AHPRA CPD Requirements for Nurses: NMBA Standards Explained (2026)

Nurses and midwives registered with AHPRA must complete a minimum of 20 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) per year. This is set by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and applies to all registered nurses, enrolled nurses, midwives, and nurse practitioners. You must also maintain 450 practice hours over five years. Fail to meet either requirement and your registration is at risk.

That is the short version. The rest of this guide covers the detail you actually need: what counts, what does not, how to document it, and what happens if you fall short.

How many CPD hours do nurses need?

The NMBA sets a flat minimum of 20 hours of CPD per registration period (annually) for all nurses and midwives. This applies regardless of whether you work full-time, part-time, or casually. It also applies if you hold more than one registration type.

Here is what that looks like by registration category:

| Registration type | Minimum CPD hours per year | Practice hours (5-year total) | Additional requirements | |---|---|---|---| | Registered Nurse (RN) | 20 | 450 | Nil | | Enrolled Nurse (EN) | 20 | 450 | Nil | | Midwife | 20 | 450 | Must include midwifery-specific CPD | | Nurse Practitioner | 20 | 450 | Must include NP scope-specific CPD | | Dual registration (nurse + midwife) | 20 | 450 per registration | CPD must be relevant to each registration held |

A few things to note. The 20 hours is a minimum. The NMBA expects you to do more if your practice demands it. If you hold dual registration as both a nurse and a midwife, you still only need 20 hours total, but your CPD must be relevant to both areas of practice (NMBA, 2024). You cannot log 20 hours of wound care education and call it done for your midwifery registration.

The registration period runs from 1 June to 31 May each year. Your CPD must be completed within that window. Hours do not roll over from one period to the next.

What counts as CPD for nurses?

The NMBA takes a broad view of what qualifies as CPD. The key test is whether the activity is relevant to your context of practice and contributes to your professional development. It does not have to be a formal course with a certificate at the end.

Here is a breakdown of accepted CPD activity types with examples:

| Activity type | Examples | Typically accepted? | |---|---|---| | Formal education | University subjects, postgraduate courses, AHCRA CPD courses | Yes | | Conferences and seminars | Nursing conferences, grand rounds, webinars | Yes | | Online learning | Accredited e-learning modules, self-paced courses | Yes | | Workplace learning | In-service education, clinical supervision, case reviews | Yes | | Self-directed learning | Reading journals, reviewing clinical guidelines, podcasts | Yes, with documentation | | Peer review | Participating in peer review processes, morbidity and mortality meetings | Yes | | Research | Conducting or participating in research projects | Yes | | Mentoring and teaching | Supervising students, mentoring junior staff, presenting at in-services | Yes | | Quality improvement | Clinical audits, practice improvement projects, policy development | Yes | | Professional committees | Participation in professional working groups, advisory committees | Yes |

The NMBA does not prescribe a ratio between activity types. You could technically complete all 20 hours through self-directed learning, provided you can demonstrate how it was relevant and what you learned. That said, a mix of activities is a stronger position if you are audited.

What does not count: mandatory workplace training that is compliance-based rather than developmental (think annual fire safety or manual handling tick-boxes), general interest reading unrelated to your practice, and activities you cannot adequately document.

One common question is whether CPR and first aid recertification counts. It can, if it is relevant to your scope of practice. For an ED nurse, absolutely. For a nurse working in policy, it is harder to argue relevance.

NMBA practice hours requirement

Separate from CPD, the NMBA requires you to have completed a minimum of 450 practice hours in the five years immediately preceding your renewal. This works out to roughly 90 hours per year on average, though you do not need to hit that figure annually. The five-year window gives you flexibility.

Practice hours include any work where you use your nursing or midwifery knowledge and skills. That covers:

Direct clinical care
Education and research roles
Management and administration in a nursing or midwifery context
Policy and advisory roles
Telephone triage and telehealth

If you have not met the 450-hour threshold, you may need to complete a re-entry to practice programme before you can renew your registration. The NMBA can also grant exemptions in certain circumstances, such as extended parental leave or serious illness (AHPRA, 2019).

If you are returning to practice after a break, check where you stand early. Do not wait until renewal to discover you are 100 hours short.

For a broader look at how CPD requirements differ across AHPRA-registered professions, see our comparison guide.

