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National Forum tackles global nurse and midwife mobility
Implementation roundtable brings together key stakeholders
Ahpra and National Board’ 2024/2025 Annual report released
Protection for people making a complaint boosted from 1 December 2025
Sexual misconduct to be permanently published on register of practitioners
Patient safety paramount in updated telehealth guidance
Prescribing framework updated to address evolving healthcare needs
Welcome to the December edition.
On 12 November, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia hosted a National Forum on global nurse and midwife mobility at our Melbourne office. The event brought together senior leaders and experts across regulation, workforce planning, education, migration and international health policy. Its purpose was to tackle one of healthcare’s most pressing challenges: how Australia can respond to global mobility trends and workforce shortages. Insights from the forum will inform future nursing and midwifery workforce policy.
Australia is one of the top OECD nations for international recruitment of nurses, a reliance that brings both opportunity and responsibility.
The forum provided space for open discussion on ethical, sustainable and practical solutions to support the recruitment, integration and retention of internationally qualified nurses and midwives.
Participants engaged in collaborative activities and heard from keynote speaker Professor James Buchan, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Health Foundation (UK) and Adjunct Professor at the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre at UTS.
Insights from the forum will inform future nursing and midwifery workforce policy.
On 28 October, the NMBA and WA Health hosted an implementation roundtable to explore the introduction of designated registered nurse prescribing in Western Australia.
The roundtable focused on workforce implications, service delivery and community impact, and provided a forum to identify suitable health service settings and workshop barriers to implementation.
The roundtable brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including senior WA Health officials, the WA Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer (CNMO) and team, as well as representatives from public and private health services.
A presentation, led by the NMBA Chair, focused on the key elements of the Registration standard: Endorsement for scheduled medicines – designated RN prescriberand guidelines, the co-regulatory enablers, timeframes and current status of approved units of study and an update on key themes from current engagement strategies.
If you’re studying to become a nurse or midwife and are about to finish your course, you can apply for registration now.
The theme of this year’s report is ‘Adapting to modern healthcare needs’. Areas of focus included growing the workforce, meeting the evolving needs of health regulation, reducing the stress of regulatory processes, and cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
The report shows Australia had 959,858 registered practitioners at 30 June this year — a 4.3 per cent increase on the previous year. There were 69,880 first-time registrants in 2024/25, including more than 26,000 from overseas, and a record 870,000 renewals.
The report highlights Ahpra’s efforts to support the safe and sustainable growth of the workforce by streamlining registration processes while maintaining public safety. The launch of a new digital portal in March also delivered stronger information security through multifactor authentication.
In the past year, Ahpra took a lead role in addressing emerging risks from new models of healthcare, such as telehealth and single-medicine prescribing, and the rapid introduction of new technologies. This included the release of guidance on the safe and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Ahpra also introduced guidelines for health practitioners performing, and advertising, non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The guidelines help consumers make safe and informed decisions and strengthen safeguards in the industry.
Ahpra’s ongoing work to eliminate racism from healthcare and promote cultural safety were illustrated with the launch of Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anti-Racism Policy on National Close the Gap Day.
People who make a complaint against a health practitioner are protected from reprisals or retaliation under increases to consumer protections that came into effect on 1 December 2025.
People who make a complaint in good faith are already protected from liability for information they provide to Ahpra and the National Boards. The changes will extend this protection, making it an offence for someone to threaten, intimidate, or otherwise retaliate against a notifier for making a complaint.
The maximum penalty will be $60,000 for an individual or $120,000 for a body corporate.
From 1 December it is also illegal to enter into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with a patient, unless it clearly states in writing that it does not limit a person from making a notification or providing assistance to regulators. Any NDAs that do seek to limit a person’s ability to make a complaint will be invalid.
The consumer protection changes are part of series of amendments to the National Law coming into effect over the coming months.
Information on the changes, how they are be implemented and what they mean for practitioners and the public is available in the full information guide.
The guide is available on the National Law amendments page on the Ahpra website, which includes links to related topics and will be updated as our implementation activities progress.
Changes to the way sexual misconduct is reported on the public register of practitioners are coming in early 2026.
Practitioners who have a tribunal finding of professional misconduct involving sexual misconduct will have this information permanently published on the register. This change is retrospective, applying from the start of regulation of a profession in the National Scheme.
The information recorded on the register will include a statement that:
the practitioner engaged in professional misconduct on the basis of sexual misconduct
any sanctions imposed, and
the tribunal decision (if published).
Health ministers decided on this change to protect public safety and ensure people are able to make an informed decision when choosing a health practitioner.
Ahpra and the National Boards have produced a guidance on sexual misconduct and the National Law following extensive consultation.
We have also produced a guide to the overall suite of National Law changes which includes more detail on the sexual misconduct changes.
This change will be distressing for some practitioners. If you are contacted by Ahpra about additional information being put on your register entry, we encourage you to contact your insurer, professional.
The guidance for telehealth and virtual care has been updated to ensure patients receive high-quality care – whether it be in-person, over-the-phone or online.
It expands advice for telehealth prescribers, highlighting poor practice concerns around prescribing that relies on text, email or online questionnaires to assess a patients’ needs rather than a face-to-face, video or telephone consultation.
‘Telehealth has been great in making it easier for people to get the care they need. We just want to make sure that convenience doesn’t come at the cost of safety or quality,’ Ahpra Chief Executive Officer, Justin Untersteiner said.
The guidance reinforces to practitioners that any healthcare provided through telehealth is the practitioner’s responsibility and not the employers. Practitioners working in telehealth-only clinics, particularly those focused on single treatments or medicines, are encouraged to review the clinical governance framework to ensure the care they provide isn’t compromised by commercial gain or convenience.
‘As a health practitioner, your duty of care to your patients should always come first. That responsibility sits with you – not your employer,’ said Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Chair, Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey.
Good telehealth practices include:
sharing information in a way the patient can understand and access
getting all necessary medical history and background information to make a diagnosis
gaining informed consent, especially when using any supporting technologies like AI scribes
only prescribing where you've had a face-to-face, video or telephone consultation with the patient
letting patients know when telehealth may not meet their care needs, and when they may need to access other options like in-person appointments
confirming the patient is who they say they are.
National Boards have also developed case studies for safe use of telehealth, identifying common mistakes like prescribing in an initial telehealth consultation or opting for telehealth when a face-to-face consultation is necessary.
One of the guiding documents used for the education and regulation of prescribers has been updated, pushing for patient-centred care and responding to the fast-evolving world of healthcare.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing contracted Ahpra to review the second edition of the National Prescribing Competencies Framework (the framework) as part of its ongoing commitment to quality use of medicines.
Last updated in 2021, the framework outlines the skills and knowledge required of prescribers, best practice around the use of medicines, and the professional obligations of those involved. It also guides education and training programs, policy development and regulatory responses.
’This framework is part of the foundational building blocks that educators, regulators, practitioners and even the public can use to understand what’s expected in safe and effective prescribing,’ said Ahpra Chief Executive Officer, Justin Untersteiner.
‘The principles in this framework guide what is expected of any prescriber so it’s important that it keeps pace with the evolving healthcare landscape.’
The third edition of the framework has now been approved by the Department and is published on the Ahpra website.
Read more about the changes to the framework.
