Governance arrangements
This page contains information on the governance arrangements relating to nurse practitioners operating in the ACT.
Clinical governance
The clinical governance requirements for nurse practitioners are no different than for medical practitioners or other regulated health practitioners.
If you are working with a new nurse practitioner, or an nurse practitioner expanding their practice into a new area, they will likely need more mentorship and supervision than an experienced nurse practitioner.
There are a few key governance considerations that may be relevant, depending on the nurse practitioner’s intended scope and context of practice:
- How can credentialing be used to not only protect the public, but assure the nurse practitioner can work to their full scope of practice with minimal inefficiency?
- How does ACT legislation uniquely impact upon the nurse practitioner’s practice authority and their employed role?
- What referral and consultation pathways can patients and health professionals use to access the nurse practitioner’s services and vice versa?
- How will care escalation occur, and how might this be different from other regulated health practitioners within the health service?
- How will peer review occur and what nurse-sensitive outcomes measures should be used to measure performance?
- What level of private indemnity insurance does the nurse practitioner require given the requirements of the employed role?
Review of governance arrangements for nurse practitioners
The ACT Government reviewed the governance arrangements for nurse practitioners in the ACT in 2017.
Findings from the review highlighted the value of nurse-led models of healthcare and the need to update the existing nurse practitioner governance arrangements in the ACT.
Recommendations from the report which are being implemented include:
- normalising the role of nurse practitioners in the ACT in line with other health professionals, with the clinical governance arrangements for nurse practitioners being the responsibility of employers.
- making sure all employers have robust clinical governance systems in place for all health professionals (including nurse practitioners) working in the service.
- amending the ACT legislation and policy barriers that relate to nurse practitioner practice, to allow them to work to their full potential.
In response, the Office of the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer has begun work for the ACT that includes:
- Surveying the nurse practitioner workforce and consulting with key stakeholders about the current nurse practitioner workforce, their employers and their clinical practice
- evaluating previous recommendations from research and reports on the role of nurse practitioners
- creating a database of legislation and policy relating to current and future nurse practitioner clinical practice
- developing a suite of frequently asked questions and other useful resources for nurse practitioners and their employers
- reviewing the existing nurse practitioner credentialing processes in the ACT public sector, and developing an overarching framework for credentialing public and private sector nurse practitioners
- analysing the barriers of nurse practitioners working to their full scope of clinical practice, with recommendations for legislative and policy changes presented to the Minister for Health.