Revised re-entry to practice policy takes effect for nurses and midwives

11 Feb 2019

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) revised Policy for re-entry to practice for nurses and midwives (2019) took effect today.

The re-entry policy enables a consistent approach to decisions relating to people who have previously held registration in Australia as a nurse and/or a midwife and are seeking to re-enter the professions.

The revised policy reflects the findings from an evidence-based review, which aimed to improve the approach to re-entry by making the process clearer for applicants and employers while ensuring public safety.

What’s changed?

In summary, the revised policy:

• is structured around assessment and application options
• provides clearer guidance for dually registered nurses and/or midwives
• provides clearer guidance for those seeking to return to non-clinical practice
• has a revised definitions section including the meaning of provisional and general registration and non-clinical practice, and
• broadens the options where clinical supervised practice can be undertaken, which is clarified in the definition of ‘supervised practice.’

A number of minor changes were also made following feedback from stakeholders to the advance copy.

Further information

The re-entry policy supports the Recency of practice registration standard. The re-entry policy is supported by fact sheets and other guidance, including:

• Fact sheet: Re-entry to practice 
• Fact sheet: Provisional registration information for health services and employers 
• Fact sheet: Provisional registration information for nurses and midwives
• Supervised practice guidelines 
• Templates for mapping against the relevant standards for practice

These supporting documents are all available on the Re-entry to practice page on the NMBA website.