NMC revalidation for Registrants with Long Covid

Supporting nurses and midwives with Long Covid

Relevant NMC Guidance

What is revalidation?
Support to help you revalidate.
NMC guidance regarding revalidation during Covid-19.
NMC guidance regarding health and character.
NMC guidance about returning to the register after a break or lapse in registration.
Useful NMC documents

Advice about revalidation

The NMC will investigate the concerns raised about inconsistent messages given out by call handlers on the revalidation phone line. Using the revalidation email above will ensure you have an audit trail of the advice given.

Normally an extension is only granted for eight weeks. Additional extensions may be available but these will only be granted if you can demonstrate you are likely to meet your revalidation requirements by the end of the extension. The length of extension given will be dependent on individual circumstances.

If applying for an extension being able to demonstrate support from your employer is helpful – i.e., information about how they are supporting you in this process.

Practice hours

To revalidate registrants, must have the required practice hours. Registrants need to have completed 450 hours over the previous 3 years. These hours need to be from a time you were on the NMC register but can include hours on the temporary register.

If you’ve been redeployed (e.g., to a desk-based role) but are still using your nursing skills and knowledge this counts as practice hours.

Interestingly, if your register lapses and you then apply to rejoin the NMC register you can use 750 practice hours over 5 years.

Declaration of good health

Verifier and reflective discussion

Any hours worked while on the temporary register can contribute to your overall practice hours for revalidation.

The NMC announced some changes to how the temporary register will be managed in February 2023. Click here for more information.

Return to practice if registration lapses

If you are off the register for more than five years you will need to do a return to practice course or test of competence (MCQ & OSCE) – these both measure your skills, knowledge and competence against the NMC education standards. The return to practice course is individualised based on your learning needs. You can also choose to do a return to practice course if you have been off the register for less than five years

There is a cost associated with both return to practice options. In England, Health Education England are currently providing financial support for people returning to practice and I suspect this is the case in the other nations.

Alison Twycross

Updated April 2023