What nursing is
Nursing is a profession dedicated to upholding everyone’s right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, through a shared commitment to providing collaborative, culturally safe, people-centred care and services.
Nursing acts and advocates for people’s equitable access to health and health care, and safe, sustainable environments. The practice of nursing embodies the philosophy and values of the profession in providing professional care in the most personal health-related aspects of people’s lives.
Nursing promotes health, protects safety and continuity in care, and manages and leads health care organizations and systems.
Nursing’s practice is underpinned by a unique combination of science-based disciplinary knowledge, technical capability, ethical standards, and therapeutic relationships.
Nursing is committed to compassion, social justice and a better future for humanity.
What a nurse is
A nurse is a professional who is educated in the scientific knowledge, skills and philosophy of nursing, and regulated to practice nursing based on established standards of practice and ethical codes.
Nurses enhance health literacy, promote health, prevent illness, protect patient safety, alleviate suffering, facilitate recovery and adaptation, and uphold dignity throughout life and at end of life. They work autonomously and collaboratively across settings to improve health, through advocacy, evidence informed decision-making, and culturally safe, therapeutic relationships.
Nurses provide people-centred, compassionate clinical and social care, manage services, enhance health systems, advance public and population health, and foster safe and sustainable environments.
Nurses lead, educate, research, advocate, innovate and shape policy to improve health outcomes.2
Together, nurses and midwives make up more than half of Australia’s regulated health workforce and almost 90 per cent are women.
In Australia, a nurse is a regulated health professional. Nurses complete an approved program of study to be eligible to become registered to practice with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA).
The NMBA works with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to regulate the nursing profession.
People must register with the NMBA before they can use any of the following protected titles to describe themselves:
- enrolled nurse (EN)
- registered nurse (RN)
- nurse practitioner (NP).
Nurses work with many other health professionals in the public and private health sectors. They work in a variety of settings including:
- public hospitals
- private hospitals
- aged care (both residential and home)
- primary care practices including general practice, Medicare Urgent Care Centres and nurse-led practices
- Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations
- community health services
- schools
- correctional facilities
- rural and remote communities.
Types of nurses in Australia
There are different types of nurses in Australia. The main differences involve the type of education they have completed, where they work and their scope of practice.
Enrolled nurse
There are more than 54,0004 ENs employed in Australia.
An EN completes a Diploma of Nursing through a vocational education provider, to meet the EN standards for practice. ENs work under the supervision of a registered nurse and cannot act alone. Typical duties include:
- regularly record and interpret clinical observations including temperature, pulse, blood pressure and respiration
- providing interventions, treatments and therapies in line with an agreed plan of care (including administering medicines)
- assisting registered nurses and other team members with health education activities
- working in multidisciplinary teams; and
- Provide individual support for activities of daily living including mobility and personal care.
An EN can become a RN by completing further education.
Registered nurse
There are more than 345,300 RNs employed in Australia.
An RN completes an approved program of study to meet the RN standards for practice. They have more responsibilities than an EN, and their scope of practice can include:
- planning, managing and evaluation care
- administering and monitoring medicines
- treatment and complex care
- providing specialised nursing care
- working in multidisciplinary teams
- supervising ENs
- performing leadership and management roles such as being a nursing unit manager or team leader
- working in advanced nursing practice roles.
Nurse practitioner
There are more than 2,600 NPs employed in Australia with more than 1,800 employed as a NP.
NPs are RNs who the NMBA are endorsed as an NP by the NMBA. NPs practice independently in an advanced and extended clinical role and can diagnose and treat conditions, including prescribing medicines.
To be eligible for an NP endorsement, a nurse must:
- be a registered nurse with no restrictions on practice
- have 5,000 hours of experience at the advanced clinical nursing practice level in the past 6 years
- have completed an NMBA approved program of study at a master degree level, and
- comply with the NMBA’s nurse practitioner standards for practice.
State and territory governments employ most NPs in the public health system. NPs also work in private settings, in independent practice or as employees.
What a midwife is
A midwife is a registered health professional who works in partnership with women to provide support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and birth and the first few weeks after birth. Midwifery is a profession focused on woman-centred and evidence-based maternal health care. In Australia, midwives have a vital role in maternity care for almost more than 300,000 women each year.
Midwives must have completed an program of study in midwifery through a university to be eligible for and register with the NMBA. The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law protects the titles of ‘midwife’ and ‘midwife practitioner’.
A midwife’s scope of practice includes:
- providing health support, care and advice to women before conception, and during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period
- promoting natural childbirth and identifying complications for the woman and her baby
- consulting with other health professionals and referring to medical care or other health professions when required
- implementing emergency measures.
Midwives are autonomous practitioners who work collaboratively with many other health professionals. A midwife may practice in settings including the home, community, public and private hospitals, birth centres, clinics or health units including Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations.
Endorsed midwife
An endorsed midwife has completed extra education and can prescribe certain medications.
To become an endorsed midwife, a registered midwife must:
- meet the registration standards
- successfully complete an NMBA-approved program of study that leads to an endorsement for scheduled medicines, or a substantially equivalent program as determined by the NMBA
- register as a midwife in Australia without conditions or unsatisfactory performance
- have completed 3 years full-time clinical practice (5,000 hours) in the past 6 years. Hours can be across the full continuity of midwifery care or in a specified context of practice.
You can check a nurse’s or midwife’s registration by searching the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s national register.