Health Service Focus

Reflection and engagement key to revalidation

Dr Katerina Kolyva (pictured), director of Continued Practice at the Nursing & Midwifery Council, discusses revalidation and the early success of pilots involved in the process. David Stevenson reports.

Revalidation for nurses and midwives starts in December 2015, to promote good practice across the professions. 

Before the go-live, the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) is piloting revalidation for six months at various sites. These will test the processes and tools of the revalidation model, which is based largely on the NMC’s new Code, which becomes effective on 31 March 2015. 

Dr Katerina Kolyva, director of Continued Practice at the NMC, told us: “The pilot organisations have been putting in a lot of effort and it is worth noting how successful they have been around recruitment, from roadshows through to face-to-face meetings with their staff. 

“I’m pleased to announce that we’ve got, nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, the 2,000 nurses and midwives that we want to pilot revalidation with. They have all been recruited, which is fantastic.” 

Supporting pilot organisations 

The NMC is engaging regularly with the pilot sites, and a team in London is focused solely on this. “We have a dedicated helpline for the individuals to ring us and ask specific questions,” added Dr Kolyva. “In fact, we are getting more and more queries as the weeks go by. This is very refreshing.” 

All nurses and midwives must renew their registration every three years, and the NMC thinks revalidation will strengthen the renewal process. It wants evidence of up-to-date practice and professional development; reflection on the professional standards of practice and behaviour as set out in the new Code; and engagement in professional discussions with other registered nurses or midwives.

Dr Kolyva said: “The behavioural change that revalidation brings cannot be underestimated. It focuses the mind, from input and process to engagement and reflection. Through the current Prep requirements, people were focusing too much on just ticking boxes about hours. Now it is not just about the hours, but much more.” 

Pilot eligibility 

Nurses and midwives who are employed by or are members of the NMC’s pilot organisations, and who are due for renewal between January and September 2015, have been invited to participate in the pilots. 

The new proposed model increases CPD hours from 35 to 40 and introduces a participatory element, requiring collection and reflection on feedback on practice. It also needs third-party confirmation. All registrants will need to record their participation in a portfolio. Dr Kolyva told NHE: “Over the next couple of months, the nurses and midwives will start preparing their portfolios. They will then have their confirmations, which is their appraisal; and they’ll then go through the NMC online and go through the revalidation system.” 

Although the NMC wants nurses and midwives to maintain a portfolio – as it is an easy way to have all the information in one place – it is not being prescriptive about what it needs to look like and whether it needs to be online or not. However, the Revalidation Pilot Group, which includes representatives from each pilot organisation, has suggested that an electronic portfolio integrated with an organisation’s appraisal system could be the way forward. 

“This is something that has been picked up by a number of pilots, including Public Health England (PHE),” said Dr Kolyva. Helen Kirk, nursing and midwifery interim revalidation lead at PHE, has contributed an article to the NHE website on its experiences. 

Dr Kolyva said: “It does seem that a knock-on effect of revalidation – or a positive outcome of it – is that the pilot organisations are thinking about systems and tools they need to have in place. This not only helps revalidation, it helps the governance and arrangements across various organisations.” 

Once the pilots finish, NMC will review each one independently and use the findings to refine the revalidation process, forms and guidance.  The final versions will be published in autumn 2015.

Revalidation pilots

 The NHS organisations participating are:

•  Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
• Bracknell & Ascot CCG
• Central Manchester NHS Hospitals FT
• Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS FT
• Mersey Care NHS Trust
• Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
• NHS Tayside and local partners
• Western Health & Social Care Trust 

To ensure the pilots reflect a wide variety of practice and work settings, the other organisations participating are: 

• Birmingham City University
• Bupa UK
• Hallam Medical
• Independent occupational health practitioners through the Association of Occupational Health Nurse Practitioners (AOHNP)
• The Priory Group
• Public Health England
• School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Dundee
• Self-employed nurses through the British Association of Cosmetic Nurses (BACN) and the Private Independent Aesthetic Practices Association (PIAPA)
• South West Region Defence Primary Healthcare
• Unite the union (registrant members of the professional officer team) 

NMC is working with partners to identify GP practices to pilot revalidation.

(Images: c. Nathan Clarke)

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