October 14, 2024

consultation

NMBA consultation on recency of practice and nurse practitioner registration standards

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The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia are conducting consultation regarding revisions to the registration standards for recency of practice and nurse practitioners.

The NMBA currently have a public consultation on the proposed revised Registration standard: Recency of practice.

The draft Registration Standard: Recency of practice has quite significant changes that will impact some members. There are two main changes to the draft Standard that if accepted in the final Standard will affect some members.

  1. Minimum hours to meet the Standard

To meet the draft standard nurses and midwives will be required to demonstrate an adequate connection with the profession and complete a minimum of:

  1. 300 hours of practice in the previous two years, or
  2. 450 hours of practice in the previous three years, or
  3. 750 hours of practice in the previous five years

The proposed incremental hours are already in place for six of the National Boards and it is the view of the NMBA that adopting this approach decreases the variances between the boards and ‘reduces the regulatory and operational burden’ of the current requirement to undertake 450 hours in five years.

There is no evidence to suggest that the current requirement of a minimum of 450 hours of practice within the previous five years is a risk to the public. It is anticipated that changing the requirement from 450 hours in the past five years would create confusion for the professions.

  1. Recent Graduates

There are also proposed changes for recent graduates:

If you are a recent graduate you must complete a minimum of 300 hours of practice within two years of completing your program of study that lead to registration as a nurse or midwife.

There are a number of graduates who are unable to find employment after completing their program of study. If they do not complete the minimum period of practice within two years, the ROP Guidelines state that the ‘NMBA may impose conditions’ on their registration.  Our experience has been that securing a position with supervised practice conditions is extremely difficult and even more difficult for nurses and midwives without practice experience.

Feedback is due by 31 August 2020. The NMBA is also consulting on the proposed revised Nurse practitioner registration standards.

Hours regained

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After it took over Kennedy Health Care in 2016, Estia was hit by higher vacancy rates at the former Kennedy homes.

It sought to cut costs by presenting former Kennedy nurses with proposed new contracts.

By cutting hours by as little as 30 minutes each fortnight, Estia would transform 14 registered nurses at Merrylands, Figtree and Kilbride nursing homes from full-timers to part-timers. As a result, they would lose their rostered days off.

After extensive discussions between Estia and the NSWNMA the employer agreed to a framework to manage cuts, return hours and monitor workloads, and to purchase additional equipment. Full time registered nurses remained full time.

NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes said “this was a constructive approach from an aged care provider”. However, former Kennedy AiNs are all part-timers and the union was unable to stop Estia reducing their hours.

However, Estia did agree that staff who lost hours would be the first to be offered additional hours when resident numbers increased.

Brett Holmes said nurses have a right to be consulted before any change to their regular roster.

“If the roster is going to change, the employer must genuinely consult with employees before that change is implemented. Affected employees must be given sufficient time to consider the proposed changes and raise any concerns,” he said.

Minimal consultation with staff

Sarah Jones, NSWNMA branch president and delegate at Estia’s Merrylands, said initially there was minimal consultation with staff, “We were just told that Estia was in financial difficulties with so many empty beds.

“My own hours were not cut but others have had to make up for lost income by switching to shifts that pay penalty rates. This has forced some to put their kids into childcare, which means more expense.

“Some of them are the only breadwinners in the family so it’s pretty hard for them.”

Sarah said the cut to hours will need to be monitored to guard against increased workloads.

“Some nurses have to do seven or eight showers within four hours, as well as residents’ morning teas and lunches, putting away personals and cleaning up.

“How can one person do all that in four hours? It means they have to cut corners and can’t spend time with the residents, as they should.”

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