I’m an RN in a general practice and I heard the new RACGP Standards are out. What’s changed and new that I need to know?

The RACGP has recently published the 6th edition of the Standards for General Practices, which set out the requirements general practices must meet for accreditation. There are several new or strengthened requirements nurses should be aware of.

All active patient records must now document known allergies, or that the patient has no known allergies, in a codable field. Practices must also document each attempt to contact and recall patients with clinically significant results and have a process for following up results or investigations that have not been provided to the GP. Infection prevention requirements have also been strengthened, including safe reprocessing of reusable medical devices and traceable sterilisation load numbers to individual patients when sterile instruments are used.

There is a new focus on environmental sustainability, digital health and AI. Practices must identify climate-related risks, take steps to improve climate resilience, document strategies to reduce environmental impact, and nominate a team member responsible for sustainability. New digital health requirements address safe and secure use of technologies such as telehealth, patient portals, remote monitoring, and secure messaging, while practices using AI must address informed consent, privacy, staff training, and governance. There is also a stronger focus on staff safety and wellbeing, including managing occupational exposures, supporting staff following emergencies or incidents, and monitoring workloads. There’s also opportunity for nurses to get involved with quality improvement activities.

For more information, see https://www.racgp.org.au/running-a-practice/practice-standards/standards-6th-edition/standards-6th-edition-hub and for support with some of these new requirements, reach out to your PHN.