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.
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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:
- 300 hours of practice in the previous two years, or
- 450 hours of practice in the previous three years, or
- 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.
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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.