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It’s time to renew your registration. When renewing your registration as a podiatrist or podiatric surgeon you must declare that you have met the National Board’s1 registration standards. These registration standards include recency of practice (RoP) and continuing professional development (CPD).
This is a good time to review and reflect on your practice for the past year. There is great value in self-reflection and identifying areas where you would benefit from further learning. This can then help you to develop a learning plan for next year’s CPD.
Podiatry is a profession that is still evolving, and in recent years our profession has been enhanced by outcomes of evidence-based research. Conferences, seminars and self-directed learning are just some of the platforms we can use to review best practice standards or evidence-based practice and further our professional knowledge and skills to ensure we provide safe and effective podiatry services to the Australian public.
Cathy Loughry Chair, Podiatry Board of Australia
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Registration renewal for podiatrists and podiatric surgeons is due on 30 November 2015.
If you haven’t already renewed your registration, remember to renew before 30 November if you want to continue to practise. Online renewal is quick and easy.
There is a late fee for renewal applications received in December, which reflects the cost of managing late renewals.
Under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory (the National Law) if you do not renew your registration within one month of your registration expiry date you must be removed from the Register of Podiatrists, and/or the Board’s specialist register in the case of podiatric surgeons. Your registration will lapse and you will not be able to practise in Australia until a new application for registration is approved.
If you have provided an email address to the Board or the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) you will have been sent email reminders. Paper reminders have also been sent to practitioners who have not yet renewed.
When you renew your registration, you must declare whether you have met the Board’s CPD requirements. The Board may refuse to renew your registration if the CPD requirements have not been met.
The Board’s requirements for CPD are set out in the Continuing professional development registration standard, which can be found on the Registration standards page of the Board's website, together with the Board’s Guidelines for continuing professional development and FAQ’s for CPD.
You need to ensure that you have met these requirements by the time you renew your registration.
With renewal reminders being sent out it is important that your contact details are up to date. You can check or update your contact information by logging in to the secure online services. Use your user ID and secure password, and follow the prompts.
If you do not have your user ID, complete an online enquiry form and select ‘Online Services – Practitioner’ as the category type. You might also need to reset your password.
Email accounts should be set to receive communications from AHPRA and the Board to avoid misdirection to a ‘junk email’ or ‘spam’ box or account.
AHPRA is calling for online applications for registration from students who are in their final year of an approved program of study. Students due to complete study at the end of 2015 are urged to apply for registration before finishing their course.
An email reminder to apply early and online will be sent by AHPRA on behalf of the Board to final-year students on the Student Register. Certain professions may require individuals to apply using a paper application form.
All applications, online or in hard copy, require students to post supporting documents to AHPRA to complete their application. Certain applicants will need to apply for an international criminal history check before submitting their registration application. Students are encouraged to read the information on AHPRA’s website under Graduate applications.
Graduates must meet the Board’s registration standards and need to be a registered podiatrist before they start practising. New graduates are registered and eligible to start work as soon as their name is published on the national register of practitioners.
The Board’s registration standards for CPD, PII and RoP have been revised following consultation and have now been approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council (the Ministerial Council).
The Board will release the revised standards on its website in the coming months, well before the start date, to help practitioners become familiar with the revised standards. The start dates for each standard will be different, and will generally align with the registration renewal period.
For more information, please read the news item on the Board’s website.
The revised CPD standard was published on the Board’s website on 30 October 2015 and will start on 1 December 2015, that being the start of the next registration period. Practitioners will need to declare that they have met the standard at the end of the next registration period, giving practitioners one year to do CPD that meets the new standard.
There have been minimal changes to the Board’s CPD standard. The number of hours of CPD that podiatrists and podiatric surgeons are required to complete each year has not changed and the categories of CPD are largely the same.
The Board has maintained flexibility in the standard; while CPD must be completed from at least two different categories, practitioners have flexibility with what, when, where and how CPD activity may be done. This can include attending podiatry conferences, undertaking online CPD activities, discussing case(s) with health sector peers, and self-directed learning, such as reviewing relevant research publications or journal articles.
The Board has introduced a requirement that a minimum of five hours of CPD must be in an interactive setting with other practitioners. This can include Skype or video-conferencing.
The Board has maintained the requirement for podiatrists to complete training that includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), management of anaphylaxis and use of an automated external defibrillator, and for podiatric surgeons to complete training in advanced life support. The Board has expanded the approved training organisations that can deliver the training to include a hospital and/or health service.
The revised PII standard will be published in early December and is expected to take effect in early-mid 2016.
The revised RoP standard will start on 1 December 2016 and will be published well before that date.
Practitioners will need to declare that they have met the standard at the end of the registration period, 30 November 2017.
We will provide more information about the PII and RoP standards when they are published.
The online national register of practitioners has accurate, up-to-date information about the registration status of all registered health practitioners in Australia. It is an important way the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme) helps keep the public safe.
A copy of Top tips: Using the register for public safety checks can be downloaded from AHPRA’s website.
Large-scale employers can also enquire with AHPRA about the online subscription service where an employer can request the publicly available registration details of multiple practitioners. On the enquiry form, please select ‘Online Services – Employer’ in the drop down menu for ‘category of enquiry’. After submitting your request, you will be contacted directly by an AHPRA staff member to validate your identity and eligibility to use the service.
From time to time vacancies for board, committee and panel positions are advertised on AHPRA’s website and the Board’s website.
If you would like to receive notice of vacancies when they are advertised, please email Statutory Appointments from your preferred email address, advising which professions or roles you are interested.
AHPRA and the National Boards have released their 2014/15 annual report on the National Scheme, providing a comprehensive record of the operations of the National Scheme for the 12 months ending 30 June 2015.
The annual report provides a national snapshot of the work and finances of the National Scheme and is tabled in the parliaments of each state and territory and the Commonwealth.
AHPRA and the National Boards will also publish summaries of our work regulating health practitioners in every state and territory, and profession-specific profiles.
For more information, please read the news item on AHPRA’s website.
In December, the National Board will publish a report of its work in regulating the podiatry profession in the National Scheme during 2014/15.
The report will provide a profession-specific view of the Board’s work to manage risk to the public and regulate the profession in the public interest. It is a profile of regulation at work in Australia for the 12 months ending 30 June 2015.
The data in this report are drawn from data published in the 2014/15 annual report of AHPRA and the National Boards, reporting on the National Scheme.
The Board and AHPRA have published the 2015/16 health profession agreement (HPA) that outlines the partnership between the Board and AHPRA, and the services AHPRA will provide to the Board in 2015/16. The HPA also provides information about the Board’s financial operations and fees.