Mary's positive story hits the news stands

When the Nursing Standard, Britain's leading journal for nurses in the UK, wanted someone to talk about their personal revalidation story, they chose the Trust's Mary Makarau, a specialist HIV nurse based in Kensington & Chelsea.

Mary, who won the patient award at last year's staff event, was one of the first nurses in England to complete revalidation process. This led to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the organisation responsible for registering and regulating nurses, asking if she was willing to share her positive experiences of the process.

A blog written by Mary soon followed, describing how she saw it as an "interesting learning process".

"'It was helpful to have an extremely supportive manager, who was also my confirmer, involved right from the start.

"We were able to have reflective discussions and came up with ideas on how to improve my future practice."

Mary's top three revalidation tips for fellow nurses are:

• start preparing in good time to avoid any panic
• collect information, such as achievements and training days, throughout the year and keep your records up-to-date
• don't hesitate to seek help from the NMC, your manager or colleagues who have been through the process.

We are grateful to the Nursing Standard for allowing us to share the full article: 'Nursing's first revalidators give the process an early vote of confidence'