As part of revalidation, nurses, midwives and nursing associates must demonstrate to an appropriate person that they have met the revalidation requirements. This is called confirmation.
The role of the confirmer is an important one. If you are asked to act as a confirmer, it's important you understand what is involved.
What am I being asked to do?
As a confirmer, it will be your role to check whether a nurse, midwife or nursing associate has met the requirements of revalidation.
Most nurses, midwives or nursing associates will keep a portfolio of evidence, and they will use this to demonstrate how they have met the requirements.
As a confirmer, you are not being asked to make an assessment of a nurse, midwife or nursing associate's fitness to practise, or assess the quality of the individual's work. You are simply looking to see that they can demonstrate they have met the requirements.
Who can act as a confirmer?
It is for individual nurses, midwives or nursing associates to decide who their confirmer should be. However, we recommend that where possible, a line manager should act as the confirmer.
Where this is not possible, we suggest a number of alternatives.
See our list of appropriate confirmers.
When should confirmation take place?
Confirmation should take place in the final year of a nurse, midwife or nursing associate's three-year registration period.
The confirmation discussion should take place face to face and in an appropriate setting.
Where a nurse, midwife or nursing associate has an appraisal, confirmation can take place as part of this.
We have produced specific information for confirmers to help you in this role. It contains everything you need to know about acting as a confirmer.
Download: Information for confirmers
Will you contact me as part of revalidation?
As part of the confirmation process, you will need to sign a form stating that the nurse, midwife or nursing associate you are confirming has met the revalidation requirements. You will need to include your contact details on this form – this will include your name, professional address and NMC or other professional Pin where relevant.
The person you have confirmed will then put these details into their application, but we will not normally contact you directly except to email you to thank you for playing this important part in the revalidation process.
However, each year we will select a random sample of nurses, midwives and nursing associates to provide further information about their application. This process is known as verification. As part of this process, we will contact you as the confirmer to ensure the confirmation discussion has taken place.
It is important to know that nurses, midwives and nursing associates are not selected for verification because we have any concerns about their practice.
As a confirmer, we therefore recommend you keep a record of those nurses, midwives and nursing associates you confirm, particularly if you're acting as a confirmer for multiple nurses, midwives and nursing associates.
We have lots of resources to help you get the best from revalidation.
Download resources and templates
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