In an effort to ensure safer healthcare access for all Australians across the country, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) in partnership with the National Boards recently released an annual report revealing the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s (NMBA) initiatives that supported the nursing practitioners and protected the public from June 2016 until June 2017.

Mr Martin Fletcher, AHPRA CEO emphasized, “This Annual Report highlights our strong and shared commitment with the Board to ensure the public has access to a competent, qualified registered health workforce and to take decisive action when required to keep the community safe.”

The report detailed a few of the many projects instigated by NMBA, one of which is consulting the public and incorporating their feedback to create a final code of conduct for nurses and midwives.

While the latter initiative focuses on the welfare of the patients, the next steps taken by NMBA on the other hand emphasizes on the importance of support for the nursing and midwifery workforce.

The NMBA launched a national support service for nurses and midwives that features 24-hour confidential telephone service and a website with up-to-date advice and referral sources.

“The launch of a national health support service for nurses, midwives and nursing and midwifery students is an important step in ensuring the public has access to safe and competent healthcare,” Associate Professor Lynette Cusack RN, Chair of the NMBA said.

Snapshots of the report on these professions are as follows:

• Increased registration year on year (from 376,086 in 2015/2016 to 386,629 in 2016/2017)
• A 2.6% decrease in the number of dual-registered contingent ‘nurse and midwife’
• A 2.8% and 0.9% increase in the number of registered nursing students and midwives respectively
• 0.6% and 0.3% of nurses and midwives received complaints respectively
• Of the 1,473 matters closed about nurses in 2016/17: 22.7% resulted in the Board accepting an undertaking or conditions being imposed on a nurse’s registration; 16.4% resulted in a caution or reprimand; 1.6% resulted in cancellation or suspension of registration, and 57% resulted in no further action being taken
• Of the 86 matters closed about midwives in 2016/17: 22.1% resulted in the Board accepting an undertaking or conditions being imposed on a midwife’s registration; 26.7% resulted in a caution or reprimand; 1.2% resulted in cancellation or suspension of registration, and 47.7% resulted in no further action being taken
• Statutory offence complaints increased for nurses and decreased for midwives with majority of complaints for both professions related to title protection
• Immediate action was taken 157 times to restrict or suspend the registration of nurses (155 times) and midwives (twice) as an interim measure to protect the public while notifications were being investigated.
• 1,233 nurses and 52 midwives were monitored for health, performance and/or conduct during the year

Photo by YJ-Lee on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-ND

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