Media release

14 Feb 2014

The National Board has published revised guidelines and a new social media policy which are shared across all Boards and come into effect from mid-March.

Revised guidelines and new policy released today, effective from March 2014

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (the National Board) has released a suite of documents today that will come into effect from mid-March 2014.

The documents contain important information for the nursing and midwifery professions and are the:

• revised Guidelines for advertising regulated health services
• revised Guidelines for mandatory notifications, and
• new Social media policy. 

Registered nurses, midwives and enrolled nurses need to familiarise themselves with this guidance to ensure their practice meets National Board expectations from mid-March, when the documents come into effect.

The guidelines and Social media policy are common across all National Boards and apply to all health practitioners registered under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme). 

The documents are the result of a scheduled review three years into the National Scheme and are the first set of revised documents to be released this year, with more to come later in 2014.

Presiding Member of the National Board, Dr Lynette Cusack, said the Nursing and Midwifery Board, together with other National Boards, consulted widely late last year on the draft versions of the new guidelines and the Social media policy.

‘We have an ongoing focus on best practice regulation in the public interest, and in public protection,’ Dr Cusack said.

‘The experiences from the first three years of the National Scheme were applied when these documents were being reviewed to make sure that they are clear and make it easier for nurses and midwives to understand their obligations, and for members of the community to understand what is expected of the nursing and midwifery professions.’

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Martin Fletcher, said the decision was made to publish the documents now to help practitioners, employers and members of the community understand what National Boards expect from practitioners.

‘It’s important that practitioners know and understand their obligations. By publishing these documents five weeks before they come into effect, practitioners, in particular, can start to be ready for when they come into effect in mid-March,’ Mr Fletcher said.

‘It’s also important for employers of health practitioners and interested members of the community to be able to see and understand this guidance.’

Further information about the new guidelines and Social media policy is available on the Board website.

FAQ and additional information

• FAQ (118 KB,DOCX) on the transition from the current to the new/revised documents.
• Document (513 KB,DOCX) showing the differences between the current and revised Mandatory notifications guidelines.

For more information

• Visit the National Board's website
• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 8708 9001 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200

Download a PDF of this Media release - Revised guidelines for nurses and midwives released today effective from March 2014 - 14 February 2014 (249 KB,PDF)