NMBA revises Re-entry to practice policy to include provisional registration

31 Jul 2015

Today, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) has published a revised policy for re-entry to practice.

The revised policy will be effective from 1 September 2015 and provides information for nurses and midwives who are seeking general registration but do not meet the Recency of practice registration standard. This includes those who:

• have had a lapse in practice of five years or more 
• have held non-practising registration for five or more years, or 
• are no longer on the register

Provisional registration

As part of policy revision, the NMBA has also approved provisional registration for nurses and midwives who are no longer registered and are applying to re-enter practice as a nurse or midwife.

Provisional registration will also be available from the effective date, 1 September 2015.

NMBA Chair Dr Lynette Cusack, RN said, ‘The NMBA’s Recency of practice registration standard is designed to keep the public safe and ensure that only nurses who are safe and competent to practise are allowed to practise in Australia. We are committed to ensuring that nurses and midwives are able to practise to their full scope and provide safe care for the Australian community.’

‘We are releasing this policy earlier than the effective date to give nurses and midwives ample time to understand the requirements and take steps to meet those requirements’, said Ms. Cusack.

Under the National Law¹, there is a mandatory requirement for applicants for registration and renewal of registration to meet the NMBA’s requirements in relation to the nature, extent, period and recency of any previous practice.

Supporting documents

The NMBA has also published a suite of supporting documents to facilitate a better understanding of the Re-entry to practice policy:

• Re-entry to practice policy (316 KB,PDF), Word version (414 KB,DOCX)
• Framework for assessing re-entry (134 KB,PDF), Word version (397 KB,DOCX)
• Re-entry-to-practice fact sheet (341 KB,PDF), Word version (207 KB,DOCX)
• Supervision guidelines for re-entry to practice (254 KB,PDF), Word version (407 KB,DOCX)
• Supervision agreement for re-entry to practice (260 KB,DOC)

More information including the above listed documents is available under Codes and Guidelines.

For more information

• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 03 9275 9009 (overseas callers) 
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200

Download a PDF of this Media statement - NMBA revises Re-entry to practice policy to include provisional registration (117 KB,PDF)

¹Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory.