How does Nursing Times support nurses' CPD and professional development?

Nursing Times supports nurses' continuing professional development (CPD) mainly through its CPD learning units, which are structured learning modules built around specific clinical topics. The site also publishes clinical practice articles, opinion pieces, and career-stage resources for students, newly registered nurses, and experienced staff. Whether a given unit counts toward your formal CPD requirement depends on the rules of your regulator and employer, so treat the site as a learning resource and confirm recognition separately.

CPD learning units

The clearest CPD offering on Nursing Times is its CPD: Learning Units section. These are structured units tied to a clinical subject rather than general news. One example visible on the site is a unit on understanding the causes and classifications of pressure ulcers and how to prevent them.

Each unit typically works like this:

• Input: you read the learning unit content on a defined clinical topic.
• Action: you work through the material, which is organised to build understanding of causes, classifications, assessment, or management.
• Expected result: you come away with updated knowledge you can apply in practice and, where the unit is recognised, evidence of structured learning you can record.

Because the units are topic-based, they are easier to map to a personal development plan than browsing news alone. If your revalidation or appraisal requires you to show learning linked to your clinical area, a unit on a relevant condition is a more direct fit than a general article.

Clinical practice articles as CPD material

Alongside the formal learning units, Nursing Times publishes clinical practice articles that cover assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management of specific conditions. Examples from the site include:

• Ocular compartment syndrome: assessment and emergency management
• Urinary tract infections: causes, diagnosis and treatment
• Clinical manifestations of cirrhosis in advanced chronic liver disease
• Coarctation of the aorta in children and young people
• Childhood deafness: treatment, management and communication

These articles are written for a clinical audience and can serve as reading-based CPD. The practical difference from a learning unit is structure: a clinical article gives you current information on a topic, while a learning unit is designed as a guided learning activity. If your CPD record needs a reflective note, either can be the starting point, but you supply the reflection yourself.

Resources by career stage

The site organises content for different points in a nursing career, which matters because CPD needs change as you progress:

There is also a topic-based browse structure covering areas such as anatomy, core skills, leadership, children's nursing, education, and learning disabilities. If your development goal is in a specific specialty, browsing by topic is faster than searching news.

What to check before counting it as CPD

The site presents itself as a resource for the nursing profession and includes CPD content, but the page evidence does not specify which units carry formal accreditation or how many CPD hours each is worth. Before you record a unit or article as CPD:

1. Check the individual learning unit page for any stated accreditation or credit information.
2. Confirm with your regulator or employer whether self-directed reading and online learning units are accepted, and in what proportion.
3. Keep your own record of the date, topic, and what you learned, since the site does not appear to issue a completion certificate from the evidence available.

Access and registration

The site shows Login / Register and Subscribe options in its navigation, which indicates that some content or features sit behind an account or subscription. The available evidence does not state which specific CPD units are free, which require registration, or what a subscription costs. If you plan to rely on Nursing Times for a set number of CPD hours, check access for the specific units you need before building a plan around them.

Bottom line

Nursing Times is a practical CPD resource for nurses because it pairs structured learning units with clinical practice articles and career-stage sections. Use the CPD learning units when you want guided, topic-based learning, and clinical articles when you need current information on a condition. Confirm accreditation and access terms for the specific units you intend to use, and keep your own CPD record.