What is NMC registration?

By Luke Aldred

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) regulates nurses and midwives in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Its role is to protect the public by setting standards for education, ensuring nurses and midwives have the right skills when they begin work. It has over 600,000 nurses and midwives on its books and if you want to practice in the UK, you must register with them: here’s how…

Joining the NMC register

Once you have a nursing degree, and a minimum of six months’ experience (within the last two years), there are a few different ways to apply to register with the NMC. This depends on which part of the register you want to join (either as a nurse or midwife, or as a nursing associate) and where you trained.

The UK has now left the European Union and entered a transition period until 31 December 2020. During this time, there’ll be no change to the way that EU/EEA/Swiss applicants apply for registration. Your qualifications will need to be checked to ensure they meet the NMC requirements before you can register. Here’s more information on how to do this.

If you trained outside the EU/EEA, you’ll need to follow the NMC’s overseas two-part registration process; The Computer Based Test (CBT) and an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Following the latest advice from the UK government, all OSCE tests have been suspended until further notice. More information on the registration process, here.

What’s the cost of being on the NMC register?

The initial NMC registration fee is £76. To stay on the register, you’ll need to pay a yearly fee (£120) and prove that you fulfill the NMC requirements for keeping your skills and knowledge up-to-date.

For more information about overseas worker requirements, read our collection of blogs.