Fact sheet: Continuing professional development

CPD is how members of the professions maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, expertise and competence, and develop the personal and professional qualities needed throughout their professional lives.

Practice refers to any role, whether remunerated or not, in which the individual uses their skills and knowledge as a health practitioner in their profession. Practice in this context is not restricted to the provision of direct clinical care. It also includes using professional knowledge (working) in a direct non-clinical relationship with clients, working in management, administration, education, research, advisory, regulatory or policy development roles, and any other roles that impact on the safe, effective delivery of services in the profession.

As a nurse or midwife, you may choose not to work in the profession for a variety of reasons (such as maternity leave, extended overseas travel, moving overseas, an extended career break or retirement), however, you may want to keep your registration. 

Under these circumstances, you must continue to complete CPD in relation to your context of practice. See section below on How do I describe my context of practice?. Remember that ‘context of practice’ is not restricted to providing direct clinical care. 

You may request to register as ‘non-practising’ – in this case you do not need to do CPD while you are on the non-practising register. For more information refer to the NMBA’s Fact sheet: Non-practising registration for nurses and midwives.

Context of practice refers to the conditions that define an individual’s nursing and/or midwifery practice. These include:

• the type of practice setting (e.g. clinical care, management, administration, education, research)
• the location of the practice setting (e.g. urban, rural, remote)
• the characteristics of patients (e.g. health status, age, learning needs)
• the focus of nursing and/or midwifery activities (e.g. health promotion, research, management)
• the degree to which practice is autonomous, and
• the resources that are available, including access to other healthcare professionals.

A template is provided in Appendix 1 which can be used to document your self-directed learning and CPD activities and reflections.

If you are selected for audit you will need to complete an audit checklist that outlines the documents you need to show as evidence of completing your CPD.

CPD records may include participation in the following activities:

• tertiary, vocational and other accredited courses including distance education
  (should relate to context of practice)
• conferences, forums, seminars and symposia
• short courses, workshops, seminars and discussion groups through a professional group or organisation who may issue a certificate of compliance/completion
• mandatory learning activities in the workplace in the area of practice
• self-directed learning, and
• any other structured learning activities not covered above.

If CPD activities are relevant to both nursing and midwifery professions, those activities may be counted as evidence for both nursing and midwifery CPD hours. The activities should be relevant to your context of practice and improve your knowledge, expertise and competence as a nurse and midwife.

The NMBA recommends that you keep evidence of CPD, including self-directed learning, for a period of five years.

Your documentation of the identified learning need, a learning plan, your participation in the learning activity, and the outcome achieved will form the evidence of CPD you may need to provide. References to the articles that you have read are needed for self-directed activities.

The table in Appendix 1 gives you an example of how to enter information about your CPD activities.

No. The NMBA has the discretion to select a random number of nurses and midwives to be audited at any time.
You will need to show evidence that you have completed the requirements and provide a copy of your CPD plan for the previous year (1 June – 31 May).

Nurses and midwives need to speak to the relevant professional organisation to confirm the hours-equivalent of CPD from points they have completed.

Mandatory learning activities in the workplace can only be counted as CPD provided that they are relevant to your context of practice and where they include new learning. For example, routine annual CPR and mandatory fire training education cannot be counted; however, if there is something new in the mandatory training area for example COVID-19 pandemic education and training – in the initial stages of the pandemic then this could be claimed.

At the time of renewal, you need to make a declaration about your CPD. You can apply to the NMBA for an exemption in exceptional circumstances if you feel that you have not met your minimum hours for CPD. You may then be contacted to provide additional information. Following a review, the matter may be referred to the NMBA for consideration.

The registration standard states that the NMBA reserves the right to grant exemptions in individual cases. Refer to the Policy: exemption from continuing professional development for nurses and midwives.

• Registration standard: Continuing professional development 
• Guidelines for continuing professional development 
• Policy: Exemption from continuing professional development for nurses and midwives 
• Audit information 
• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers)