Nurse Appraisal and Revalidation

• The NMC (Nurse and Midwifery Council) draft guidance versions consistently mention appraisal but appraisal is hardly mentioned in the final guidance.

• Many nurses will still have annual appraisals, these are often similar to the appraisal process for doctors but with protected time and trained appraisers. However, lots of them when they are talking about their annual appraisal are often referring to a performance review. Often the focus of these are based on reflection of the past year and planning development for the year ahead.

• Performance reviews are often with another nurse, more senior to themselves, or a manager within their organisation. This should then provide a opportunity for signing the confirmation form and if the colleague conducting the appraisal is a registered nurse they may also be able to complete the reflective discussion form. This performance review appraisal may result in the nurse getting some feedback on their work which can then be documented and used in the feedback section for revalidation. If this is then further reflected on there may be material for a reflective account.

• For revalidation, the portfolio of the learner is reviewed with another NMC registered nurse. This would provide the ideal opportunity to sign the reflective discussion form if the appraiser is willing. If they were external to the nurse's organisation however they most likely wouldn't be able to sign the confirmation form.

We have worked hard to make our Nurse Revalidation dashboard easy to use but also informative and there is more detailed guidance on the site, including both a nutshell guide to revalidation and a more detailed talk from a practice nurse - both worth a look.