Revised standards for all osteopaths published today

30 Oct 2015

Revised registration standards for continuing professional development (CPD) and recency of practice have been published today by the Osteopathy Board of Australia, which regulates Australia’s 2,000 registered osteopaths. 

To help osteopaths prepare for the start of the standards, we are publishing the revised standards in advance.

The revised standards come into effect on 1 December 2015 and will replace the standards that are currently in place. They will apply to all osteopaths, who will need to meet the obligations of the revised standards by the next registration renewal period on 30 November 2016.

Revised registration standards

Revised guidelines

All these documents need to be read in full and contain a number of minor changes. Below is a summary of the main changes.

• Recency of practice hours have been increased from 400 to 450 in their current domain of practice as an osteopath in the previous three years.
• For recency of practice the definition at the end of the registration standard has changed so that ‘clinical practice’ means direct clinical care or oversight of direct clinical care … [emphasis is the addition to the definition]; and
• For recency of practice the definition of ‘recent graduate’ is now changed to: ‘on the basis of a qualification that was awarded more than 12 months ago’ [emphasis is the change to the definition from six months].
• ‘Scope of practice’ defined in both the CPD and recency of practice registration standards using the standard definition across National Boards: ‘Scope of practice means the professional role and services that an individual health practitioner is educated and competent to perform’.
• The CPD registration standard now requires osteopaths to maintain records of CPD activity for five years in case of audit.
• The requirement to undertake a 12-month refresher of CPR has been removed from the revised CPD guidelines. The requirement stays in the registration standard to hold a current senior first aid certificate at the minimum standard of a Senior First Aid (level 2) certificate or equivalent. The latter is updated every three years which is unchanged.
• The list of mandatory activities has been refreshed in the revised CPD guidelines, and is at least four hours’ CPD each year on one or more of the following topics:
  • Osteopathy Board of Australia registration standards, codes and guidelines and overview of the National Law, particularly when new or updated versions are published
  • advertising a regulated health service and social media policy
  • evidence-based practice
  • risk management
  • record keeping
  • informed consent
  • effective communication
  • professional boundaries, and
  • confidentiality and privacy.

The revised standards were approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council on 27 August 2015 and were part of a scheduled review of standards. A public consultation was held as part of the review. National Boards today published consultation reports providing a summary of the consultation processes, rationale for any changes and proposed way forward, including areas where further work is planned. The submissions to the public consultation are published on the past consultations page.

The Board will be publishing a revised professional indemnity insurance (PII) arrangements standard soon, which will be in effect from early 2016.

Additional resources

The following additional resources about the revised standards are available on the AHPRA website.

• letters of approval
• consultation reports:
  • Continuing professional development registration standard
  • Recency of practice registration standard
  • Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard
• common FAQs and timetable for commencement