The NMC Form 6 Reflective Account Explained

The NMC Form 6 is the standardised template every revalidating registrant uses for their five reflective accounts. The form has four fields. Each one asks a different question, and the four together tell a small story about a single piece of learning.

This chapter is a field-by-field walkthrough. Part 4 of this guide (chapters 52–61) covers the actual writing techniques and includes three full anonymised examples.

The four fields

Form 6 is short (single page per account) and structured around four prompts:

1. What was the nature of the CPD activity, practice-related feedback, or event in your practice?
2. What did you learn from the CPD activity, feedback or event?
3. How did you change or improve your practice as a result?
4. How is this relevant to The Code? (Includes selecting a section number.)

The form also asks for the date you completed the reflection and, optionally, the date of the original event. There’s space for a brief title to help you organise the five accounts when you submit them.

Field 1: What happened

The descriptive field. You’re setting the scene for the auditor: what happened, when, who was involved (anonymised), what your role was.

Word count expectation: 100–200 words.

What works:

• A specific event with a specific date or date range.
• Enough context to make the event understandable.
• Anonymisation of patients (no name, age range rather than exact age, type of ward rather than identifying detail).
• One paragraph, no headings.

What doesn’t work:

• Vague generalisations (“I have been working in palliative care and have encountered many difficult situations”).
• Excessive clinical detail that doesn’t bear on the learning.
• Identifiable patient details.
• A description that runs to 400 words and leaves no room for the other three fields.

Field 2: What you learned

The most important field. Many audit failures sit here.

Word count expectation: 150–300 words.

What audit auditors are looking for:

• A specific insight gained.
• Evidence that the insight is novel to you (the event genuinely taught you something rather than confirming what you already knew).
• A connection to wider practice, not just the immediate event.

The structural pattern that works:

1. The insight, in one sentence.
2. Why it mattered: what was different about this situation that produced the learning.
3. How the learning generalises: what other situations it applies to.

What doesn’t work:

• “I learned the importance of [X].” Description of importance is not learning.
• “I will be more careful in future.” Intention is not learning.
• Repeating the description from Field 1.
• Generic platitudes that don’t specifically relate to your role or practice.

Field 3: How you changed practice

The behavioural change field. The audit wants concrete, named change.

Word count expectation: 100–250 words.

What works:

• A specific behaviour you now do that you didn’t before, or a behaviour you’ve stopped or modified.
• A timeframe: when the change happened, and whether it has stuck.
• An example of the changed behaviour in action since.

What doesn’t work:

• “I will [X] in future.” Future-tense is not change.
• Generic improvement (“I am more aware of [X] now”).
• The same change you mentioned in another reflective account.

Field 4: Code link

The shortest field. You select one section number and write a sentence on why it’s the relevant Code section.

Word count expectation: 30–80 words.

What works:

• One section number, named in the form’s dropdown.
• A sentence that connects the learning to that section’s specific wording.

What doesn’t work:

• Multiple section numbers (the form takes one).
• A section that doesn’t obviously fit the content of the reflection.
• A generic sentence (“This relates to the Code”) with no specific connection to the chosen section.

Word count expectations across the whole form

A reasonable working range for the four fields combined: 400–900 words per account.

Five accounts at the middle of that range is about 3,000 words of writing: substantial, but spread across three years that’s an average of around 1,000 words a year, or 20 words a week. Most nurses write more than that informally.

Accounts that come in under 250 words total tend to fail on substance, too thin to demonstrate genuine reflection. Accounts over 1,200 words usually mean you’ve put descriptive detail into Field 2 or Field 3 that belongs in Field 1.

How dates work on Form 6

Two dates appear on each account:

• Date completed: when you finished writing this reflective account.
• Date of the original event (optional but recommended): when the event you’re reflecting on actually happened.

Auditors look at both. A reflection completed within a few weeks of the original event reads as natural ongoing practice. A reflection completed two years after the event reads as paperwork generated for revalidation.

Spread your five accounts across the three-year cycle if you can. One per six months is roughly the audit-comfortable rate.

The next chapter covers the reflective discussion: the conversation you have with another NMC registrant about your five written accounts.