All posts by Cathy Marks

Nurse Tools is now free, forever.

The Only Free Revalidation Toolkit for Nurses

We are super excited to announce that all UK registered Nurses who register with Nurse Tools will have complete and unlimited access to the toolkit for free, forever.  There are absolutely no strings attached and we promise you that we will not ask you for any money down the line. This applies to all existing members and new future members. There is no cut off date for this and this is how Nurse Tools will be operating from now on.

If you’re new to Nurse Tools , you can sign-up to start using the only free nursing revalidation toolkit. If you are already using Nurse Tools read on to learn how these changes will impact you.

Individual Nurses:

You now have nothing to pay at all. You can continue using Nurse Tools as before but now you do not have to worry about an extra ‘cost’ that you have to pay. We will be contacting you and giving you a full refund for any subscription you may have bought.

Organisations:

We will be contacting you shortly to give you a full refund for any subscriptions that you have taken for your nurses. If you wish to speed things up then contact your account manager or julie at nursetools dot org, who is dealing with refunds for corporate accounts.

 

FAQs:

Is Nurse Tools completely free?

Yes, there are no strings attached. Nurse Tools is completely free, forever.

 

Will service and security be affected?

Not at all. To provide you with the best service and security is one of our core objectives and we will never waiver from this.

 

Please bear with us as we remove all references to paid subscription options from the site. But rest assured we are not going back, and Nurse Tools is now free, forever!

 

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Showing the difference between learning

What are participatory CPD hours?

What are participatory CPD hours?

A common question asked by Nurses is what does the NMC mean when they differentiate between CPD hours?

NMC revalidation requirements state that over a course of 3 years, the Nurse should have undertaken a minimum of 15 regular CPD hours and 20 participatory CPD hours.

So, in order to define participatory CPD hours we need to define what the NMC means by regular CPD hours

What are regular CPD hours?

Regular CPD hours according to the NMC website on revalidation is that amount of time spent in passive learning. For example, attending a lecture where you just sat and listened and perhaps took notes. Another example would be attending a drug company sponsored lunch with a representative.

 

Now we know what regular CPD hours are; we can define participatory CPD hours and participatory learning:

Participatory CPD hours according to the NMC document on how to revalidate with the NMC means any learning time in which you personally interacted with other people. It is an activity undertaken with one or more professionals or in a larger group setting. The group does not always need to be in a common physical environment, such as a study tour or conference. It could be a group in a virtual environment (such as an online discussion group). Further more the people you interact with do not have to be healthcare professionals.

Hopefully, this makes sense of it all.  In our next update we will discuss why the NMC sought to emphasise participatory learning and what it means for your development as a professional.

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NURSING SPECIALITIES WITH GOOD SALARIES

Nursing is an extensive and a challenging profession. So nurses are offered a fine amount of salary examining at their specialty and career.

Anesthetist Nurse
The way to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) will probably take much enough than the average number of nurse’s, but it definitely pays off good. Nurses maintain everything according to the situation. They get ready the individuals for different operations and surgeries by managing anesthesia to patients or aiding anesthesiologists. Nurses work both for public and private sectors, they work in different facilities and hospitals along with that they also work in other health fields like dentist’s or gynecologist’s office. The average annual salary for nurses is about $118,056.

Pain Management Nurse
Pain Management Nurse (PMN) faculty helps the patients in severe and intense pain that can be quite intolerable. After getting them rid of severe pain, they prefer them treatment and care to help to get relief out of it. PMN’s also work in different fields like teaching environment, that how they show and guide the patients to get relief out of severe pain by demonstrating them different medications. The average annual salaries of PNMs is about $96,890.

Geriatric Nurse
Geriatric Nurses are specialized to cure the older patients. These patients are indulged often in diseases and injuries like osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s or Cancer. Commonly this process of work takes place in nursing homes, but in case a patient is extremely serious so it may also take place in patient’s home or hospitals. They are provided a fine amount of salaries up to $92,304 in a year.

Practitioner Nurse
Nurses’ Practitioner (NPs) elevate a thorough way to deal with medicinal services to promote a comprehensive approach to health care of patients. They are very qualified nurses and, therefore, work in all departments of nursing to cure the overall health and wellness of their patients. They are qualified and, can handle the majority of patient’s health care needs and can cure them very well. They work with highly qualified doctors and prove themselves very supportive in any cases. The annual salary provided to them is $92,007 per annum.

