NMBI CPD Requirements for Nurses and Midwives in Ireland

If you're a registered nurse or midwife in Ireland, you already know the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics tells you to keep your knowledge and skills current — but you might be wondering exactly what that means in practice, and whether there's a specific number of hours you're supposed to be logging every year. The honest answer, as of September 2026, is that there isn't yet a legally mandatory, audited hours requirement in force for the whole profession. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) is in the process of rolling one out. It piloted a formal Professional Competence Scheme from January 2025 to April 2026 and is now finalising the model based on that pilot — NMBI has advised against organisations or individuals adopting the pilot model in the meantime — with a finalised guideline expected around November 2026 ahead of national rollout in January 2027. Until that scheme is fully commenced, your obligation is the broader, ongoing one set out in the Code: stay competent, know your limits, and keep learning. This guide walks through what NMBI actually is, how the emerging competence framework is structured, what counts as valid CPD, and how verification will work once it's live.

What NMBI is and what it regulates

NMBI is the statutory regulator for nursing and midwifery in Ireland. It maintains the official Register of Nurses and Midwives, sets and approves the standards for nurse and midwife education and training programmes, publishes the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics, and runs the fitness-to-practise process that investigates complaints against registered practitioners. Its stated purpose is to protect the public and the integrity of the professions — which is also why continuing competence sits so close to the centre of what it does. You cannot practise as a nurse or midwife in Ireland without being on NMBI's register, and staying on that register (and renewing it each year) is a separate process from anything to do with CPD.

It's worth being clear about that separation up front, because it surprises people: the current annual registration renewal, done through the MyNMBI online portal, is essentially administrative. You confirm and update your employment and contact details and pay the renewal fee. As things stand, it does not require you to declare CPD hours or submit any competence evidence — that changes once the Professional Competence Scheme is fully commenced, but it hasn't reached that point yet.

The professional competence framework as it actually works

This is the part where it's easy to assume NMBI's scheme mirrors the Medical Council's rigid category-and-hours system for doctors. It doesn't, and it's worth checking the detail rather than guessing. NMBI's model — both the underlying legal framework and the scheme it has been piloting — is self-directed and hours-based, but far less prescriptive than the medical model, and it is not yet compulsory for the whole register.

Why it isn't mandatory yet

Part 11 of the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 is the piece of legislation that would give NMBI's professional competence scheme legal teeth — but as of now, Part 11 has not been commenced. Until it is, nurses and midwives are governed by the general obligation in the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics to maintain competence and keep their knowledge and skills current, rather than by a specific audited hours target.

What the scheme looks like once it applies

NMBI developed and tested the detailed scheme through a pilot that ran from January 2025 to April 2026, across 37 sites nationwide — acute general hospitals, maternity hospitals, community care, education, and social care services — with roughly 985 participants. With the pilot now concluded, NMBI is finalising the scheme based on what it learned, having advised against organisations or individuals adopting the pilot model in the meantime. A finalised guideline is expected around November 2026, ahead of national rollout planned for January 2027, with the first full register-wide audit expected in 2030.

The model, as set out in NMBI's guidelines, is built around a reflective Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) cycle rather than a simple tally of course attendance. Practitioners plan their learning, carry it out, reflect on what changed in their practice, and declare compliance. The headline figures are:

Notice what's absent compared with, say, the Medical Council's CPD scheme for doctors: there's no fixed set of numbered categories each carrying a mandatory minimum hour count. NMBI's own guidance is explicit that it does not prescribe specific CPD activities — practitioners choose what's relevant to their own scope of practice, as long as the learning is spread across a "broad and varied" mix rather than concentrated in one narrow area.

What counts as valid CPD

Under the scheme, CPD activity falls into four broad categories, and you're expected to draw from more than one of them over your cycle rather than relying on a single type:

• Work-based learning — things that happen as part of day-to-day practice, such as clinical supervision, safety huddles, structured reflective practice, or taking part in a practice audit.
• Professional activity — presenting at a conference, publishing in a peer-reviewed journal, or mentoring a colleague or student.
• Formal education — postgraduate study, structured workshops, or seminars.
• Self-directed learning — online courses, journal clubs, discussion groups, or your own reading and research.

