June 2025

Contents

• Chair's message
• Board news
  • New standard to enable registered nurse prescribing
  • Booming billion-dollar cosmetic industry on notice with new cosmetic procedures guidelines
  • Quarterly registration data released
• Renewals
  • Late fees waived in 2025
  • 30 June deadline to renew
  • Renewing your registration
  • Talk to someone
• Spotlight
  • National Law amendment information guides out now
  • Review presents opportunities for Ahpra's regulatory reform agenda
  • New National Scheme environmental strategy focuses on reducing waste, cutting emissions
• Have your say
  • Have your say on the review of the Supervised practice framework
• Keep in touch with the NMBA

Chair's message

Welcome to our June edition,

The deadline to renew your registration is quickly approaching. This edition includes important information on renewals, including tips to set up your Ahpra portal. 

Under the National Law, if you haven’t renewed your registration by 30 June, your registration will lapse. This means your name will be removed from the Register of practitioners and you will not be able to practise as a nurse or midwife in Australia.

The NMBA has waived the late fee if you renew in June. It’s our way of acknowledging that renewal has been more challenging this year.

We understand that some nurses and midwives have experienced difficulties in setting up their Ahpra portal to renew. If you’ve had trouble renewing this year, please try again. The Ahpra Customer Service Team is available to assist and call wait times have significantly reduced.

Nurses and midwives are essential to the Australian health system and we want to support you to renew on time.

Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey
Chair, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia

Board news

New standard to enable registered nurse prescribing

On Monday 9 June, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia published an advance copy of the new Registration standard: Endorsement for scheduled medicines - designated registered nurse prescriber (designated RN prescriber registration standard), giving practitioners, the public, and other stakeholders time to understand the new standard before it takes effect in September 2025. 

Supporting documents, including a fact sheet and guidelines, are also available to help RNs understand and meet the endorsement requirements.

The designated RN prescriber registration standard was approved by Health Ministers, via the Health Ministers’ Meeting in December 2024. A copy of the correspondence approving the registration standard is available on the NMBA website.

The designated RN prescriber registration standard enables suitably educated and qualified registered nurses (RNs) to prescribe Schedule 2, 3, 4 and 8 medicines in partnership with an authorised health practitioner under a clinical governance framework and an active prescribing agreement.  

To qualify, RNs must:

• Complete an NMBA-approved postgraduate qualification
• Demonstrate clinical experience
• Undertake six-months clinical mentorship with an authorised health practitioner
  
  

The scope of prescribing will align with each RN’s role, prescribing agreement, and relevant legislation.

The NMBA is committed to ensuring all stakeholders understand the new standard and how it might affect them through ongoing engagement and collaboration.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) has already published the RN Prescribing Accreditation Standards, ensuring education providers are ready to deliver approved education programs.

The standard and guidelines will be periodically reviewed and evaluated to ensure they are achieving their intended outcome and identify opportunities for further improvement.

Booming billion-dollar cosmetic industry on notice with new cosmetic procedures guidelines

Australians undergoing cosmetic procedures such as anti-wrinkle injections and fillers will have greater protections under sweeping guidelines being introduced across the booming billion-dollar industry. 

Ahpra and National Boards have published advance copies of the Guidelines for practitioners who perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures and the Guidelines for practitioners who advertise higher risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures, which will strengthen safeguards across the industry when they come into effect on 2 September 2025.

The new protections highlight that many practitioners need more than just the foundational qualifications included in their initial training before they can safely perform non-surgical procedures like cosmetic injections. Further training or education will be necessary for those practitioners wanting to expand their scope of practice. 

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Chair Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey AM said the safety of the Australian public is paramount: ‘These types of procedures are undertaken every day and can have serious consequences if not done correctly. No practitioner should put their bottom line ahead of patient welfare, and these guidelines place the focus squarely on the safety of those in their care.’

While cosmetic procedures remain out of scope for many practitioners, the guidelines will now apply to all regulated professions, future-proofing those that may join the lucrative cosmetic industry.

Quarterly registration data released

The National Board has released its quarterly registration data profiling Australia’s nursing and midwifery workforce Read the latest report here.  

Renewals

Late fees waived in 2025

Normally there’s a late fee if you renew in June. This year we’ve waived it completely. It’s our way of acknowledging that renewal has been more challenging this year.

30 June deadline to renew

Under the National Law, if you haven’t renewed your registration by 30 June 2025, your registration will lapse. This means your name will be removed from the Register of practitioners and you will not be able to practise as a nurse or midwife in Australia.

If you want to keep working, you must get your application for renewal in by the end of the month.

Renewing your registration

Before you can renew, you’ll need to move your existing account to your Ahpra portal.

Follow these guides and how-to videos to help you do this.

We sent you an email between 4 and 5 May with your current Ahpra user ID, which you will need for the move.

We’ve introduced multifactor authentication (also called two-step verification) to protect your personal information.

You will need to download the Google Authenticator app to your phone to complete this step. You can download Google Authenticator for free from the App Store or Google Play.

Follow these steps and how-to videos to set up multifactor authentication.

Help with setting up multifactor authentication and your portal

We recommend you set up your portal and complete your application for renewal using a laptop or desktop computer, as the portal and renewal form are designed for a larger screen. You need your mobile phone for multifactor authentication.

