflective discussion, and they help your confirmer see that you are reflecting in line with Nursing and Midwifery Council expectations. Use the Council's form, preserve anonymity, and keep copies safely.
- Written reflective accounts
- Resources and templates
- Example completed materials: Completed revalidation forms and templates (PDF)
Reflective discussion
You must discuss your five reflective accounts with another professional who is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. That person can be a nurse, midwife or nursing associate. The discussion should help you explore what you learned and how it links to the Code.
Record the discussion on the NMC reflective discussion form. The Council treats this as a mandatory part of the process, not an optional chat. Guidance: Reflective discussion.
Health and character, indemnity, and confirmation
Before you submit, the Nursing and Midwifery Council also requires:
- Health and character declaration that you are capable of safe and effective practice. See Health and character.
- Professional indemnity arrangement appropriate to your practice. Many employed registrants are covered by their employer, but you remain responsible for checking that cover is in place. See Professional indemnity arrangement.
- Confirmation from an appropriate confirmer that you have met the revalidation requirements. Often this is your line manager. If your manager is not suitable, the Nursing and Midwifery Council explains who else can confirm. See Confirmation and information for confirmers on the revalidation homepage.
Submitting your application to the Nursing and Midwifery Council
You submit revalidation online through your MyNMC account. The Nursing and Midwifery Council opens your online application 60 days before your revalidation application date. Do not leave evidence gathering until that window opens. Collect practice hours, CPD, feedback and reflections throughout the three years so confirmation and submission are straightforward.
Useful Council pages:
- Your online application
- MyNMC / NMC Online
- Support to help you revalidate if illness, disability, maternity or another life event makes the process harder
Practical tips for a calm three-year cycle
- Work from NMC sources first. Start with nmc.org.uk/revalidation and the How to revalidate booklet before relying on secondary summaries.
- Keep evidence as you go. Log CPD soon after each activity, store feedback notes promptly, and draft reflective accounts while the learning is fresh.
- Link everything back to the Code. The Nursing and Midwifery Council expects reflections and CPD records to show which parts of the Code are most relevant.
- Protect confidentiality. Follow the Council's anonymity guidance so reflective accounts and feedback notes never identify patients, service users or colleagues.
- Book your reflective discussion and confirmation early. Diaries fill up near renewal dates. Arrange both once your five accounts are ready.
- Check your renewal date in MyNMC. Set reminders well before the 60-day application window.
How ReflectRN can help you organise evidence
ReflectRN is an independent portfolio tool for nurses. It is not part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and it does not replace the Council's forms, MyNMC application, or official guidance. What it can do is help you gather and organise the day-to-day evidence that underpins revalidation: practice-related feedback links, CPD records, skills sign-offs, practice hours, and reflective writing you can later transfer onto NMC templates.
Use ReflectRN alongside, not instead of, the Nursing and Midwifery Council's requirements. When you are ready to renew, your application still goes through MyNMC, using the Council's mandatory forms and processes.
- Create a free ReflectRN account to start collecting feedback and CPD in one place
- Browse more ReflectRN revalidation guides
- Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidation guidance
