Following the publication of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) report on advanced practice, the NMC made the following statement:-

“We still believe that the proliferation of nurses operating at an advanced level and the increasing number of titles used to describe these roles is confusing to the public.

Our concerns about the public safeguarding implications have not changed.
The NMC’s Professional Practice and Registrations Committee (PPRC) will receive a full briefing on the report at its next meeting in September.

As you know, the Government White Paper, Trust Assurance and Safety (2007) made revalidation an explicit requirement for the NMC and the other healthcare regulators. Since its publication the NMC has set up a project and is working to develop and implement a process for non-medical revalidation to ensure;

• benefits to patient safety;
• consideration of a risk assessment process which is sensitive to issues such as the effect of working environment and setting, and the contextual risks to patients;
• accommodation of registrants working in and across different settings;
• accommodation of emerging areas of practice, advanced practice and new ways of working;
• that revalidation must contribute to the NMC’s understanding of the practitioner’s continuing fitness to practise;
• identification of future needs for continuing professional development for registrants, such as links with advance nursing practice and nurse prescribing.

The NMC’s revalidation project is a major piece of work for the organisation. We are currently undertaking research to build a knowledge base to develop a model of revalidation that is transparent, accountable, risk based, proportionate and targeted where action is required. The project will research elements of practice including advanced practice which will be added to the knowledge base. The findings from our revalidation research will be complete by April 2010 followed by a period of developing the revalidation model, piloting and consultation with a view to introducing the model by 2012.
The PPRC will decide and make recommendations to Council if it believes that advanced practice warrants further regulatory action. Council will want to take account of the CHRE report and the findings from our revalidation research. However the decision to regulate advanced nurse practitioners ultimately rests with the Privy Council as it would require a change to the Nursing and Midwifery Council Order.

The progression of any work around advanced nursing practice and regulation is co-dependent on the work to be undertaken in the revalidation project.

Craig Turton
Media Relations & Public Affairs Manager
Communications & Stakeholder Relations
020 7462 5875 / 07795 335904
Nursing & Midwifery Council
23 Portland Place
London
W1B 1PZ
www.nmc-uk.org
020 7637 7181 (switchboard)