Nurses and midwives · Australia · regulator page checked 05 Oct 2026
How many CPD hours do nurses and midwives need in Australia?
At least 20 hours of CPD each registration year, for each registration held, relevant to your context of practice. Someone registered as both a nurse and a midwife needs 20 hours for each. If you register part-way through the year the requirement is pro rata.
Photo: Unsplash- Regulator
- Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), under Ahpra
- Hours
- 20 each registration year, per registration held
- Relevance
- Must relate to your context of practice
- Course approval
- None. The Board does not approve individual courses.
- Source
- NMBA, Understanding CPD for nurses and midwives
What counts
The Board accepts a broad range of activity, including online learning and reading, provided it is relevant to practice and you can show what you learned. Because no regulator approves individual commercial courses for nurses, the quality check falls to you. That is the gap a verification mark is meant to help with: click it, and see who reviewed the course and until when.
What to keep
- The certificate, named with the date first
- What it covered, and the hours and completion date
- Two or three sentences of reflection
- One line on why you chose it
More: what to keep in case of audit · Australia and New Zealand compared.
Questions
How many CPD hours do nurses need in Australia?
At least 20 hours of CPD each registration year, for each registration held, relevant to the nurse's or midwife's context of practice. Someone registered as both a nurse and a midwife needs 20 hours for each. The requirement is pro rata for part-year registration.
Does the NMBA approve CPD courses?
No. The Board sets the hours and relevance requirement and accepts a broad range of activity, including online learning and reading, provided it is relevant to practice and the nurse can show what was learned. The quality check on a commercial course falls to the nurse.
What records should a nurse keep for CPD?
For each activity: the certificate, what it covered, hours and completion date, a short reflection, and why it was chosen. Keep a single log with one row per activity. If a provider carries a verification mark, click it and confirm the activity is listed and in date.
Seen the mark on a nursing course? Look up its number. CPD Council is not a regulator and does not decide what the Board accepts.