Midwives' responses to the changed registration environment in Australia: A case study

This thesis is the result of doctoral research that investigated midwives' responses to the changed regulation conditions after the introduction of a single national register for health practitioners in Australia in 2010. The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act (2009) legislated for universal statutory registration under one national agency, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency (AHPRA). The move focused on national uniformity of registration standards across health practitioners and ensuring public safety through the development of a flexible, responsive and sustainable Australian health workforce that is suitably trained and qualified (AHPRA, 2010). This research is concerned with how the members of one national board, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), made meaning out of the national registration renewal standards. National registration created a number of new situations …