FAQs

What is Nurse Tools?

Nurse Tools is an online appraisal and revalidation system specifically designed for Nurses.

 

What does Nurse Tools do?

  • It enables you to generate, maintain and update your revalidation documentation in keeping with the ‘How to revalidate’ NMC guidance.
  • Keeps a record of the work you are doing and the CPD activities you perform.
  • Automatically calculates how many hours of work / cpd you have done.
  • It provides an electronic store of your documentation which is safe, secure and accessible only by you .
  • You do not have to worry about keeping paper records or files which are prone to getting lost or spoilt

Why should I use Nurse Tools?

Nurse Tools provides a secure platform for your revalidation documentation. You fill it in through the revalidation cycle with your CPD activities and work profile.

Near your revalidation date,  you nominate your NMC Colleague, who can then view your reflective accounts and ‘sign off’ the NMC Colleague reflective discussion form.

You can also nominate a ‘confirmer’ who will have access to your documentation in order to ‘sign off’ the NMC confirmation form.

Intuitive design workflow management makes it easy for you to complete all the NMC revalidation requirements.

 

Please note: We do not force you to nominate your colleague and/or confirmer through Nurse Tools. These methods are for your own convenience. If you wish to just use Nurse Tools as on online store of your CPD documentation which you can then print off whenever you wish, you are welcome to do so.

Nurse Tools’ ethos is built around being an open and free environment for all nurses.

Will my revalidation be accepted if I use Nurse Tools?

Yes. Nurse Tools has been built around the NMC revalidation guidance using the same forms and templates recommended  by the NMC.

 

What experience does Nurse Tools have with appraisal and revalidation?

Nurse Tools parent company is GP Tools (UK) Ltd which is one of the most popular appraisal and revalidation toolkits for UK doctors and has been involved in UK doctor appraisal since 2003.

Nurse Tools Security Practices, Policies and Infrastructure

We take security very seriously and have developed a comprehensive set of practices, technologies and policies to help ensure your data is secure.

If you are currently maintaining your data on personal computers or your own servers, the odds are that we offer a better level of security than what you currently have in place.

These FAQs outline some of the mechanisms and processes we have implemented to help ensure that your data is protected. We have grouped our security practices into four different areas: Physical Security; Network Security; People Processes and Redundancy and Business Continuity.

Physical Security

Your data is kept in some of the most secure facilities available today in locations that are protected from physical and logical attacks as well as from natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, etc.

  • 7x24x365 Security. The data centres that host your data are guarded seven days a week, 24 hours a day, each and every day of the year by private security guards.
  • Video Monitoring. Each data centre is monitored 7x24x365 with night vision cameras.
  • Controlled Entrance. Access to the Nurse Tools data centres is tightly restricted to a small group of pre-authorized personnel.
  • Biometric, two-Factor Authentication. Two forms of authentication, including a biometric one, must be used together at the same time to enter a data centre.
  • Undisclosed locations. Our servers are located inside generic-looking, undisclosed locations that make them less likely to be a target of an attack.
  • Bullet-resistant walls. Our servers are guarded safely inside bullet-resistant walls.

Network Security

Our network security team and infrastructure helps protect your data against the most sophisticated electronic attacks. The following is a subset of our network security practices. These are intentionally stated in a very general way, since even knowing what tactics we use is something hackers crave. If your organisation requires further detail on our network security, please contact us.

  • 128/256-bit SSL. The communication between your computer and our servers is encrypted using strong 128-bit keys (256-bit keys in many cases). What this means is that even if the information travelling between your computer and our servers were to be intercepted, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to make any sense out of it.
  • IDS/IPS. Our network is gated and screened by highly powerful and certified Intrusion Detection / Intrusion Prevention Systems.
  • Control and Audit. All accesses are controlled and also audited.
  • Secured / Sliced Down OS. Nurse Tools runs inside a secured, sliced-down operating system engineered for security that minimizes vulnerabilities.
  • Virus Scanning. Traffic coming into Nurse Tools is automatically scanned for harmful viruses using state of the art virus scanning protocols which are updated regularly.

