What will revalidation mean for nurses and midwives?

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) recently announced plans to regulate nurses and midwives using a new process known as revalidation.

Under the revalidation plans, nurses and midwives will have to ‘reflect’ on patient feedback and prove they are fit to practice – or face losing their registration.

The system will see health workers undergo three-year competency checks which will take into account their learning and development, as well as the views of patients and colleagues.

Nurses and midwives must then demonstrate that they have improved their care, weighed against a new code of conduct being produced by the NMC.

At the start of January, the NMC launched a consultation asking for guidance on how patient feedback should be incorporated into the new process.

It will look at how feedback can be used to improve standards of care, how nurses and midwives can obtain confirmation of their fitness to practice, and what a revised code should include.

The consultation is intended as a way to ensure the final proposals are “realistic and workable” before the new code is published.

Revalidation is essentially a move away from ‘self-regulation’, as currently nurses and midwives can declare themselves fit and the NMC has no power to involve a third party.

The shake-up follows a recommendation from the public inquiry into the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital Foundation Trust scandal, which exposed serious failings within the NHS. The inquiry, headed by Robert Francis QC, called for more robust scrutiny of nurses.

The NMC consultation will run until March 31 2014 and the new code of conduct is expected to be published in the spring.

For more information on this matter, or any other legal issues involving regulatory bodies, please contact David Edwards on 01772 258321 or David.Edwards@harrison-drury.com