NMC reference checking — fitness to practise and conduct evidence for registered nurses

What NMC registration means for employment references

The NMC registers nurses and midwives in the UK and sets standards through the Code. NMC fitness to practise proceedings are triggered by concerns reported to the NMC — but many conduct concerns involving registered nurses are handled internally by employing organisations without NMC referral. A nurse may have been subject to disciplinary proceedings or a restriction of duties arrangement with a previous employer — none of which appears on their NMC register entry or DBS record.

NMC fitness to practise questions in employment references

RefAssure NMC-aligned reference templates include a mandatory question asking the referee whether they have any concerns about the candidate's continuing fitness to practise as a nurse or midwife. This question directly addresses the fitness to practise risk that standard reference templates never ask about. Combined with mandatory safeguarding suitability, disciplinary history and clinical conduct fields, the NMC template generates comprehensive professional conduct evidence for every nursing appointment.

Every NMC reference generates a PDF with full audit trail satisfying CQC Regulation 19 and NHS Employment Check Standards simultaneously. For nursing agencies, bank bureaux and NHS trust HR teams, RefAssure provides the NMC-relevant reference evidence for every nurse appointment at 99p per reference with no subscription.