Why practice nurses should feel positive about revalidation

Marcela Elkin was the first nurse on the NMC Register to submit her revalidation application. She works as a nurse in general practice, and also some weekends as a band 5 nurse in A&E. This is her first-hand experience of revalidation

Before I started the revalidation process, I have to admit that I felt a bit nervous. I wondered, will I do it right? As I didn’t grow up in the UK, I worried that I might not fully understand the process and this could lead me to make mistakes.

But I was also intrigued by revalidation: how it would work for me and for other nurses. As I’m a perfectionist, I was keen to know exactly what the NMC wanted so I could make sure I did the process correctly.

I took part in the NMC’s pilot of the revalidation process last year, and this was a great experience. It really prepared me for going through revalidation for real, and made me more relaxed. When I first qualified as a nurse, I remember hearing people talk about putting together a portfolio for the NMC, but I wasn’t sure what this was for. I collected evidence from my practice, and now that revalidation is here, this evidence will come in very useful for meeting the requirements.

I thought the revalidation process was well organised and there were good resources to support me. The NMC revalidation website is put together very well, and they have asked lots of nurses to be involved which helps us to understand how our colleagues are revalidating.

I found the reflective accounts and discussion particularly useful. Linking my practice to the Code has helped me think about my own professionalism, and I found looking at the language in the Code to be a helpful guide to writing my reflective accounts.

My reflective discussion partner was my manager, and we spoke about one of my reflective accounts, which focused on an incident where a patient wasn’t happy with her treatment. Reflecting on the incident with someone else allowed me to think about how I could deal with this kind of situation better in future. As nurses, we do a challenging job and come up against different personalities all the time, so reflecting on the many different scenarios that happen in our practice will be useful for everyone.

Revalidating as a practice nurse can have its challenges: some of us don’t have a big team of colleagues to choose our reflective discussion partners and confirmers from. I tackled this by being organised in how I approached my own revalidation. I made sure I had enough time to complete all the requirements, and I got my confirmer on board early so neither of us felt rushed.

To practice nurses who haven’t yet been through the revalidation process, I would say be positive. It’s about your mind-set; if you think revalidation will be difficult, you will find it difficult. Keep in mind that it’s about you and what you’ve achieved. The NMC is giving us a chance to develop personally and professionally, and to show off our good practice. Keep collecting evidence all the time, no matter how minor you think it is. Everything is relevant and could help you improve your practice in the future. Try and be relaxed about revalidation. It’s really nothing to worry about, and no one is trying to catch you out.

I am personally finding that the revalidation process is already making a difference to how safe I feel as a practitioner. I feel that I have the backing of a structured process, and that the NMC is telling me to think on a regular basis about what I am doing and how I can improve.

Revalidation will have a great impact on nurses and the nursing profession. It will help each of us to feel that we have strong guidelines for what’s expected of us, and in turn patients will feel truly safe in our care. It’s a process that helps us show how much we care about our practice – let’s show we can do it!