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For those osteopaths interested in the work of regulation, AHPRA is recruiting osteopaths as clinical advisors to help AHPRA staff with the clinical aspects of regulatory matters. Our newsletter has an article on this new initiative, and we hope to see applications from across the country, as you can do this work remotely.
The Osteopathy Board Chair position and some member positions are now advertised by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council: see the Board member recruitment page on AHPRA’s website. Please consider these rewarding roles with the Board.
We have listened to your feedback and advertising resources are now are now all located on one page on the Board’s website. See Advertising a regulated health service in the Codes and guidelines section.
With other National Boards, we have launched three important public consultations: revised mandatory notifications guidelines, revised advertising guidelines and a proposed supervised practice framework. Our article explains how to provide feedback.
Dr Nikole Grbin Osteopath Chair, Osteopathy Board of Australia
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AHPRA is currently advertising clinical advisor roles and seeking expressions of interest from experienced registered osteopaths who will be engaged as contractors.
The positions will be available in any location and are flexible in nature. The clinical advisor will contribute to a risk-based approach by giving AHPRA staff clinical input on notification, compliance and registration matters. Duties include:
These positions are advertised on the AHPRA careers website, Seek and on social media and close 7 November 2019. These are not Board member positions. This is a role to help AHPRA staff with the clinical aspects of regulatory matters and this assists the Board by ensuring clinical input is provided in matters they are considering. These are new roles within AHPRA and developed from work with other National Boards. If you are interested in regulation or have experience in this area we encourage you to apply. Applications are sought from all registered osteopaths including those who live in the co-regulatory jurisdictions of NSW and Queensland. Once clinical advisors are appointed, induction and training will be given. The advisors will work remotely and support and have contact with AHPRA regulatory operations staff via telephone, Skype and email. Here are some examples of where and when clinical advice may be needed:
The work will be ad hoc. It is not required for every notification and for others it will be at multiple points across the management of a matter. The number of notifications per year is under 20 (excluding NSW), but this also means the work is not too onerous or would divert you from your main employment or business. There is also an expectation that advisors are to be available at short notice for high-risk notifications. By employing a pool of advisors, the work will be shared and this will also reduce the likelihood of any conflicts of interest.
Vacancies are currently advertised for the Board Chair and practitioner members from Victoria, South Australia, and the smaller jurisdictions from either Tasmania, Northern Territory or Australian Capital Territory.
All National Board appointments are made by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council. If you are interested, please visit the AHPRA National Boards recruitment page to download the information guide and application form. More information is provided about eligibility requirements specific to these advertised vacancies, National Board member roles, and the application process.
For enquiries, please contact statutory appointments. The closing date is Monday 21 October 2019 at 5pm AEST.
The registration fee has again been frozen at $376. The fee for practitioners whose principal place of practice is New South Wales is $525. A full fee schedule is published on the Board’s website.
The National Scheme is funded by health practitioners’ registration fees. More detailed information about the Board’s financial operations is outlined in the health profession agreement between the Board and AHPRA for 2016/20, which is published on the Board’s website.
In response to feedback, all our advertising resources are now located on a dedicated Advertising page on our website. We also have links to profession-specific information, such as examples of non-compliant advertising, as well as links to the common advertising resources developed to help registered health practitioners across all professions. Advertising refers to actions by people or businesses to draw attention to their services. The ways people and businesses can promote services are almost limitless and include all forms of printed and electronic media.
If you are advertising a regulated health service, your advertising must not:
If you’re not sure you’re meeting your obligations, or if you’ve been contacted by AHPRA about your advertising, there are steps you can follow to make sure you comply with your professional and legal obligations.
For further details see the advertising resources on AHPRA’s website.
Members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board (ATSIHPBA) recently gave a update to the Board at its August 2019 meeting about the Board, the profession and its practitioners. The ATSIHPBA want to help the osteopathy profession understand the value that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners can bring to Australian healthcare to make it culturally safe and help close the gap. Below are some simple facts about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners and their profession to help osteopaths know more.
Fact box – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners
The ATSIHPBA would like to continue to work with AHPRA and the osteopathy profession to help spread the word about the culturally safe workforce which is qualified, competent, registered and ready to go to work in both clinical and non-clinical roles.
Here are some things that you, as an osteopath, can do to help:
Engaging the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce to work in partnership with osteopaths is a crucial opportunity to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
If you would like to find out more about the profession please contact Executive Officer Jill Humphreys at [email protected] or on (03) 8708 9066.
The Board has released its latest quarterly registration statistics for the period 1 April to 30 June 2019. Registrant numbers have increased to 2,546. This is an increase of almost 1,000 osteopaths in eight years. We are a fast-growing profession.
For more information, including data breakdowns by division, age group, gender and principal place of practice, visit the Board’s Statistics page.
Three public consultations are now open asking for people to have their say on revised guidance to help practitioners and others understand their mandatory notification obligations, understand their obligations when advertising a regulated health service and to support a responsive and risk-based approach to supervised practice.
Alongside other National Boards and AHPRA, the Board is conducting consultations on:
We invite osteopaths and osteopathy stakeholders to give feedback to these important public consultations. To ensure everyone has the chance to respond the closing dates for public consultation are staggered as follows:
The consultation papers are available on the Consultations page of the Board’s website. To make it easier to participate, you can use the online survey option to send us your feedback.