Have your say on the regulation of nurse practitioners

30 Jan 2024

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) in collaboration with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) are consulting on the nurse practitioner regulatory framework. 

The documents under review are:

• Registration standard: Endorsement as a nurse practitioner (NMBA),
• Safety and quality guidelines for nurse practitioners (NMBA), and
• Nurse practitioner accreditation standards (ANMAC)

We need your feedback on the revised Registration standard: Endorsement as a nurse practitioner and Guidelines for nurse practitioners previously titled Safety and quality guidelines for nurse practitioners. 

To register and practise as a nurse practitioner in Australia, you must meet and maintain the requirements of the NMBA’s Registration standard: Endorsement as a nurse practitioner (the endorsement) and comply with the Guidelines for nurse practitioners (the guidelines).

The NMBA has reviewed the endorsement and the guidelines to ensure that these important regulatory documents stay current and keep pace with our changing and dynamic environment. It also aligns with the NMBA’s commitment to review standards, codes and guidelines approximately every five years. 

Based on regulatory evidence and current practice expectations, the NMBA is proposing minor updates to the endorsement including but not limited to a clarification for those who hold sole qualifications that aligns with other NMBA advice and an opportunity for those who are no longer practising clinically to hold the equivalent of a non-practising nurse practitioner endorsement while in a strategic, policy or academic role. 

To strengthen the regulatory, safety and quality information contained within the guidelines, a more detailed update has been applied. This includes information on regulatory requirements for advertising and social media, notifications and scope of practice changes. They also provide further guidance on evidence-based practice, incident management, mentoring, quality improvement and reporting. Further considerations have also been given to a nurse practitioner’s practice in relation to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and insurances / business administration.

More information on the proposed endorsement and guidelines and how you can submit a response can be found on the NMBA’s current consultations webpage.

The public consultation will close Friday 22 March 2024.