Written and checked against the NMC’s published sources by The NMCMATE editorial team.Last checked .
15 marks of the 100 in Part B, which runs for 150 minutes.
Platform 4 is the widest category in Part B and the closest to a shift. Common conditions and how they are managed, medicines and what they do, the devices you look after, and what you do when somebody deteriorates in front of you.
What this section asks about
Commonly encountered physical and mental health conditions and their management
Safe administration of medicines, and the pharmacology behind them
Allergies, interactions, contraindications and monitoring
Devices and lines: catheters, cannulae, stomas, tracheostomies, syringe drivers
First aid, basic life support and the immediate management of an emergency
Symptom management, comfort and care at the end of life
Evaluating whether an intervention worked
Where the marks go
15 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: 5
Apply and analyse: 5
Evaluate and create: 5
Where candidates lose marks
Answering with a treatment when the question asks what the nurse does first.
Skipping the observation. Many of these questions are answered by assessing the patient and escalating, not by an intervention.
Learning drug facts without the monitoring. Questions ask what you check as often as what you give.
Sample questions
From our bank, with the explanation as a student sees it. These particular questions are kept out of the mock papers, so reading them here does not use anything up.
Sample 1 of 2
A 56-year-old man with long-standing diabetes attends the chronic disease management clinic. He describes burning, lancinating, electric-shock sensations in both feet accompanied by allodynia and hyperalgesia. Which classification of pain is this patient experiencing?
Select one answer.
AInflammatory pain
BNeuropathic painAnswer
CVisceral nociceptive pain
DSomatic nociceptive pain
Why
Burning, lancinating sensations accompanied by allodynia and hyperalgesia are classical features of neuropathic pain secondary to peripheral nerve pathology. Somatic nociceptive pain would be identified by well-localised, aching, or sharp pain related to musculoskeletal injury without autonomic or neuropathic characteristics.
NMC Standards of Proficiency Platform 4
Sample 2 of 2
A community nurse is dressing an open surgical wound on an adult patient's abdomen. Assessment reveals a moderately-to-heavily exuding cavity wound requiring a conformable calcium-ion-donating primary dressing to absorb exudate and form a gel. Which dressing is indicated?
Select one answer.
ASuperabsorbent polymer dressing
BHydrocolloid dressing
CAlginate dressingAnswer
DHydrogel sheet dressing
Why
The combination of cavity presentation with moderate-to-heavy exudate requiring calcium ion donation to create a gel indicates an alginate dressing. A hydrocolloid is unsuitable for deep or heavily exuding cavities, and hydrogel sheets donate water rather than absorb moderate-to-heavy cavity exudate.
National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NHS England)
The proficiency statements behind this section
Questions in this section are written against the NMC's Future Nurse standards. These are the 18 statements it draws from. You are not expected to memorise them, and they are worth reading once so the language on the paper is familiar. The ones marked are patient safety proficiencies, which every paper has to reach a minimum of.
4.1Demonstrate and apply an understanding of what is important to people and how to use this knowledge to ensure their needs for safety, dignity, privacy, comfort and sleep can be met, acting as a role model for others in providing evidence based person-centred caresafety
4.2Work in partnership with people to encourage shared decision making in order to support individuals, their families and carers to manage their own care when appropriate
4.3Demonstrate the knowledge, communication and relationship management skills required to provide people, families and carers with accurate information that meets their needs before, during and after a range of interventions
4.4Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to support people with commonly encountered mental health, behavioural, cognitive and learning challenges, and act as a role model for others in providing high quality nursing interventions to meet people’s needssafety
4.5Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to support people with commonly encountered physical health conditions, their medication usage and treatments, and act as a role model for others in providing high quality nursing interventions when meeting people’s needs
4.6Demonstrate the knowledge, skills and ability to act as a role model for others in providing evidence-based nursing care to meet people’s needs related to nutrition, hydration and
4.7Demonstrate the knowledge, skills and ability to act as a role model for others in providing evidence-based, person-centred nursing care to meet people’s needs related to mobility, hygiene, oral care, wound care and skin integrity
4.8Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to identify and initiate appropriate interventions to support people with commonly encountered symptoms including anxiety, confusion, discomfort and pain
4.9Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to prioritise what is important to people and their families when providing evidence-based person-centred nursing care at end of life including the care of people who are dying, families, the deceased and the bereaved
4.10Demonstrate the knowledge and ability to respond proactively and promptly to signs of deterioration or distress in mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural health and use this knowledge to make sound clinical decisionssafety
4.11Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to initiate and evaluate appropriate interventions to support people who show signs of self-harm and/or suicidal ideationsafety
4.12Demonstrate the ability to manage commonly encountered devices and confidently carry out related nursing procedures to meet people’s needs for evidence based, person- centred care
4.13Demonstrate the knowledge, skills and confidence to provide first aid procedures and basic life supportsafety
4.14Understand the principles of safe and effective administration and optimisation of medicines in accordance with local and national policies and demonstrate proficiency and accuracy when calculating dosages of prescribed medicinessafety
4.15Demonstrate knowledge of pharmacology and the ability to recognise the effects of medicines, allergies, drug sensitivities, side effects, contraindications, incompatibilities, adverse reactions, prescribing errors and the impact of polypharmacy and over the counter medication usagesafety
4.16Demonstrate knowledge of how prescriptions can be generated, the role of generic, unlicensed, and off-label prescribing and an understanding of the potential risks associated with these approaches to prescribing
4.17Apply knowledge of pharmacology to the care of people, demonstrating the ability to progress to a prescribing qualification following registration
4.18Demonstrate the ability to co-ordinate and undertake the processes and procedures involved in routine planning and management of safe discharge home or transfer of people between care settingssafety
Questions people ask
How much pharmacology do I need?
Enough to recognise what a medicine is for, what it commonly does that is unwanted, and what you monitor. You are not asked to prescribe.
Which resuscitation guidance does the CBT follow?
UK practice, which means Resuscitation Council UK. Compression depth, rate and the compression to ventilation ratio are all fair game.
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.