Requirements for NP endorsement
in Australia
With the creation of AHPRA and the NMBA in July
2010, the existing State and Territory registration standards
relevant to the endorsement of NPs were initially
used to develop an NMBA Registration Standard to
determine eligibility for endorsement. As it became
apparent that there were varying interpretations of
the requirements for NP endorsement at the State and
Territory jurisdictional level, many applications were
placed on hold while the State and Territory Offices of
AHPRA tried to come to an agreement on nationally
consistent interpretation of the Standards.
As a result, a revised Endorsement of NPs registration
standard was proposed and circulated for stakeholder
feedback in October 2010. Following a short consultation
period, the revised standard was ratified by the Australian
Health Ministerial Advisory Council in February 2011 and adopted by the NMBA in April 2011 (NMBA,
2011a). The introduction of this revised standard led to
further delays in the processing of applications for NP
endorsement as the debate as to what was considered
“advanced nursing practice” continued, this being the
basis of one criterion of endorsement. The differing views
of when advanced nursing practice begins in order to
be able to count this as time toward NP endorsement
“advanced practice nursing” hours remain today.