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Nurses and midwives must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), and meet the NMBA's professional standards in order to practise in Australia.
Professional standards define the practice and behaviour of nurses and midwives and include:
In March 2025, the NMBA agreed to adopt the National Scheme definition of cultural safety after receiving advice from key stakeholders. The previous definition of cultural safety will be retired, effective March 2025. Regulatory documents which contain the previous definition of cultural safety will be progressively updated as the documents are reviewed.
You can read more about why this is important in the Joint statement: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and cultural safety at heart of National Law changes.
While we work to update the NMBA’s regulatory documents to contain the National Scheme definition of cultural safety, nurses and midwives are encouraged to read and understand the National Scheme definition. The expectation for nurses and midwives to practise in a culturally safe way remains the same.
Please note that from 1 March 2018, professional boundaries expectations are included in the codes of conduct and are no longer separate documents.
From 1 March 2018, the International Council of Nurses Code of ethics for nurses is in effect for all nurses in Australia and the International Confederation of Midwives Code of ethics for midwives is in effect for all midwives in Australia. These documents replace the NMBA Code of ethics for nurses - August 2008 and the NMBA Code of ethics for midwives - August 2008. For more information please see the news item.