Mandatory workplace training can also count, provided it's genuinely relevant to your scope of practice and ties back to the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics — it isn't automatically excluded just because your employer required it.

Separately, NMBI publishes guidance for training providers on how CPD hours should be awarded to the courses they run: as a rule of thumb, one CPD hour equals one hour of genuine contact or participation in a learning activity, including any assessment time. Short courses can be awarded anywhere from one to 30 hours depending on content, while competency-based programmes carry a minimum of four hours. If you're choosing a course and want reassurance it will count, checking that the provider states its hours "in accordance with NMBI guidance" is a reasonable sanity check. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is one example of a provider running NMBI Category 1 approved courses with allocated Continuing Education Units for members — useful if you'd like your CPD to come with a formal certificate rather than relying purely on self-directed study.

How compliance is checked

Once the scheme is fully in force, verification will run through what NMBI calls a Monitoring Maintenance of Professional Competence (MMPC) audit. The mechanics tested in the pilot were: practitioners are randomly selected from the register, given a six-week window to submit evidence through an electronic audit form, and asked to show both their CPD hours and their practice hours, along with reflection linked to the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. A workplace verifier — typically a line manager — confirms the practice hours claimed. Where someone can't demonstrate compliance, the matter can be referred on to NMBI's Preliminary Proceedings Committee, the body that also handles fitness-to-practise concerns.

None of that is running as a live, register-wide process yet — it's what the pilot, which ran from January 2025 to April 2026, tested ahead of the planned January 2027 national rollout. For now, the practical expectation is that you can show, if asked by an employer or in the future by NMBI, that you've kept learning and stayed current in your area of practice.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to log a set number of CPD hours right now?

Not under a formally audited scheme — the pilot has now concluded and NMBI is finalising the model, with national rollout not due until January 2027. Your current obligation, under the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics, is the broader one of maintaining your competence and keeping your knowledge and skills relevant to your practice. It's sensible to start keeping a simple record of your learning now, though, since the emerging model (60 CPD hours and 450 practice hours over a 3-year cycle) is the direction things are heading.

Does my annual registration renewal check my CPD?

No — as it stands, renewing your registration through MyNMBI is an administrative process covering your employment details, contact information, and the renewal fee. It doesn't currently ask you to declare or submit CPD evidence.

Is NMBI's model the same as the Medical Council's hours-and-categories system for doctors?

No, and this is a common assumption worth correcting. Rather than a fixed set of mandatory categories with individual minimum hours, NMBI's scheme leaves the choice of specific activities to the practitioner, provided the learning is varied across the four broad categories and reflects genuinely on practice. If you want the point of comparison, our guide to the Medical Council's CPD categories for doctors sets out how that stricter model works.

What happens if I'm selected for an MMPC audit and can't show enough evidence?

Under the model tested in the pilot, a workplace verifier would confirm your practice hours and you'd submit evidence of your CPD and reflection within a six-week window. If you can't demonstrate compliance, the matter can be referred to NMBI's Preliminary Proceedings Committee. This process isn't running nationally yet, but it's a good reason to keep a simple, ongoing record of your learning rather than trying to reconstruct it after the fact.

How does this compare with CPD requirements in other regulated healthcare professions in Ireland?

Every regulator sets its own model. Pharmacists have their own scheme run by the PSI (see our guide to PSI CPD requirements for pharmacists), and allied health professionals registered with CORU follow a separate framework, covered in our piece on CORU CPD requirements for allied health professionals. None of these schemes are interchangeable, so it's worth checking the specific regulator that covers your registration rather than assuming the rules are the same across professions.

NMBI's professional competence scheme is still taking shape, and the detail may well shift a little as NMBI finalises the model using the pilot data, ahead of the scheme's planned January 2027 rollout. The safest approach for any nurse or midwife right now is the simple one: keep learning that's genuinely relevant to your practice, reflect on it, and keep a record — so that whenever the formal audit process does arrive, you're not starting from zero.

This guide is part of Learnsignal's ongoing coverage of professional qualifications and training routes.