Advanced practitioners have complex, autonomous portfolios that go well beyond the standard nursing role. Your revalidation needs to reflect that complexity. The good news: the standard revalidation framework applies to you with some important additional considerations.
The NMC reaffirmed the role of advanced practitioners in a dedicated news release, stating that the "needs and implications of advanced practice are reflected in ongoing reviews of the Code and revalidation." The Principles for Advanced Practice were published in June 2025, and standards of proficiency are expected from early 2027.
450 practice hours. Your practice hours must be in your registered role, but for advanced practitioners this includes the full scope of your advanced practice activities: clinical assessments, prescribing, diagnostics, management decisions, and autonomous practice. Record these carefully. If you work across multiple settings, log hours for each.
35 hours CPD. Your CPD should reflect your advanced scope. This includes formal qualifications (non-medical prescribing, MSc modules), conference attendance in your specialty, and practice-based learning such as case reviews, audits, and service development projects. The NMC expects CPD to be relevant to your scope of practice. For advanced practitioners, that scope is broad.
Five reflective accounts. Your reflective accounts need to evidence complex decision-making. A standard reflective account about drug administration is not enough if your role involves independent prescribing and diagnosis. Write reflections that demonstrate the breadth and depth of your advanced practice.
The NMC published Principles for Advanced Practice in June 2025. These set out what the regulator expects of advanced practitioners across the UK. The principles cover:
These principles are not just aspirational. They should inform your CPD choices and reflective accounts. When you write a reflection on a complex clinical case, link it to the principle of autonomous decision-making. When you complete CPD on service improvement, connect it to the leadership principle.
Source: NMC news release: NMC reaffirms the role of advanced practitioners
The NMC is developing standards of proficiency for advanced practitioners. These are expected from early 2027. Once published, they will establish the minimum competence requirements for advanced practice and inform how revalidation is assessed for advanced practitioners.
The ongoing review of the Code and revalidation that the NMC Council approved on 21 July 2026 explicitly references advanced practice. The regulator has committed to ensuring that the needs of advanced practitioners are reflected in the updated Code and revalidation process.
Keep a detailed practice hours log. Document not just the hours but the nature of the activity. Advanced practitioners often combine direct clinical care with leadership, teaching, and service development. All of this counts, but you need to be able to evidence it.
Choose CPD that stretches you. Advanced practitioners should not be logging basic CPD that would be more appropriate for a band 5 role. Your CPD should reflect your level of practice. Courses on advanced assessment, independent prescribing updates, clinical leadership, and service evaluation are all appropriate.
Write reflections that show complexity. A good reflective account for an advanced practitioner demonstrates clinical reasoning, considers differential diagnoses, shows awareness of limitations, and explains how you involved patients in shared decision-making. If your reflection reads like a basic procedure note, deepen it.
Plan your reflective discussion with an appropriate confirmer. Your confirmer should understand your advanced practice role. The new rules make your line manager the default confirmer, but if your manager is not an advanced practitioner themselves, you may need to ensure they understand your scope when you have the reflective discussion.
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NMC-validated content. This article is based on official NMC publications published July 2026. All factual claims are sourced directly from NMC publications or independently verified. Sources listed above.
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