In 2015, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) published a new strategy spanning 2015 – 2020 setting out development plans for the regulator to ensure delivery of its mission to protect patients and the public effectively and efficiently.
The publication of the new NMC Code in 2015, provided an opportune context to set out standards and a clear expectation of the practice, behaviours and attitudes required from registrants. Revalidation processes, launched in 2016, require individual nurses and midwives to demonstrate through a range of evidential requirements that they are fit to practise against the standards of the Code.
It is in that context the Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) working alongside the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) took forward a nationwide initiative to define what professionalism means in practice. The work was Chaired by Professor Charlotte McArdle on behalf of the UK CNOs.