Proposed Change To NMC Nurse Registration Application Process 2019/2020
The NMC are launching a new overseas nurse portal accessible for nurses to upload documents and see their progress in the registration process.
With thousands of views gathered from the educators, NHS Trusts, private sector and agencies the NMC are still trying to streamline the process further, so more is to come.
My Nurse’s Life team attended the NMC’s Overseas Registration: An Ongoing Conversation event in Manchester on 27th June, and heard the new plans unveiled regarding improving the overseas nurse registration process.
The new strategy will be formulated and the new streamlined process will be live from January 2020.
Linda Everet Assistant Director, Registrations and Revalidation at the NMC told us, that the current decision letter is to be replaced with a system where you can gain IELTS, CBT or OSCE in any order, as long as you have the requirements within date, you will be able to register with the NMC.
By January 2020 the process will improve registration to 8 weeks from start to finish to get to the UK.
There will be no more transcripts required for nurses applying and a certificate from the nurse’s registering country will be adequate.
Nurse’s will be able to scan original documents into a portal and the originals will only be needed later, at the OSCE test centre.
The process with the UKVI is to be streamlined and improved. Police clearance will be smoother taking into consideration the country you’ve been living in for the last 10 years or since you were 18 years old.
If you have a disability or condition they are not going to ask for a huge amount of evidence to support this any more.
The Health Declaration process will be shortened to no longer than 35 days, at the moment it’s taking 60-100 days.
IELTS scores and their relevance to clinical practice are to be looked at within an in-depth, far-reaching study. As a result, it may or may not lower the current IELTS requirements of 7.0 for Reading, Speaking and Listening, and 6.5 for Writing.
OET is unlikely to be reviewed as the pass rate is much higher than those taking IELTS.
The UKVI is also looking at considering other countries that speak English as their first language, such a South Africa, that the GMC already make allowances for.
They are looking at whether other test centres might be available for use to run OSCE tests to speed up the process.
You will still receive your PIN within 5-6 days of passing the OSCE.
Documents will be uploaded close to the time you are ready to come over, to improve the whole process for everyone. Throughout you will be able to check your documents and employers will be able to gain access to see where you are in the process.
So a new pre-application checklist will be completed on a block basis – it can be competed in-country, nurses will be able to see where they are in the queue.
It will be accessible on a smart phone or tablet as well as a laptop.
A panel of educators, clinicians and representatives for the public and patients will assemble and formulate the new plan going forward in 2020.
This is all part of the NMC Future Nurse Strategy, to be implemented in 2020, will be formulated, based on a wide source of views gathered from April to the end of June this year.
Future Nurse, will be a five year plan launched in April 2020, taking us forward in plans for standards of proficiency for nurses in UK healthcare.
The NMC is looking at lapsed registrations of UK nurses and the difficult process of the “Back to Nursing” program. The current system takes lapsed registrants months of practice and learning, where they could now take an OSCE to gain access to the register.
The OSCE will benefit from an independent reviewer, appointed by the NMC, who will go between all three test centres and find out what is working well, as well as addressing discrepancies between OSCE test centres in terms of their pass rates.
The test is currently being redesigned with the help of an outside agency Alpha Research, a market and social research company, the NHS have worked with for years. The New OSCE, will be a fresh from the current one, which has been used for several years.
OSCE facilitators, like ourselves, will be included in the discussions and use our feedback and experiences with hundreds of nurses we’ve trained, taking the OSCE.
Nurses from other countries can still gain access to the UK NMC register if they have a diploma from another country, even though nurses in the UK must complete a university degree nowadays.
The Nursing Associate role will be available to overseas nurses who hold a foundation degree-level nursing qualification or equivalent in their own country.
They will have be able to join the register for nursing associates, and progression to registered nurse will be encouraged.
CBT which has been changed to £90 instead of £130 from April this year.
CBT will be tendered for a possible new provider.
