To work as a nurse or midwife in the UK you must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
The NMC requires applicants who trained outside the UK to demonstrate that they are capable of practising safely and effectively, taking into account their qualification, training and experience.
Applicants must also demonstrate they have the necessary knowledge of English to communicate effectively.
Getting ready for your application
The NMC have a tool that can help you prepare some of your personal information that you will need for your application. You can find this tool here, you will be asked a few questions and it will generate a checklist of items you will need, you may need to provide additional documents after you begin your application, but this tool will help you to get started.
Eligibility and Qualification Application
This is the first part of your registration. You will be asked some questions about your nationality, training and the country you trained in. This is used to ensure you are using the right route to register.
You must then Submit documentation such as proof of identity, qualification etc and fill in all other registration information. For any document you need to provide that is not in English you must submit a signed translated copy.
Finally you must pay the evaluation fee.
The NMC will then process your application. During this waiting period you may be asked for further documentation. Once the NMC have received all information needed they aim to give a decision on their evaluation within 14 days.
The evaluation has two possible outcomes:
If you do not meet the NMC eligibility criteria you will not be able to proceed and your application will then be closed.
If you do meet NMC eligibility criteria you may be asked to complete a test of competence, this is if you do not hold a relevant
You can then move on to complete yourregistration application.
Registration Application
The are 5 sections to complete in the registration application:
Provide health evidence
– Information about your health is required to make sure that you are able to practise safely and effectively.
Provide character evidence
– This is used to ensure that people applying to register with the NMC are of sufficiently good character to practise safely and effectively.
Provide language evidence
- Information about your English language ability is necessary to make sure that you are able to practise safely and effectively. All applicants must provide one form of evidence that meets English Language standards of the NMC. This can provided by be either:
Achieving the required score of an accepted English language test such as the
IELTS or
OET.
Having a qualification which was taught and examined in English.
Recent practice of at least 12 months in a majority English speaking country.
Confirm professional indemnity arrangement
– It is a legal requirement for everyone on the NMC register to have an appropriate indemnity arrangement in place for when they practise in their professional capacity.
Pay registration Fee
Processing Application
This last step will involve the NMC verifying information you have submitted including contacting your referees to verify your qualification. At this point the NMC may to ask you for more information if any of the details you have submitted are unclear, appear incomplete, or if you or your referees submit conflicting information.
The NMC aim to have your application processed within 30 days of receiving all information needed.
Once a decision has been received you can then accept this or appeal the decision. Please note appeals must be made within 28 days of the decision.