The Nursing and Midwifery Council are making final preparations to provide regulation and registration for Nursing Associates.
NMC Council papers released yesterday set out the terms of accepting the government’s request to regulate nursing associates.
The council have stipulated that the government would need to pay the initial setup costs of around £4m and that existing registrants with the NMC should not have to pay anything towards regulation of the new role.
Detailing the terms of accepting nursing associates onto the register the NMC said its existing priorities for Nurses and Midwives would not be compromised “provided there is full funding” for regulating associates.
The papers reiterated that a new part of the register would need to be setup and this would require a change in legislation something that would take up to two years to introduce. They further clarified that “until that is done, no one could qualify as a nursing associate regulated by the NMC”.
A summery of the terms listed in the paper are;
- The government must pay the initial setup costs of around £4m.
- Full authority over all aspects of the education and training of nursing associates
- Control over how quickly nursing associates are entered onto the register.
- Make key decisions over education standards, practical competences, approving programmes, determining entry qualifications and the type of educational experience required.
They raised further concerns over, the already commenced, pilot schemes which may not meet educational standards set out by the NMC.
Finally they raised concerns over the potential confusion about the difference between nursing associates and registered nurses if they were regulated by the same body.
The NMC are set to finalise the decision to regulate nursing associates on the 25th January 2017.