If you need a hand setting up multifactor authentication, we’ve got the following supports available:

• 24/7 Chatbot on our website with a live-chat link during business hours to our tech team
• Customer service support from 9am to 5pm local time, Monday to Friday

Once you’ve set up your portal, follow the prompts in the renewal alert on your portal dashboard to renew.

Don't want to renew your registration?

If you don’t want to set up your portal, you don’t need to do a thing. If you haven't renewed by 30 June, your registration will lapse and your name will be removed from the Register of practitioners. We'll continue to send you reminders until 30 June 2025, and let you know when your registration has lapsed.

If you don’t want the reminders, you can set up your portal, click on Manage my renewal and then click 'Not renew' on the front of the renewal form. 

Keep your receipt 

We will email you confirmation of payment. If you need this for tax purposes, please keep this receipt as they are not saved in your Ahpra portal.

Need help?

Read the renewal FAQs on the Ahpra website for helpful tips and more information on what you need to do to renew.

Visit the Ahpra portal help centre for helpful tips and instruction guides on setting up your portal

Talk to someone

Ahpra Customer Service Team

For non-urgent registration support, account support, general questions or feedback, complete Ahpra’s online enquiry form or call Ahpra on 1300 419 495.

Ahpra’s Customer Service Team will be able to assist you with the registration renewal process.

Nurse and Midwife Support

Nurse & Midwife Support is a free and independent, 24/7 service run by nurses and midwives providing access to confidential advice and referral.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement and Support Team

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives can reach out to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement and Support team for support through the renewal process.

Spotlight

National Law amendment information guides out now

New resources are now available to help practitioners understand and adapt to changes to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, which will come into effect over the next 12 months. 

Information on the changes, what they mean for practitioners and the public, and how they will be implemented, is available in the full information guide,(the accompanying short guide provides a high-level snapshot of the changes). 

Both guides are 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.

Passed earlier this year, the changes focus on:

• stronger consumer and notifier protections (including around non-disclosure agreements)
• permanently publishing information on the register for practitioners that have been found by a tribunal to have engaged in professional misconduct that includes sexual misconduct
• requiring practitioners across Australia to get a reinstatement order from a tribunal when they seek to return the register after being cancelled and/or disqualified.

Review presents opportunities for Ahpra's regulatory reform agenda

Ahpra welcomed the release of the Independent review of complexity in the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (Dawson Review) second consultation paper and thanked the reviewer Ms Sue Dawson and her team for their comprehensive work.

Ahpra supports, in principle, the review’s recommendations, many of which are in step with Ahpra’s current reform agenda.

The reforms centre around: 

• Regulatory action and leadership to minimise and prevent harm to the public, especially in response to emerging healthcare challenges.
• Strengthening notification processes and investment to support better timeliness, transparency, and procedural fairness.
• Evolution of national health regulation including a national framework that ensures a risk-based approach is taken and that health professionals are regulated according to public safety needs.

Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner said the review presents an exciting opportunity for the next chapter in regulation.  

‘The National Scheme is facing challenges it has not previously encountered,’ he said. 

‘The time is right to take the National Scheme forward to meet the evolving needs of contemporary regulation. I look forward to working with stakeholders to bring the recommendations of the review to life.’

Read the full media release.

New National Scheme environmental strategy focuses on reducing waste, cutting emissions

Ahpra has taken an important step towards a more sustainable future, launching the National Scheme Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024-2027 (ESS) to guide the reduction of its carbon footprint and broader environmental impact. 

The ESS commits Ahpra and National Boards to significantly reduce emissions related to travel, waste and paper usage by at least 20% by 2027. It also commits the regulator to support and encourage health practitioners to cut emissions in their practice and the services for which they work.

The strategy is aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and includes objectives in areas such as sustainable procurement, health system leadership, and practitioner support and guidance.

The ESS is available at on Ahpra’s Corporate Publications page, or via direct link here: Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2024 - 2027 (468 KB, PDF).  

Read the media release.

Have your say

Have your say on the review of the Supervised practice framework

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, along with other National Boards and Ahpra are reviewing the Supervised practice framework (the framework) and we want to hear from you. How do you use the framework? What are its strengths and limitations? Is it working flexibly or is it too restrictive? Is there anything missing? Now is the time to have your say.

Reviewing the framework is part of the recommendations from the Independent review of Australia’s regulatory settings relating to overseas health practitioners, led by Ms Robyn Kruk AO.

Visit the current consultations page to read the consultation paper and quick guide to the consultation. To share your feedback, use the link to the online form, or complete the submission template and email it back to us.

The consultation is open for eight weeks, closing on 31 July 2025.

Tell us more at a focus group 

We’ll also be collecting feedback about supervised practice, the framework, employing supervised practitioners and being a supervisor or supervisee at a focus group. We would love to hear from: 

• employers of health practitioners
• supervisors, and
• supervisees (both locally and internationally qualified health practitioners).

If you would like to be considered for a focus group, please complete this online application form.

Keep in touch with the NMBA

• Visit the NMBA website for registration standards, codes, guidelines and FAQs.
• Lodge an online enquiry form.
• For registration enquiries, call 1300 419 495 (from within Australia) or +61 3 9285 3010 (for overseas callers).
• Address mail correspondence to: Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey AM, Chair, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne, VIC 3001.