Neonatal Nurse
Neonatal Nurses (NN) work for newly born babies (infants) who are very weak or suffer from different health issues by birth. They perform their duties in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of a hospital. They work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of a hospital. They care for the babies until and unless he or she is not able to discharge from the hospital. They get $89,082 salaries annually.

Nurse Educators
This nursing specialty is what it seems like. Nurse educators are the worker of the academic settings, they work in many nursing schools and teaching hospitals where they educate the nurses. They also train the nurses accordingly to the profession. This department of nursing is quite different once you are a student of this faculty. You must experience it within another nursing specialty.

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NURSING A PROFESSION OF CARE

Nursing is a profession of care, their profession is focused on the care of families and communities so they can not suffer from health issues.
Nurses work with the different professionals of their plan and management. They work with physicians, therapists, surgeons and also with the patient and patient’s family for treating the illness and health issues for very critical conditions.
Nursing is the defense, furtherance, and merger of health issues; avoidance of illness and injury; mitigation of suffering by diagnosis and treatment of human health; and assistance in health care for families, communities, and populations.

The motto of the nursing staff is for its professionals to assure quality care for all, keeping their credentials, code of conduct, standards and competencies in maintenance and continuing their education. A number of educational careers and paths are there for nurses to become a professional nurse worldwide.

Nurses care for people of all ages with different backgrounds who are suffering from illness or other health issues based on the people’s physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual demand. They work very technically in accordance to cure different weaknesses of the patient.

Nurses work in a broad range, they work in hospitals to visit people in their homes for their ointment. Nurses pay their duty in various occupational and professional ways, they work in a clinic with physician offices, nurse clinics, long-term care facilities and camps. Sometimes in an emergency they also work on cruise ships and in military service. Nurses are advisers and consultants to the care of health and medications. Nurses also perform their duty in research laboratories, universities, and health-related institutions as a researcher.

Continuity of educational classes and programs train nurses to provide the best possible health to patients, advanced nursing path and keep their touch with the board of nursing requirements. Nurses education dwell in both the theoretical and practical training in order to work as a perfect and professional. The education provided to nursing students is determined and experienced from their other senior medical professionals who have a much experience in educational tasks and are qualified. In past, certain changes in educational tasks have experienced more practically to the nurses. Nurses education is becoming broader and broader and professionals of many faculties work along with nurses so they get a good practical experience from them and they enjoy to work and cooperate with them.

APRN (advanced practice registered nurse) is a nurse with extra empowerments with post graduate education in nursing. APRNs are trained with technical, didactic and clinical education, information, skills, and scope of practice.
APRN gets a level and standard of nursing practice that are very much extended and expanded skills, experienced and practiced. APRN is educationally prepared at postgraduate level and may work as a specialist.

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IMPORTANCE OF NURSE PORTFOLIO

In the past experiences and accomplishments, nursing professional portfolios are moving beyond the traditional listing.
Portfolios are not considered as the domain of artists, architects, photographers and models but they are considered as the professional tool
For the accomplishment and documentation for professional growth. Nursing portfolio has been practiced and documented for several years.
The national council of state boards of Nursing (NCSBN) recommends the professional portfolio development. The portfolio is more than an accumulation of documents and artifacts. The importance of the nursing professional portfolio is very much to the staff nursing in case it provides both educational.
Structure and direction. It provides a mechanism to track both formal competency validation and educational skills and the less formal acknowledgements that exhibit the art of nursing. The portfolio provides a place to maintain an active reference file that provides examples of how nurses meet the complex needs of families and the demands of professional practice. The portfolio is basically designed to train the staff nurse to reflect on fruitful experiments and image them in an example. Watching the physical, psychological, cultural, religious and many needs of people and patients makes insane challenge for nurses. Portfolio is mind blowing tool for capturing the life experience of nurses. The portfolio is designed to provide some important forms for keeping records maintained of different activities such as certifications, honors, awards, and committee participation. The portfolio also access the career by providing the vehicle for path direction and in designing a goal to achieve it.
A theme of the portfolio that indicates the development pathway and the super professional plan. Because of its wide design, the portfolio needs some time and hard work to get compiled.
To make nurses complete the portfolio, the unit leadership teams maintained an hour for training session. These training sessions described a complete and detailed information about portfolio and strategies on how to staff nurse buy-in.
As formerly noted, a review of the literature announced very little evidence about the use of portfolios to boost the professional development of nurses in an acute care hospital. Many examples of portfolio used by other professionals and by nursing students, but those examples were denied to offer a solution based on practice for integration of the tool into the work life of a registered nurse in an acute care hospital setting. Ease of admittance and ease of use are keys to the triumph of the portfolio.
In May of 2005, all recorded nurses in the impatient and perioperative services at Texas Children’s Hospital started using the portfolio as a part of their recital supervision process. Initial feedback specified that filling out the portfolio was irresistible and awe-inspiring for many nurses but most of them could diagnose the long-term welfares of a portfolio.
The recorded nurse provides to eminence health care through enduring earning and professional development of herself/himself and others, exploration data generation, clinical management and development of strategy and clinical practice procedures. The registered nurse advances their specialized rehearsal in accordance with the health requirements of the inhabitants / society and altering patterns of disease and sickness.

