College of Nursing Issues Statement on Costly Re-entry Course Fee
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The College of Nursing has issued a statement about its Assessment of Competence course to address concerns that the course fee was too prohibitive for unregistered nurses in New South Wales in their desire to return to the profession.
In the past recent months, the New South Wales Nurses’ Association and the Australian Nursing Federation raised concerns over the $10,000 fee for the re-entry course, an amount they found too high for unregistered nurses who had been out of the nursing workforce for five to 10 years.
The course has been swamped nonetheless with applications from nurses who want to return to the profession in 2012, the popularity of the course forcing the College to increase placements by over 200% and to contract extra staff.
The statement says that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) reviews each application per individual, giving consideration to the recency of nursing practice before proceeding to course referral.
The statement also notes how the re-entry course comprises of individual competence assessment programs, not refresher courses, to determine the ability to “practise safe and contemporary nursing in today’s increasingly complex and demanding clinical environments.”
The statement also says that AHPRA is mainly aimed at protecting public interest and seriously “ensuring [that] safe and competent health practitioners are registered to practise.”
Prospective enrollees must first procure from the Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia a current letter of referral.
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