The Nursing and Midwifery Council has announced the launch of the consultation the proposed approach to the regulation of nursing associates.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council has announced it will lift the cap on simulated training for student nurses.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has announced it has removed the hard cap on the number of clinical hours, which is currently set at 300 hours, student nurses can instead complete in simulated practice.

Initially, the regulator said it wanted to raise the cap to 1,150 hours but critics raised concerns about the reduction in time on clinical placements.

The results of the consultation showed that a significant proportion of respondents wanted there to continue to be a cap as many showed concern it would reduce the total number of hours completed on clinical placements.

Instead, the NMC has not specified a cap but warned that they would be monitoring universities use of simulation.

The NMC says this flexible approach aligns with other UK healthcare regulators.

An NMC spokesperson told the NursingTimes; “We will no longer state a maximum number for hours of simulation to be included in educational programmes for pre-registration nursing.

“Our new approach is to be less prescriptive and more outcome-focused, allowing autonomy to enhance and develop forms and uses of simulation for learning and assessment that facilitate safe and effective care,”

“However, we will monitor and ensure that the type of simulation, and how it is applied, is appropriate to meet the learning outcomes of our standards through our educational quality assurance process,”

The nursing regulator will keep the fee at £120 for this year but says it will need to review the fee ahead of next year.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council has confirmed it will not raise the annual registration fee this year but says it will need to review the payment in more detail ahead of next year.

Falling numbers of nurses are the “greatest risk”, admits the NMC, and goes on to explain that it predicts a £1.4m loss between the current financial year and 2018-19 because of nurses leaving the register.

Offical figures show that more nurses are now leaving the NMC register than joining.

The yearly retention fee payment has seen a rise of 64% since 2013 despite NHS pay being increased by only 4%.

Although nursing associates are set to join the NMC it is thought the two budgets would be ring-fenced.

It states; “Our budget for 2018-19 assumes a continuation of the fee at £120 with a further potential decline in income as described previously.

“Given we are in a relatively healthy financial position, we are not proposing an increase in the fee this year.

“During 2018-19, we will be reviewing the fee level in more detail, as well as improving the modelling of income for future years. This reflects growing concern about the long-term trend of the size of the register”.

NMC fee increases are approved by the Privy Council and are subjected to external consultation.