People Processes

Designing and running data centre infrastructure requires not just technology, but a disciplined approach to processes. This includes policies about escalation, management, knowledge sharing, risk, as well as the day to day operations. Nurse Tools’s security team has years of experience in designing and operating data centres and continually improves our processes over time. Nurse Tools has developed a world class practices for managing security and data protection risk.

  • Select Employees. Only employees with the highest clearance have access to our data centre. Employee access is logged and passwords are strictly regulated. We limit access to customer data to only a select few of these employees who need such access to provide support and troubleshooting on our customers’ behalf.
  • Audits. Audits are regularly performed and the whole process is reviewed by management
  • As–Needed Basis. Accessing data centre information as well as customer data is done on an as-needed only basis, and only when approved by the customer (i.e. as part of a support incident), or by senior security management to provide support and maintenance.

Redundancy and Business Continuity

One of the fundamental philosophies of cloud computing is the acknowledgement and assumption that computer resources will at some point fail. We have designed our systems and infrastructure with that in mind.

  • Distributed Grid Architecture. Nurse Tools services run on a distributed grid architecture. That means a server can fail without a noticeable impact on the system or our services. In fact, on any given week, multiple servers fail without our customers ever noticing it. The system has been designed knowing that server will eventually fail – we have implemented our infrastructure to account for that.
  • Power Redundancy. Nurse Tools configures its servers for power redundancy – from power supply to power delivery.
  • Internet Redundancy. Nurse Tools is connected to the world –and you- through multiple Tier-1 ISPs. So if any one fails or experiences a delay, you can still reliably get to your applications and information.
  • Redundant Network Devices. Nurse Tools runs on redundant network devices (switches, routers, security gateways) to avoid any single point of failure at any level on the internal network.
  • Redundant Cooling and Temperature. Intense computing resources generate a lot of heat, and thus need to be cooled to guarantee a smooth operation. Nurse Tools servers are backed by N+2 redundant HVAC systems and temperature control systems.
  • Geo Mirroring. Customer data is mirrored in a separate geographic location for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity purposes. Please note geo mirroring is available on select products and plans.
  • Fire Prevention. The Nurse Tools data centres are guarded by industry-standard fire prevention and control systems.
  • Data Protection & Back-up. User data is backed-up periodically across multiple servers, helping protect the data in the event of hardware failure or disaster.

Security Certification

Nurse Tools parent company is GP Tools which is an ISO 27001 certified company.

What is ISO 27001?

ISO 27001 is the international standard for Information Security. The standard is awarded to organisations that have proved they have an effective information security management system (ISMS) in place to deal with their own and others sensitive information.

An ISMS is a “systematic approach to managing confidential or sensitive corporate information so that it remains secure.” Organisations such as ours, that deal with large volumes of data – need to have to a system in place that guarantees we can ensure your information is kept secure at all times. Having gained the ISO 27001 standard means that our ISMS has been assessed against a rigorous set of requirements, and is fully capable of ensuring the safety of your information.

 

Vulnerability Reporting

Nurse Tools values the work done by security researchers in improving the security of our service offerings and we are committed to working with the community to verify, reproduce, and respond to legitimate reported vulnerabilities. To report a security issue please contact support at nursetools dot org

Is Nurse Tools really free to use?

Yes, Nurse Tools is totally free for you to use forever.  There are no catches and no strings attached.

No credit card or any payment details will be taken from you at any time.

What are your terms and conditions?

Our terms and conditions are available for you to read at

Nurse Tools Terms and Conditions

In summary:

You are the owner of your data and everything you produce using Nurse Tools is done by you and your actions. Any forms produced by you  are your property and you are the owner of the said forms. Any logos that are used are used on your behalf and for your benefit. Nurse Tools will respect your privacy and not divulge or use your data for anything other than informing you of important updates to the site. Though we try to keep our revalidation and appraisal guidance up to date, you should check with your goverening body for the latest guidance.