Developing the next generation

It is essential that nursing students qualify with the right knowledge and skills to provide safe, effective and kind care for people's changing and increasingly complex needs. The Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) (2018) standards of proficiency set out the knowledge and skills required. The pre-registration education programme standards set out how education institutions' innovative curricula can ensure nursing and midwifery students achieve these proficiencies. We recently introduced changes to our programme standards that will give educators the flexibility to deliver cutting edge programmes (NMC, 2023) to help make the UK a world leader in nursing and midwifery education.

Since the 1970s, the EU Directive has underpinned our education programme standards. The UK's departure from the EU presented the opportunity to set all the standards ourselves. We gathered initial views from more than 6200 voices across the UK, including professionals, students, employers, unions and education institutions. We also engaged with a wide range of nursing and midwifery subject experts and drew on best practice from regulators around the world. We used this insight to draft proposals, which we put out to public consultation, receiving more than 2500 responses from the public, professionals and students. Here's what we're changing and why.