February 2024

Contents

• Message from the Chair
• NMBA news
  • New guidance document published for nurses and midwives working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners 
  • Understanding scope of practice
  • What privacy looks like to those in your care
  • Updates from recent NMBA meetings
• Registration
  • Getting ready for renewal
• Have your say
  • Have your say on the regulation of nurse practitioners
  • Don’t forget to give your feedback on the draft guidelines for nurses who perform and advertise non-surgical cosmetic procedures 
• Spotlight
  • Updated vaccination and immunisation information
• Nursing and midwifery regulation at work: notification case studies
  • Nurse cancelled, disqualified and prohibited for 12 months for inappropriate use and handling of drugs
  • A registered nurse and midwife has had their registration cancelled for 15 months for illegally accessing and sharing medical records
  • Nurse disqualified and prohibited for six months for failing to give medication to eight aged care residents
• Keep in touch with the NMBA

Message from the Chair

This year we will be starting a large amount of work to review and consult on the standards for practice for both enrolled nurses and registered nurses. We are also well underway with the joint review of the nurse practitioner regulatory framework with Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council and the implementation of guidelines for nurses practising within the non-surgical cosmetic space. I encourage you to have your say on both consultations. See details below. 

We are proud to release a guidance document for nurses and midwives working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners to support interprofessional collaboration and improve culturally safe care. 

Best wishes,

Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey

Chair, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia

NMBA news

New guidance document published for nurses and midwives working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners 

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia (ATSIHPBA) have developed Guidance for nurses and midwives: What nurses and midwives need to know about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners to recognise the collaborative role nurses and midwives have with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners in practice. 

This document provides information for nurses and midwives on working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners and clarifies the varying roles and scopes of practice for all three professions. The document has been developed to support interprofessional collaboration to ensure culturally safe healthcare and the improvement of health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. 

All nurses and midwives are expected to provide care that is free from racism and is professionally respectful. This guidance document helps to identify how nurses and midwives can work as equal partners with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners for improved outcomes. It could also be a great resource for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners who are working closely with nurses and midwives and looking for further information to share with their colleagues. 

Read the Guidance for nurses and midwives: What nurses and midwives need to know about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners or register to attend our webinar for a deeper dive into how the guidance was developed and next steps in raising awareness of nurses and midwives’ role and expectations when collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners. 

This learning and development opportunity can count towards your continuing professional development (CPD) and a certificate of attendance will be provided. 

The details of the webinar are as follows: 

Date: Tuesday, 5 March 2024 
Time: 3.00pm – 4.00pm (AEDT) 
Platform: Zoom 
Hosts: Margaret McCallum, National Board member (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Health Practice Board of Australia) and Saz Newbery, Senior Policy and Project Officer (NMBA)

Registrations close 5.00pm Monday 4 March 2024.

Learn more about Ahpra’s commitment to eliminate racism in healthcare. 

Understanding scope of practice

Unsure of varying roles, supervision and scope of practice across your profession? We developed two fact sheets on the roles and scope of practice of registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners and midwives.  

The fact sheets Scope of practice and capabilities of nurses and Scope of practice and capabilities of midwives use information from the NMBA’s registration standards, standards for practice, codes and guidelines. They have been developed as guidance for employers, private and public health services, and other practitioners.

They clarify educational outcomes, provide examples of core activities, and highlight the fundamental differences between each NMBA practitioner category. 

What privacy looks like to those in your care

People place their trust in nurses and midwives to keep information about them in confidence. We expect nurses and midwives to uphold this confidentiality unless the release of information is needed by law, legally justifiable under public interest considerations or is required to facilitate emergency care. 

When caring for anyone, whether they are a relative, stranger or public figure, nurses and midwives must ensure that the person's privacy is respected. This includes but is not limited to following informed consent procedures, providing spaces for private consultations or discussions, abiding by the NMBA’s social media guidance and only accessing records when professionally involved in their care. Adhering to professional boundaries further promotes person-centred practice and protects both parties.

Read the full list of what is expected of nurses and midwives when providing confidential and private care in your code of conduct. 

Updates from recent NMBA meetings

At recent meetings we worked on the reviews of the registered nurse and enrolled nurse standards for practice and collating all the feedback provided for the designated registered nurse prescribing impact statement.  

Each month the NMBA makes decisions on approved programs of study leading to registration and endorsement. To see the up-to-date, searchable list of approved programs, please visit the Approved programs of study section on our website.

Registration

Getting ready for renewal

Registration renewal opens in April and you will have until 31 May to submit your application before late fees apply.

Check your login and contact details

Make sure you check your login information to avoid having to phone Ahpra during the busy renewal period.

Remember, your user ID for online services is different to your registration number – check your renewal reminder emails from Ahpra to find your user ID.

If you know your user ID, but have forgotten your password, you can reset your password online.