CPD requirements for midwives

Midwives registered with the NMBA must meet the same 20-hour CPD minimum and 450 practice hours over five years. But there is an additional expectation: your CPD must include activities specifically relevant to midwifery practice.

If you hold dual registration as both a nurse and a midwife, the NMBA does not double the CPD requirement to 40 hours. You still need 20 hours total. However, you must be able to demonstrate that your CPD is relevant to both registrations. In practice, this means you need a mix: some CPD focused on your nursing scope, some on your midwifery scope, and some that may overlap both.

Areas the NMBA considers relevant for midwifery-specific CPD include:

Antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care updates
Neonatal resuscitation and emergency obstetric care
Breastfeeding and lactation support
Cultural safety in maternity care
Pharmacology relevant to midwifery practice
Fetal surveillance and monitoring
Perinatal mental health

Midwives working in endorsed roles (such as eligible midwives with scheduled medicines endorsement) should ensure their CPD reflects the additional scope of that endorsement. The NMBA expects you to maintain competence at the level of your endorsement, not just your base registration.

A practical approach: map your CPD plan to the NMBA Midwife Standards for Practice at the start of each registration period. Identify gaps in your knowledge or areas where practice has changed, then target your CPD accordingly. This also gives you a defensible rationale if you are audited.

CPD requirements for nurse practitioners

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses with additional qualifications and endorsement to practise at an advanced level. The base CPD requirement is the same: 20 hours per year. But the NMBA expects NP-specific CPD that reflects the expanded scope of practice.

This means your CPD should cover areas like:

Advanced clinical assessment and diagnostic reasoning
Prescribing practice and pharmacology updates
Therapeutic guidelines and evidence-based practice relevant to your specialty
Referral pathways and collaborative practice
Leadership in clinical governance

NPs who prescribe scheduled medicines need to pay particular attention to pharmacology CPD. Changes to prescribing guidelines, new therapeutic indications, and safety alerts are all fair game. If you prescribe it, you should be learning about it.

The 450 practice hours requirement applies to NPs as well. Given most NPs work in demanding clinical roles, meeting practice hours is rarely the issue. Meeting targeted, scope-relevant CPD is more often the challenge, particularly for NPs in regional or solo practice who may have limited access to specialist education.

Online CPD platforms like AHCRA's course library can help fill that gap, especially for NPs who cannot easily attend metropolitan conferences or workshops.

How to document your nursing CPD

Documentation is where many nurses come unstuck. You might have completed well over 20 hours of genuine CPD, but if you cannot prove it when asked, it does not count.

The NMBA does not mandate a specific format for CPD records. But your documentation should, at a minimum, capture:

Date of the activity
Title or description of the activity
Provider (if applicable)
Number of hours claimed
How it relates to your practice (brief statement)
What you learned or how it changed your practice (reflection)

Certificates of completion are helpful but not strictly required for every activity. For self-directed learning, a log entry with a reflection note is sufficient. For workplace learning like case reviews, a brief record of the session, what was discussed, and what you took away is enough.

Here are some practical documentation tips:

Keep records as you go. Do not try to reconstruct a year of CPD from memory in May. Spend two minutes after each activity logging it. Your future self will thank you.

Use a single system. Whether it is a spreadsheet, a dedicated CPD app, or a compliance tracking platform, pick one place and stick with it. Scattered records across email folders, filing cabinets, and sticky notes are a recipe for panic at renewal time.

Save evidence. Certificates, receipts, conference programmes, journal articles you read, screenshots of completed online modules. Store them digitally in one folder.

Write brief reflections. The NMBA values reflective practice. You do not need to write an essay. Two or three sentences on what you learned and how it applies to your work is plenty. "Attended wound care webinar. Updated my knowledge on negative pressure wound therapy indications. Will apply to my assessment of complex wound patients in clinic."

Map CPD to your practice context. If you are a perioperative nurse, your CPD should mostly relate to perioperative practice. The occasional broader topic is fine, but your portfolio should tell a coherent story about maintaining and developing competence in your area of work.

If you manage a team, consider a centralised approach to CPD tracking. Platforms that let you assign, track, and verify CPD completion across your workforce save significant administrative time. You can explore options for team CPD management that handle this at scale.

What happens if nurses don't meet CPD requirements?

