CPD for Nursing Training Providers
If you deliver nursing CPD and aren't sure whether your certificates will actually count towards NMC revalidation, that's a fair question — the requirements are specific. Every registered nurse needs 35 hours of CPD across each three-year cycle, with at least 20 of those hours participatory, and a confirmer or auditor may ask to see the evidence behind it. A structured, verifiable certificate is exactly the kind of record that holds up when it's checked.
What CPD accreditation actually means for a nursing training provider
The NMC requires 35 hours of CPD every three years, with at least 20 of those hours participatory — meaning activity involving interaction with other professionals, rather than solo reading. The remaining hours can be non-participatory, such as self-directed study or reviewing evidence-based practice materials. Both types count, but the split matters, and the NMC doesn't prescribe which subjects must be covered, only that CPD is relevant to the nurse's own scope of practice.
Record keeping requirements are precise: dates, hours, method of learning, topic, and a brief note on relevance to practice. Revalidation is confirmed by a confirmer who reviews the portfolio, but the NMC audits a proportion of revalidations each year, and nurses selected must be able to produce full documentation. A verifiable certificate gives them an independently confirmable record rather than something simply printed and self-declared.
The range of CPD that counts is broad — clinical skills updates, patient safety training such as safeguarding refreshers and NEWS2, leadership development, and communication skills all qualify. Reflective practice using frameworks like Gibbs or Driscoll is formally recognised too, and revalidation requires five written reflective accounts, at least one tied to the NMC Code.
Open CPD offers a simple 3 step process for you
Run your clinical skills update, patient safety session, or reflective practice workshop as you already do.
Log in, set up the course profile, outcomes, hours, delivery mode, and accredit with one click.
Branded CPD certificates and digital badges are generated instantly for every learner.
What confirmers and NMC auditors actually check
Revalidation is confirmed by a confirmer reviewing a nurse's portfolio, and the NMC audits a proportion of revalidations each year — those selected must produce full documentation. Records kept contemporaneously, rather than reconstructed near the deadline, are what actually stand up to that scrutiny.
A certificate that can be checked against a register carries more weight than one that is simply printed and self-declared. Issuing a digital badge alongside the certificate gives nurses a second, shareable format for the same evidence, useful when building a revalidation portfolio or a professional profile.
Each certificate resolves to an achievement page anyone can open, no login, no PDF attachment.
Your logo and course name lead. Certificates are powered by Open CPD, issued by you.
Once issued, the record is stored immutably and stays tamper-proof, the date and detail cannot drift.
How this plays out for nursing training providers
Structuring courses using the Aims, Skills, and Outcomes framework produces evidence that is genuinely useful for revalidation portfolios: when a nurse can point to a certificate specifying the outcomes achieved rather than just a session title, it's easier for a confirmer to assess relevance and for an auditor to verify the learning was substantive.
Open CPD doesn't replace NMC revalidation — it documents the CPD you're already required to keep track of
The NMC does not maintain an approved list of CPD training providers, and revalidation is confirmed by a confirmer reviewing a nurse's own portfolio, not by checking course accreditation against a register. What Open CPD provides is the structured, verifiable record — hours, learning outcomes, dates — that makes a nurse's record-keeping and a confirmer's review considerably easier, alongside the statutory revalidation process, not instead of it.
Accredit your first nursing CPD course this week
Ready to see exactly how the structure comes together, aims, skills, outcomes, and the verification record that ties it all together? [How It Works](https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/) walks through the full mechanism. Or [start now](https://open-cpd.com/opencpddemo/) and set up your first nursing course profile in minutes.