The NMC proficiencies and your PAD, explained

The NMC proficiencies are the standards every registered nurse in the UK must meet, set out in the NMC’s Standards of proficiency for registered nurses. They’re organised into seven platforms plus two annexes, Annexe A (communication and relationship management skills) and Annexe B (nursing procedures), and your university assesses you against them through your Practice Assessment Document (PAD). This guide explains how the pieces fit together and how to evidence your progress without a last-minute scramble.

What are the NMC proficiencies?

When you qualify, you’re not just finishing a degree. You’re demonstrating to the Nursing and Midwifery Council that you can practise safely and effectively as a registered nurse. The proficiencies define exactly what that means: 219 individual statements describing the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of you at the point of registration.

They apply to every field of nursing (adult, mental health, learning disabilities and children’s) because they describe what any registered nurse must be able to do.

The seven platforms

The proficiencies are grouped into seven platforms, each covering one broad dimension of nursing:

1. Being an accountable professional: acting within the Code, honestly and with integrity.
2. Promoting health and preventing ill health: supporting people to improve and protect their own health.
3. Assessing needs and planning care: assessment, clinical reasoning and person-centred planning.
4. Providing and evaluating care: delivering nursing care and judging whether it’s working.
5. Leading and managing nursing care and working in teams: leadership, delegation and teamwork.
6. Improving safety and quality of care: patient safety, risk and quality improvement.
7. Coordinating care: organising care across teams, settings and transitions.

Two annexes sit alongside the platforms:

• Annexe A, communication and relationship management skills: the interpersonal skills underpinning everything from breaking bad news to de-escalation.
• Annexe B, nursing procedures: the hands-on procedures, organised into 11 groups, from vital signs and medicines administration to wound care and end-of-life care.

Together, the platforms and annexes are the complete picture your programme signs off before the NMC will register you.

What is a PAD (Practice Assessment Document)?

Your Practice Assessment Document is the official record your university and placement staff use to assess you against those proficiencies in practice. Whether yours is paper or electronic (many programmes use a shared regional ePAD), it does the same jobs:

• records which proficiencies and procedures you’ve demonstrated, and to what level;
• captures assessments, professional-values sign-offs and feedback from each placement;
• tracks episodes of care, medicines-management assessments and similar milestones; and
• carries your progress between placements, so each new team can see where you are.

Who signs it is defined by the NMC’s supervision and assessment standards:

• Practice supervisors: registered professionals you work alongside day to day, who contribute observations and feedback.
• Practice assessors: the registered nurse who assesses and signs off your proficiencies for a placement or part of the programme.
• Academic assessors: university-side assessors who confirm your progression at each part of the programme, working with the practice assessor.

A blunt practical truth every student learns: assessor time is scarce. Placements end quickly, assessors are busy, and unsigned proficiencies at the end of a placement are painful to chase afterwards. The students who finish calm are the ones who arrive at sign-off conversations with their evidence already organised.

How to evidence a proficiency (without a third-year scramble)

A proficiency isn’t evidenced by saying “I did that once.” It’s evidenced by being able to show it: concrete moments of practice, ideally more than one, that a busy assessor can review quickly. A simple system:

1. Know what’s outstanding. Keep a live list of which of the 219 statements you’ve covered and which you haven’t. Gaps you can see are gaps you can plan for.
2. Capture moments as they happen. After a meaningful shift, note what you did and which proficiencies it demonstrates. Two sentences at the time beats a paragraph reconstructed weeks later.
3. Link, don’t pile. Attach each piece of evidence (a shift, a reflection, a procedure you performed under supervision) to the specific statements it supports.
4. Review before each assessment. Going into a midpoint or final interview, know exactly what you’ll ask your assessor to sign and what you can show for it.
5. Tell your placement what you need. If Annexe B group or platform statements are outstanding, say so at the start of the placement. Supervisors can only steer opportunities your way if they know you need them.

This is exactly the workflow PlaceMate is built around: it tracks all 219 statements across the 7 platforms and the Annexe B procedures, lets you link shifts and reflections to statements as evidence, and shows you (and, when you’re ready, your assessor) precisely what’s left.

PAD vs PlaceMate (or any personal tracker): what’s the difference?

Your PAD is the official assessment record: only it, signed by the right people, counts. A personal tracker is your working view: the always-current picture of where you are that makes the official sign-offs easy. Think of it as the difference between the exam and your revision notes. PlaceMate never replaces your PAD; it makes sure that when your PAD is open in front of an assessor, nothing is a surprise.

Frequently asked questions

How many NMC proficiencies are there? 219 individual proficiency statements, organised into 7 platforms, plus Annexe A (communication and relationship management skills) and Annexe B (nursing procedures, in 11 groups).

Are the proficiencies different for each field of nursing? No. The Standards of proficiency for registered nurses apply across all fields. What differs is the context in which you evidence them and the emphasis of your programme.

Who can sign off my proficiencies? Your practice assessor signs off proficiencies in practice, informed by feedback from your practice supervisors; your academic assessor confirms progression at each part of the programme. Your university’s PAD sets out exactly who signs what.

What happens if I don’t complete a proficiency during a placement? It stays outstanding and follows you to a later placement, and your programme will plan opportunities for you to meet it. The risk is bunching too many into your final placements, which is why tracking the gaps early matters.

Is PlaceMate a replacement for my PAD? No. Your PAD is the official record. PlaceMate is your own organised view of the same proficiencies, so you always know what’s evidenced, what’s outstanding, and what to bring to your assessor.

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Track all 219 proficiencies, link your evidence, and see your gaps at a glance. PlaceMate is free for student nurses.