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How many CEUs a year is it necessary to maintain registration with NMBI?

Nurses and midwives are required to continuously develop their knowledge and skills through Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Such programmes award CEUs to those who attend.

Currently there are no requirements from NMBI to have a minimum number of CEU’s to maintain registration with NMBI. However, such a requirement is planned and is under discussion between the NMBI and the Department of Health. Once this has been approved, NMBI will communicate the details with the nursing and midwifery professions.

I am a general nurse and want to pursue further studies that will lead to registration in other divisons of the Register of Nurses and Midwives and that will give me additional recongised qualifications. How can I research the courses that are available?

A good starting point is to review the post-Registration courses that NMBI has approved. In each case this will show you the Higher Education Institution (HEI) or other provider offering the course  and the course title. You will also find links to specific details in each HEI/coure provider‘s website where you can review further details of these courses. All of these details are available on our Post Registration Courses page 

I am completing a form to register with NMBI as a nurse tutor? Why does the form need to be completed, signed and stamped by the higher education institution (HEI) where I did the programme?

This is a standard procedure that NMBI applies when registering nurses or midwives for additional divisions. We need formal confirmation from the HEI that you completed the programme and relevant dates. In the event that you took longer to do this programme than normal, the HEI must also indicate in writing to NMBI why this was the case. It will not be possible to process an application for the Nurse Tutor Division unless the HEI completes the form.

I haven’t practised as a nurse for eight years but I am considering going back to work as a nurse. I have been told that I need to do a course to update my skills. Why ?

NMBI strongly recommends that a nurse who is returning to practice after an absence of five years or more should complete a Return to Nursing Practice Course before she begins practising again as a nurse.

We also recommend that this should be applicable to nurses returning to practice in one discipline of nursing, having practised for many years in another discipline of nursing or in midwifery. The reason for this is to give the nurse the opportunity to update her/his knowledge and clinical skills in order that she/he is a competent.

You should research doing a return to nursing course or a return to midwifery course. Course content for return to nursing courses is determined by standards and requirements which NMBI sets for educational programmes for members of the Irish nursing and midwives professions. To learn more about these types of courses, you shoulld visit the return to nursing practice course page or the return to midiwifery practice course page. Please follow this link to view out list of Post Registration courses where you will find a list of Return to Nursing Practice Programmes. 

If I do a post-registration course that is approved by NMBI, am I eligible for a qualification allowance?

This is not determined by NMBI. Qualifications allowances are paid by employers once nurses and midwives get additional qualifications following completion of certain programmes by nurses and midwives. NMBI has no role in this.

Our only role with such courses is to indicate if the course you completed meets the standards we set under what is called Category II approval by NMBI, which applies to post-registration courses. Your employer will determine if an allowance is granted. Please refer to our post registration list of current approved courses.

What does a CEU mean and and how does NMBI award CEUs to courses it approves?

CEU is an abbreviation for Continuing Education Unit. NMBI approves short or online courses for registered nurses and midwives which earn CEUs. NMBI awards one CEU for 40-60 minutes of contact or participation in teaching and learning activity during suuch a course. It should also be noted that CEUs may be awarded for clinical skills training sessions but are not awarded for clinical placement elements within a course.

To learn more about this, visit our page on Continuing Education Units.

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