I am a Registered Nurse and Care Home Manager. Will my PIN be affected if I will work in a residential care home as a Manager? Will I have enough practice hours to revalidate?

Answered by Laura Wood

Many thanks for your question.

Registered Nurses work in a variety of settings across health and social care and it is appreciated that some environments may not involve direct clinical skills. Since the introduction of the new revalidation (NMC, 2016) it  is recognised that nursing does not just include direct care. Other facets of nursing can include commissioning, policy, education, consultancy, management, (in a variety of settings including clinical and non-clinical in health and social care) and quality assurance to name a few. These will be specific skills you will develop as a manager. Your role as a Registered Manager will be your practice hours. Any other continuing professional development (CPD) hours will be evidenced through various training you attend-This is important for any nurse to evidence as part of your revalidation. This does not have to be direct clinical training but may be training around leadership, investigations, regulatory compliance etc. However, you may also wish to attend some of the training offered to care staff. You will also still be required to complete your mandatory training as a Registered manager so all of this will contribute to your CPD hours.

The NMC recognise that nurses progress in their careers and some roles do not create opportunities to ‘hands on;’ clinical care and the wider roles are accepted. If, however, you are still keen to keep up to date with your ‘hands on’ clinical skills, then this is something you may wish to discuss with your employer and request this through your supervison/appraisal process or pursue this yourself. However, you cannot carry out nursing care to residents/service users in a residential home due to insurance purposes. The district nurses support residential homes.

We would also advise that you continue to seek clinical supervision through an external source.

To re-iterate,  you can absolutely re-validate as a nurse when you work in a non-clinical setting. Ultimately, your will need to demonstrate that you are relying on your nursing skills, knowledge and experience in your role.