Continuing professional development

Registration Standards

14 National Boards are currently reviewing recency of practice and continuing professional development registration standards. Public consultation on draft revised standards is open until 17 July 2026. To have your say visit Ahpra’s Consultation webpage.

Continuing professional development (CPD) is how nurses and midwives maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, expertise and competence, and develop the personal and professional qualities required throughout their professional lives.

Registration standard

The revised Registration standard: Continuing professional development came into effect on 1 June 2016.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Date of effect
Registration standard: Continuing professional development	PDF (206KB)	Word version (391KB,DOCX)	1 June 2016

Additional documents

The following additional documents have been developed to supplement the Registration standard: Continuing professional development by providing further information to nurses and midwives regarding the NMBA’s expectations and requirements.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Date of effect
Guidelines: Continuing professional development	PDF (211KB)	Web page	1 June 2016
Fact sheet: Continuing professional development	PDF (319KB)	Web page	1 June 2016
Policy: Exemptions from continuing professional development	PDF (114KB)	Web page	1 June 2016

Consultation process

The revised Registration standard: Continuing professional development was developed after a review of the existing standard, which included public consultation. The consultation report provides an overview of the consultation process, rationale for any changes and sets out the proposed way forward, including areas where further work is planned.

Document name	PDF	Accessible format	Document date
Consultation report: Continuing professional development	PDF (107KB)	Word version (79.2KB,DOCX)	30 October 2015

Retired version

Document name	PDF	Date of effect
Retired version: Continuing professional development registration standard	PDF (300KB)	To 31 May 2016