Overseas-trained nurses also getting AHPRA fast track

3 minute read


Upsetting the medical colleges is one thing, but now the government risks facing the wrath of Australia’s nurses.


Specialist doctors will no longer be the only health professionals that AHPRA is fast-tracking through registration, with nurses set to join the scheme in April.

When the regulator unveiled a new expedited registration system for internationally trained specialists midway through last year, it met with a cold reception from the medical colleges – who, it turned out, had not actually been consulted on the change.

Crucially, the new pathway allows doctors from certain countries to go straight to the Medical Board of Australia for registration, bypassing college assessment processes.

The new nursing pathway will be much the same.

Nurses with degrees from the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Singapore, Spain or the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario who have practised for at least 1800 hours will be able to go straight to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia for registration.

Registered nurses who trained in these countries will no longer need to sit additional examinations or upgrade their qualifications to gain registration in Australia.

It is expected to cut wait times by up to 12 months.

Under a Trans-Tasman agreement, nurses from New Zealand are already subject to a similar arrangement.

Announcing the new nursing pathway, Health Minister Mark Butler said the new registration process would ensure that high standards are maintained by requiring that internationally trained nurses meet the same regulatory requirements as Australian trained nurses on applying for registration.

“Australian patients will ultimately benefit from these changes, since these highly educated nurses can start working and providing care to Australians sooner, without waiting needlessly on red tape,” he said.

Australian College of Nursing CEO Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz told The Medical Republic that the college welcomed the announcement of the new streamlined pathway.

“While improving the process to shorten the time for overseas nurse registration is a good move, our priority must still be to educate and retain more home-grown nurses and midwives,” she said.

Professor Zeitz also called for expanded scope of practice.

“Enabling nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives to work to their full scope – as proposed in the recommendations of the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review – will benefit patients, communities, and the health system,” she said.

It’s unclear whether nursing bodies were consulted on the pathway before it was announced.

Despite concerns from multiple medical colleges and the AMA when the medical expedited pathway was first announced, AHPRA moved ahead and debuted it just six months later.

It’s understood that federal, state and territory health ministers were the driving force behind this tight turnaround.

The pathway was initially only open to specialist GPs from New Zealand, the UK and Ireland.

It has since opened to anaesthetists from the UK and Ireland and psychiatrists from the UK, with plans to expand it to include obstetricians and gynaecologists, radiologists, paediatricians and other physicians.

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