August 2017

Contents

• Message from the Chair
• NMBA news
  • Last chance to have your say on the Midwife standards for practice
  • Updates from the June 2017 NMBA meeting 
  • NMBA Decision-making framework: cohealth nurses expand their scope of practice 
• Registration 
  • Dual registration fact sheet 
  • Changes to fees
• Nursing and midwifery regulation at work: notification case studies 
  • Tribunal cancels nurse’s registration for professional misconduct
• National Scheme news 
  • Working together to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patient safety
• Keep in touch with the NMBA

Message from the Chair

The Midwife standards for practice have been developed by Deakin University and are open for consultation. Consultation closes this month so please have your say today.

This year we’ve also consulted with you on the revised codes of conduct for nurses and midwives. The new codes will be released next month and come into effect next year.

Associate Professor Lynette Cusack RN
Chair, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia

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NMBA news

Last chance to have your say on the Midwife standards for practice

Don’t miss your chance to review the draft Midwife standards for practice and provide your feedback. These standards will provide a framework for assessing a midwife’s competence to practise in Australia.

Visit our consultations page to view the draft standards and take the feedback survey.

Updates from the June 2017 NMBA meeting

Each month the NMBA meets to make decisions on the regulation of nursing and midwifery in Australia.

At the June meeting we approved the draft Midwife standards for practice for public consultation. You can have your say on the draft standards on our consultation page.

We also published a helpful fact sheet on dual registration.

To see the June 2017 decisions on approved programs of study leading to registration and endorsement, please view the communiqué. Please note the decisions for June were made on 6 July:

• NMBA Communiqué - Meeting of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia 6 July 2017 (227 KB,PDF), Word version (102 KB,DOCX).  

NMBA Decision-making framework: cohealth nurses expand their scope of practice

The NMBA provides resources for nurses and midwives to practise safely. One of these resources is the National decision-making framework, which can help you to make decisions in practice.

First, the national framework provides a set of principles that are the foundation for the development and evaluation of decision-making tools.

Second, the national framework provides two templates for decision-making tools – one for nursing and one for midwifery.

Nurses at cohealth, a provider of community health and support services in Victoria, have recently expanded their scope of practice using an NMBA decision-making tool.

Bernadette Suter, Practice Leader for Nurses at cohealth, said that she found the NMBA National decision-making framework to be an effective tool for developing a new nursing policy.

‘Using the Decision-making framework, we developed a new policy for our nurses and in March we received approval for nurse-initiated schedule 2 and 3 medications procedures.

‘This means cohealth nurses are able to expand their scope of practice and provide clients with improved health outcomes.’

As well as setting registration standards for nurses and midwives, the NMBA provides guidelines, frameworks and other policies to help nurses and midwives practise safely across Australia. You can find these resources on our website.

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Registration

Dual registration fact sheet 

The NMBA provides fact sheets which answer some common questions on nursing and midwifery standards, codes, guidelines and other requirements.

We recently published a fact sheet on holding dual registration as a nurse and a midwife.

If you are registered as both a nurse and midwife, this fact sheet can answer your questions about meeting registration standards such as Recency of practice and Continuing professional development. This fact sheet replaces the Context of practice for nurses and midwives fact sheet.

For more information please see the dual registration fact sheet. Other fact sheets are available on topics such as enrolled nurses and medicine administration, re-entry to practice, and many more. 

Changes to fees

Nursing and midwifery regulation in Australia is funded solely by fees from nurses and midwives. 

Fees are changing on 1 September 2017. For more information, please read the news item.

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Nursing and midwifery regulation at work: notification case studies

Tribunal cancels nurse’s registration for professional misconduct

A tribunal has disqualified a nurse for three years for professional misconduct.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the tribunal) found that a former registered nurse had engaged in professional misconduct, after he was convicted of multiple criminal offences over several years. The tribunal reprimanded the nurse, cancelled his registration and disqualified him from applying for registration for at least three years.

For more information read the news item.

Criminal history registration standard

Nurses and midwives are required to declare all their Australian and international criminal history to the NMBA and this is assessed according to the criminal history registration standard.

If a nurse or midwife is already registered and is charged with an offence which is punishable by 12 months imprisonment or more, or receives a criminal conviction or finding of guilt, they must inform the NMBA and AHPRA within seven days.

They are also required to inform the NMBA if their authority under a state or territory law to administer, obtain, possess, prescribe, sell, supply or use a scheduled medicine or class of scheduled medicines is cancelled or restricted.

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National Scheme news

Working together to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patient safety

NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) week is a celebration of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is an important week for all Australians, with celebrations held across Australia each July. This year NAIDOC week’s theme was ‘our languages matter’.

AHPRA and National Boards marked NAIDOC week (2-9 July) by reaffirming their commitment to an Australia-wide National Scheme Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health strategy.

AHPRA and the National Boards have been working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector leaders and regulatory partners to get this important work started. As regulators of over 657,000 health practitioners in 14 different health professions, the opportunity to improve patient safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia’s health system is an important one. This commitment will be achieved through a National Scheme Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy.

This work is about strong partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, not about AHPRA or the National Boards acting in isolation. The National Boards are working actively towards influencing cultural safety, equity and justice in healthcare for patients. A strategy group is in place which includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector leaders and representatives from accreditation entities, National Boards, AHPRA, and the Chair of AHPRA’s Agency Management Committee.

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Keep in touch with the NMBA

• Visit the NMBA website for registration standards, codes, guidelines and FAQ.
• Lodge an online enquiry form.
• For registration enquiries, call 1300 419 495 (from within Australia) or +61 3 9275 9009 (for overseas callers).
• Address mail correspondence to: Associate Professor Lynette Cusack RN, Chair, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne, VIC 3001.

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