AHPRA conducts random audits of CPD compliance each year. If you are selected for audit and cannot demonstrate that you met the 20-hour minimum, the consequences escalate depending on how far short you fall and how cooperative you are.

The audit process. AHPRA will contact you (usually by email) and ask you to provide evidence of your CPD for the relevant registration period. You typically have 30 days to respond. This is not optional.

If you are slightly short. If you completed 18 hours instead of 20, you will likely receive a caution and be required to make up the shortfall. This is not ideal but it is not career-ending.

If you are significantly short or have no records. This is where things get serious. The NMBA may impose conditions on your registration, require you to complete additional CPD within a set timeframe, or refer you for further investigation. In extreme cases, this can lead to suspension of your registration.

If you made a false declaration. When you renew your registration, you declare that you have met your CPD requirements. If an audit reveals you declared compliance when you had not actually completed the required hours, this is treated as a professional conduct matter. False declarations can result in formal disciplinary action.

Other consequences. Even if you are not audited, failing to maintain your CPD puts you at professional risk. If something goes wrong in your practice and your employer or a coroner asks for your CPD records, gaps will not look good. CPD compliance is also increasingly tied to employer requirements, credentialing processes, and professional indemnity insurance.

The bottom line: 20 hours across 12 months is not a heavy burden. Spread it across the year and document as you go. The effort of staying compliant is far less than the effort of dealing with the fallout of non-compliance.

For a summary of recent changes to CPD rules across all AHPRA professions, see our 2025 requirements update.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours of CPD do nurses need in Australia?

All nurses registered with AHPRA must complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD per year. This applies to registered nurses, enrolled nurses, midwives, and nurse practitioners equally. The requirement is set by the NMBA and has been consistent for several years (NMBA, 2024).

Does CPD have to be accredited for AHPRA?

No. The NMBA does not require CPD activities to be accredited by a specific body. The test is whether the activity is relevant to your context of practice and contributes to your professional development. That said, accredited courses from recognised providers are easier to document and defend in an audit.

Can I do all my CPD online?

Yes. The NMBA does not mandate face-to-face attendance for any portion of your CPD. Online courses, webinars, and self-directed e-learning all count, provided they are relevant to your practice and you can document them. Browse available online CPD courses that are designed for Australian healthcare professionals.

What if I am on parental leave or extended sick leave?

AHPRA recognises that circumstances may prevent you from meeting CPD or practice hour requirements. You can apply for an exemption based on documented reasons such as parental leave, serious illness, or carer responsibilities. The exemption process is outlined in AHPRA's CPD exemptions fact sheet (AHPRA, 2019). Apply before your renewal date, not after.

Do I need a CPD plan?

The NMBA strongly recommends having a written CPD plan but does not currently mandate one for nurses and midwives. A plan helps you target your learning, spread it across the year, and demonstrate intentionality if audited. It does not need to be elaborate. A simple list of topics you want to cover, mapped to your practice context, is sufficient.

Is CPD the same as in-service training at my workplace?

Not necessarily. In-service education that develops your professional knowledge and skills can count as CPD. Mandatory compliance training that is purely administrative (like annual fire warden training or workplace bullying modules) generally does not, unless you can demonstrate genuine learning relevant to your nursing practice. The distinction is between development and compliance tick-boxing.

Making CPD work for you

CPD should not be something you dread or cram into the last week of May. The nurses who handle it best treat it as a natural part of their professional life rather than an administrative chore.

Start the registration year with a rough plan. Look at what has changed in your specialty area. Identify one or two areas where you feel less confident. Book a course or two early. Then fill the gaps with workplace learning, reading, and peer discussions as the year progresses.

If you are looking for structured CPD that is designed specifically for Australian healthcare professionals, explore AHCRA's course offerings. If you need to manage CPD compliance across a team or organisation, check out our pricing options for volume access.

The 20-hour minimum is a floor, not a ceiling. The best clinicians treat it as a starting point.

Sources

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. "Fact sheet: Continuing professional development." NMBA, 2024. nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au
AHPRA. "Fact sheet: CPD exemptions." AHPRA, 2019. ahpra.gov.au
Medical Board of Australia. "Registration standard: Continuing professional development." AHPRA, 2023. ahpra.gov.au