Your fees for 2024 

The fee for general registration has been set at $185.  Registrants who hold both nursing and midwifery registration will only need to pay one registration renewal fee.

The fee for nurses and midwives whose principal place of practice is New South Wales is also $185.

Registration fees fund the work of Ahpra and the NMBA to keep the public safe. We work to keep fees as low as possible while continuing to meet regulatory obligations and the expectations of the public and practitioners. The National Boards and Ahpra receive no government funding.

Nurses and midwives continue to pay one of the lowest registration fees of all the professions in the National Scheme. The NMBA were able to freeze the fees of nurses and midwives for the past three years. Including this years $5 increase there has only been a total rise to the general registration fee by $10 since 2018.

Visit the fees page of the NMBA website to learn more. 

Professional indemnity insurance for privately practising midwives

A gap in insurance has been identified by the Department of Health and Aged Care where privately practising midwives (PPMs) are providing labour care to women outside of a health service prior to transfer to hospital. 

All PPMs would have received correspondence from the NMBA outlining the broader interpretation of what the gap and exemption means for your registration. We advise that PPMs providing any aspect of intrapartum care at home regardless of where the baby is birthed remain (and have retrospectively been) compliant with PII requirements and this is consistent with the NMBA Safety and quality guidelines for privately practising midwives (the guidelines).  

PPMs must ensure they are complying with the guidelines to be eligible for the exemption of holding PII for intrapartum care. This includes informed consent stating that appropriate PII arrangements will not be in force in relation to the midwifes’ practice.

Please contact Ahpra on 1300 419 495 if you would like to discuss this matter or have concerns.

Have your say

Have your say on the regulation of nurse practitioners

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 (the endorsement) and Guidelines for nurse practitioners currently titled Safety and quality guidelines for nurse practitioners (the guidelines). 

To register and practise as a nurse practitioner in Australia, you must meet and maintain the requirements of the endorsement  and comply with 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. This 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. They also provide 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 consideration has also been given to a nurse practitioner’s practice in relation to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and insurance / 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.   

Don’t forget to give your feedback on the draft guidelines for nurses who perform and advertise non-surgical cosmetic procedures

Ahpra and the National Boards have extended their consultation on three documents related to the regulation of registered health practitioners who perform and advertise non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

We want your feedback on any or all the following draft guidelines: 

• Guidelines for nurses who perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures (nurses' practice guidelines) 
• Guidelines for registered health practitioners who perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures (shared practice guidelines) 
• Guidelines for registered health practitioners who advertise non-surgical cosmetic procedures (advertising guidelines).

The consultation closes 1 March 2024.  
 
Learn more about the consultation and how you can have your say on the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s consultation page.  

Spotlight

Updated vaccination and immunisation information

Updated FAQs for practitioners about vaccination and immunisation have been published on the Ahpra website.

This follows Ahpra and the National Boards recently consulting with our key stakeholders about what information would be helpful for registered health practitioners about vaccination and immunisation, taking into account public health advice and the high rates of vaccination against COVID-19 in Australia.

The NMBA’s Position statement on nurses and midwives and vaccination will also be reviewed in line with current advice. 

The updated information about vaccination and immunisation draws from the National Boards’ regulatory tools, including:

• codes of conduct
• social media guidance, and 
• Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service.

We will be sure to keep a record of previous positions statements, developed using the same regulatory tools and released at the height of the pandemic, as a record of the clear guidance provided to nurses and midwives during a worldwide pandemic. 

Nursing and midwifery regulation at work: notification case studies

The NMBA publishes summaries of tribunal decisions about nurses and midwives as professional learning case studies. All information in these summaries has been made publicly available by the relevant tribunal before the NMBA publishes its summary.

Nurse cancelled, disqualified and prohibited for 12 months for inappropriate use and handling of drugs

A nurse has been cancelled, disqualified and prohibited for 12-months for obtaining and mishandling drugs including fentanyl, incorrect records, breaching conditions of his registration and dishonesty.

Read More

A registered nurse and midwife has had their registration cancelled for 15 months for illegally accessing and sharing medical records

A tribunal has reprimanded, cancelled and disqualified a registered nurse and midwife from applying for registration for 15 months after she used her position to access family members’ medical record details without permission. 

Read More

Nurse disqualified and prohibited for six months for failing to give medication to eight aged care residents

A South Australian nurse has been disqualified and prohibited from providing health services for six months for failing to give medication to eight vulnerable aged-care residents, incorrectly disposing of medication and falsifying patient's clinical records.

Read More

Keep in touch with the NMBA

• Visit the NMBA website for registration standards, codes, guidelines and FAQs.
• Lodge an online enquiry form.
• For registration enquiries, call 1300 419 495 (from within Australia) or +61 3 9285 3010 (for overseas callers).
• Address mail correspondence to: Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey AM, Chair, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne, VIC 3001.