Applications for Recognition with UK Qualification

In response to Covid-19 and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has approved a number of changes to the undergraduate programmes. 

These changes coincided with the UK's Brexit withdrawal, after which the UK was no longer required to align with the EU Directive for general nurse and midwife education. As of June 2021, the NMC stopped issuing Certificates of Conformity (CoC), which previously confirmed that UK-educated general nurses and midwives met the EU Directive and qualified for automatic recognition in Ireland.

NMBI continued to grant automatic recognition to UK-educated nurses and midwives who qualified while the UK was still in the EU. However, those graduating since 1 January 2021 are now assessed as non-EU applicants and must meet NMBI standards and requirements.

NMBI is now observing the impact of these sustained Covid-related changes in UK undergraduate nursing programs, with a growing number of new applicants requiring compensation measures to have their qualifications recognised in Ireland.

• UK-trained nurses and midwives who graduated after 2021 are now assessed under non-EU standards by NMBI.
• There has been a marked increase in the number of compensation measures required, especially for General Nurses.

Applying for qualification recognition

If you are an EU or UK national and you obtained your UK qualification in general nursing or midwifery prior to 1 January 2021, you will need to provide a letter from the NMC confirming the qualification dates and conformity to the EU Directive at that time. This is in addition to a certificate of current professional status. If this is provided a full education assessment may not be required. The application system will prompt you to upload a qualification form and transcript. You may disregard this and just upload a copy of the NMC documents and your qualification parchment. You are also not required to provide employment forms. The registration team will confirm your status once your application is submitted. If you are unable to obtain NMC confirmation of your EU directive status at the time, then a full education assessment will be necessary, and you will be required upload a qualification form and transcript. 

If you obtained your UK qualification after 1 January 2021, a full education assessment will be required. You will need to upload a qualification form and transcript where the application system prompts you to do so. This is in addition to a qualification parchment and certificate of current professional status. You may also provide employment forms for consideration.