NMBA releases revised re-entry to practice policy

03 Dec 2018

Today the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) released an advance copy of the revised Policy for re-entry to practice for nurses and midwives (2019).

The Policy for re-entry to practice for nurses and midwives enables a consistent approach to decisions relating to people who have previously held registration in Australia as a nurse and/or a midwife, seeking to re-enter the professions. The revised policy will come into effect on 11 February 2019. You can view the advance copy on the Re-entry to practice page.

What’s changed?

The revised policy reflects the findings from an evidence-based review, which included consultation with nurses and midwives who had previously engaged with the re-entry to practice process. Consultation also included health services that may have been approached to provide supervised practice, to gain an understanding of any challenges they experience.

The review provided the NMBA with recommendations aimed at improving the approach to re-entry to practice.

In summary, the revised policy:

• is structured around assessment and application options
• provides clearer guidance for dually registered nurses and/or midwives
• provides clearer guidance for those seeking to return to non-clinical practice
• has a revised glossary including the meaning of provisional and general registration and non-clinical practice, and
• broadens the options where clinical supervised practice can be undertaken, which is clarified in the glossary meaning of ‘supervised practice’.

Further information and feedback

Updated versions of supporting documents have also been released today and will take effect on 11 February 2019. These documents include:

• Fact sheet: Re-entry to practice (revised)
• Fact sheet: Provisional registration information for nurses and midwives
• Fact sheet: Provisional registration information for health services and employers.

The Framework for assessing supervised practice re-entry and the Re-entry to practice self-assessment questionnaire will be retired on 11 February 2019.

The NMBA will consider feedback on the advance copy of the policy and fact sheets. The NMBA may agree to amend the revised policy before final publication dependant on the issue/s raised and will consider all feedback received before publishing the final version.

You can email your comments in a word document to nmbafeedback@ahpra.gov.au and insert ‘Re-entry policy’ in the subject line by close of business 4 January 2019.