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Importance of Nurse Revalidation with New NMC Guidelines

The profession of nursing and midwifery is the secondary professional care support in the healthcare industry and acts as the second most important layer of service to public health in terms of intensive, antenatal, neonatal, postnatal, pre and post-operative care practices. Nurses and midwives worldwide have now become more efficient and are dealing in multifaceted healthcare roles in various areas of practice: direct patient care, management, education, advisory services, policy, research and vice versa to address the advanced challenges looming large over public health. To fulfill all exceeding demands which were made following the competitive nursing practice model, it has now become an obligatory requirement for practitioners to register with their national regulatory body and opt for nurse revalidation and annual appraisal program routines to up keep all essential areas of their service with continued growth and progress.

Importance of nurses in the healthcare environments

Nurses are considered as a major medical support unit aiding the professional doctors, physicians, surgeons and visiting consultants in almost every work settings including: primary care, secondary care, tertiary hospital, public health, care home sector, ambulance service, military, prison, school, charity and welfare health care, policy, education, research, e-health and other domains. It is that reason that their job role in healthcare facility spans over broad range of services from providing hands-on treatment to getting practice-related feedback from patients to reflect upon their practice and strive to further improve their service and skills adds paramount responsibility upon the shoulders of nurses to determine the trend of service delivery towards utmost satisfaction of the public.

Role of NMC in streamlining and upgrading the nursing practice

Since the stakeholders (patients, students, practitioners, service users) involved in the industry started anticipating better reforms and transformation in the nursing and midwifery practice with passage of time, world regulatory bodies including Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are consistently trying to bring high standards, code of conduct and practice ethics to evolve the general nursing and midwifery practice to next level. In following this mission, NMC had earlier set out the rules and protocols that govern the affairs regarding quality practice, professional development, disciplinary conduct and overall working modules connected with the profession to deliver highly adaptable, conventional and smooth delivery of medical care to patients and service users. The regulator bound every nurse and midwife practicing in United Kingdom to apply for registration with it and strictly declared that those practitioners which were not on its register will not be able to practice as nurse or midwife in any country of kingdom. NMC introduced a well-balanced system in place which started overseeing and managing the matters of registration, nurse revalidation and annual appraisal routines scheduled within specified time frame and certain requirements that features a comprehensive mechanism for the nursing practitioners to follow for registration, practice renewal and annual appraisals.
Nursing and Midwifery Council being the nursing and midwifery regulator for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it takes the national responsibility to ensure that the practice standards framed by it is met by the nurses and midwives on its register; to protect and safeguard the health and wellbeing of public; to introduce standards of education, training, performance so that practitioners shall maintain their ability and skill to deliver novel healthcare consistently throughout their careers.

NMC guidelines regarding its revised code for nurses and midwives: what practitioners must do?

This year, Nursing and Midwifery Council went through an extensive two-stage consultation on revalidation and the code was used to gather the views of nurses and midwives, employers, patients and the public. This included five stakeholder summits across the UK involving more than 1,000 nurses and midwives, as well as online consultation, events, social media and programme boards involving more than 18,400 practitioners and their organisations (NMC,2014).
NMC stated that all practitioners (nurses and midwives) must comply with sets of standards and behaviour and make them central to their practice, this includes ensuring practice is safe and effective, putting the interests of patients and service users first, and promoting trust through professionalism. The revised code is the key component of NMC’s to several important reports, and will play a crucial role in the regulator’s revalidation process being inaugurated this year. NMC officials privy to the development claim that the revised code is more than a fitness to practice tool but a live document that all nurses and midwives should make central to daily practice.

Anatomy of NMC’s new code – Let’s get familiar with it.

The NMC’s new code states that standards must be upheld by all registrants across all settings and scopes of practice, including by those in leadership, education and research roles, as well as those giving direct care. it can also be used by patients, service users and caters to help them provide feedback, by employers to support staff in upholding the standards, and by educators. The new code will play a pivotal part in the NMC’s roles, including registration, fitness to practice and a revalidation process that is being tested this year as pilot run and is due to be effective from December 31, 2015.
The revised code, after altering and amendments have been laid out in four important themes that envisage all the agenda for improving the framework of standards in nursing and midwifery practice and these are:

1. prioritize People

You put the interests of people using or needing nursing or midwifery services first. You make their care and safety your main concern and make sure that their dignity is preserved and their needs are recognised, assessed and responded to. You make sure that those receiving care are treated with respect, that their rights are upheld and that any discriminatory attitudes and behaviours towards those receiving care are challenged.

2. Practice Effectively

You assess need and deliver or advise on treatment, or give help (including preventative or rehabilitative care) without too much delay and to the best of your abilities, on the basis of the best evidence available and best practice. You communicate effectively, keeping clear and accurate records and sharing skills, knowledge and experience where appropriate. You reflect and act on any feedback you receive to improve your practice.

3. Preserve Safety

You make sure that patient and public safety is protected. You work within the limits of your competence, exercising your professional ‘duty of candour’ and raising concerns immediately whenever you come across situations that put patients or public safety at risk. You take necessary action to deal with any concerns where appropriate.

4. Promote Professionalism and Trust

You uphold the reputation of your profession at all times. You should display a personal commitment to the standards of practice and behaviour set out in the Code. You should be a model of integrity and leadership for others to aspire to. This should lead to trust and confidence in the profession from patients, people receiving care, other healthcare pros and the public.

• Conclusion

With the advent of new code, the nurses and midwives must strictly adhere to its clauses and uphold their duty to provide premium services to patients and service users. Summarizing the code it emphasize all registered practitioners to treat people with great compassion and ensure their physical, social and psychological needs are assessed; exercise candour when errors or harm occur; intervene professionally if an emergency occurs outside workplace; follow detailed new standards if they want to raise concern and last but not the least use social media and all other communications with sheer responsibility and care.

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Results from our nurse revalidation survey

a nurse revalidation survey portfolio

We conducted an informal poll, which had a  UK nurses n = 200.

One of the questions was ‘are you currently thinking about revalidation and getting ready for it?’

Surprise, surprise, only 5% of respondents answered, ‘yes’. This shows the need for a massive educational campaign if revalidation is going to achieve its mandated goals. There seems to be an ambivalence about the whole process amongst nurse professionals.

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English proficiency consultation for Nurses and Midwives

nurse-consultation

The NMC has started a 12-week consultation on English language requirements and the registration process.

This is because new legislation is coming into effect  that will put in place language controls for applicants from the European Economic Area (EEA). This is expected to be implemented in late 2015.

The NMC is looking at ways nurses and midwives can demonstrate their English proficiency. This is so that they can practise safely and effectively. This will also allow their colleagues, patients and employers to be confident about their communication skills.

The new NMC code in one of its requirements states communicating in English is necessary.

Read more and participate in the consultation here

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Launching now and open to everyone

We are proud to announce the official launch of Nurse Tools.

As a special thank you for all our beta testers and new users your free subscription time has been reset to start from the 1st of June 2015. Every one will get a free subscription year from this data.

In addition we are proud to announce our referral scheme, whereby you can potentially earn a free lifetime subscription to Nurse Tools by referring your colleagues.

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