Platform 1: being an accountable professional
17 marks of the 100 in Part B, which runs for 150 minutes.
Platform 1 is the largest single category in Part B, and it is the one where clinical knowledge does not help you. The questions describe a situation and ask what a registered nurse is required to do, and the answer comes from the Code and the law rather than from what would keep the peace.
What this section asks about
- The Code: prioritise people, practise effectively, preserve safety, promote professionalism
- Accountability, including what stays with you when you delegate a task
- Consent, mental capacity and the Mental Capacity Act two-stage test
- Record keeping, including how to correct an entry you have already made
- The professional duty of candour, raising concerns and whistleblowing protection
- Professional boundaries and social media
Where the marks go
17 marks of the 100 in Part B, which runs for 150 minutes. The NMC splits this section across the levels of Bloom's taxonomy:
- Remember and understand: 6
- Apply and analyse: 6
- Evaluate and create: 5
Where candidates lose marks
- Picking the option that avoids conflict. The Code often requires the more uncomfortable action.
- Handing accountability to the person you delegated to. It stays with the registered nurse who delegated.
- Treating capacity as a diagnosis. Capacity is decision-specific and time-specific.
Questions people ask
- Why does Platform 1 carry the most marks?
- The published test specification draws more Part B questions from Platform 1 than from any other platform, which reflects that accountability underpins everything else on the register.
- Do I need to memorise the Code?
- You need to be able to apply it. Questions rarely ask what a clause says; they describe a situation where two reasonable-sounding actions conflict and ask which one the Code requires.
Practise this section
Practice is filtered by section, so you can work on this one on its own. Every account gets 10 new questions a day without a card.