Australian CPD Requirements for Nurses, Midwives and Doctors

Australia sets continuing professional development by registration type, and it adds the hours together where someone holds more than one. The result is that a nurse who is also a midwife with a scheduled medicines endorsement carries the same annual CPD burden as a medical practitioner — 50 hours — which is not obvious from either board’s headline figure.

The requirements sit with the national boards under the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and the two most relevant to employers are the Nursing and Midwifery Board and the Medical Board.

Nurses and midwives: hours by registration, added together

The Nursing and Midwifery Board’s registration standard on continuing professional development sets a minimum per calendar year:

The principle is additive: practitioners holding dual registration must complete the hours for both professions. The additional 10 endorsement hours are directed at prescribing and administration of medicines, diagnostic investigations, and consultation and referral.

The standard reaches further than many employers assume. It applies to enrolled nurses, registered nurses and midwives working full-time or part-time, in paid or unpaid practice — so volunteer and bank practice is in scope. Only student and non-practising registrants are outside it.

Pro-rata, for anyone registered part-way through

Where registration is held for part of the period, the minimum scales in quarters: at least 5 hours for up to 3 months, 10 hours for 3 to 6 months, 15 hours for 6 to 9 months, and the full 20 for 9 to 12 months. Endorsement hours scale the same way at 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10.

For an employer that recruits through the year, this is the detail that makes a single cohort target wrong. Each new starter has a different number owed, calculated from their registration date.

What the evidence has to show

This is where Australia differs most from a simple hours regime. It is not enough to log attendance. The evidence must demonstrate that the practitioner identified and prioritised their learning needs, developed a learning plan based on those needs, participated in learning activities appropriate to them, and reflected on the value of the activities or their effect on practice.

Four linked elements, in sequence — need, plan, activity, reflection. A completion certificate evidences only the third. CPD must also be relevant to the practitioner’s area of practice and have clear aims and objectives meeting their self-assessed requirements, and the Board recommends a range of activities across the period rather than a single block.

Records and audit

Practitioners must keep records of CPD activities for at least five years from the date of completion. Records must be available for audit, or if required by the Board as part of an investigation arising from a notification — which means a complaint about something unrelated can pull CPD records into scope.

The Board publishes an optional evidence record template, but the information it contains is not optional: records must include everything the template captures. Exemptions are available in exceptional circumstances such as serious illness, applied for directly to Ahpra with supporting evidence.

Medical practitioners: 50 hours, in defined proportions

The Medical Board’s requirement is structurally different and more prescriptive about what kind of activity counts. Each calendar year a doctor must:

• belong to an AMC-accredited CPD home suitable for their scope of practice, which may be a college or a non-college home, unless exempt
• write a professional development plan before starting CPD for the year
• complete 50 hours, allocated as:
  • 25 hours reviewing performance and measuring outcomes, with a minimum of five hours of each type
  • 12.5 hours of educational activities — reading, lectures, conferences
  • 12.5 hours from any category, at the doctor’s discretion
• log activities with their CPD home, and declare that home when renewing registration

Relevant specialist high-level requirements and CAPE requirements must be accommodated within the 50 hours rather than added to them.

The plan-first sequencing is the notable obligation. The plan must exist before the CPD begins, which makes retrospective curation of a year’s activities non-compliant however many hours were accumulated.

Who is exempt, and who is not

On the medical side, exemptions cover students, doctors with non-practising registration, those with short-term limited registration of less than four weeks, and exemptions granted by a CPD home for reasons such as illness or parental leave. Interns and second postgraduate year doctors in a structured program leading to a certificate of completion are also exempt, and PGY2 doctors in an accredited formal program are treated as having met the standard. College trainees’ CPD is handled within their training.

One group is explicitly not exempt: international medical graduates holding limited or provisional registration. And for leave of between six and twelve months, the exemption is sought through the CPD home rather than the Board.

What this means for an employer

Three practical consequences. The required hours vary per individual by registration and endorsement, so a single organisational target will under- or over-shoot for most of the workforce. The evidence standard for nurses and midwives is reflective rather than transactional, so a learning platform that records completions alone cannot satisfy it. And the five-year retention sits with the practitioner, but an employer that holds the records is holding them to that standard too.

For the funding side of Australian training, see our guide to Australian VET funding. For the comparable evidential expectations in a UK care setting, our guide to CQC training records sets out what a system must produce. Our CPD course library covers the underlying clinical governance and compliance material.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD hours do Australian nurses need?

Twenty hours per calendar year for a registered or enrolled nurse, and 20 for a midwife. Those holding both registrations need 40, and a nurse practitioner needs 30 — 20 plus 10 for the endorsement.

What is the maximum for a nurse and midwife?

Fifty hours, where someone is registered as a nurse and a midwife and holds a scheduled medicines endorsement: 20 plus 20 plus 10.

Does part-time or unpaid practice count?

Yes. The standard applies to enrolled nurses, registered nurses and midwives working full-time or part-time, in paid or unpaid practice. Only student and non-practising registrants fall outside it.

How long must CPD records be kept?

At least five years from the date the CPD was completed, and they must be available for audit or for a Board investigation arising from a notification.

How much CPD must an Australian doctor do?

Fifty hours each calendar year through an AMC-accredited CPD home — 25 hours reviewing performance and measuring outcomes with at least five hours of each type, 12.5 hours of educational activities, and 12.5 hours from any category — with a professional development plan written before the CPD begins.