Overview
In June 2016, ANMAC completed the first full cycle of accreditations for all nursing and midwifery programs. ANMAC accredits 232 nursing and midwifery programs across the five-year cycle. The distribution of programs that require accreditation in each year of the cycle is not even.
In December 2014 the Independent Review of National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions was finalised. The report highlighted three areas where accreditation authorities need to improve:
- Cost of accreditation
- Transparency of the process
- Duplication and the need to streamline the development of standards.
The Independent Review of National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions recommended a further review be conducted with a specific focus on Accreditation. The National Review of Accreditation will be held in 2016-2017.
ANMAC accreditation review
The alignment of these key activities provided ANMAC with an opportunity to review the accreditation process. Early in 2016, ANMAC engaged a third party consultancy firm to review the accreditation process. The key objectives of this work were to:
- Deliver a more cost effective and efficient accreditation process
- Improve agility and responsiveness to change external workflow demands
- Implement a restructured accreditation process to reduce the timeframe both internally for ANMAC and externally for education providers
- Increase transparency of the accreditation process based on risk
The ANMAC Board endorsed the recommendations in July 2016. The goal of the recommendations is to achieve efficiencies in our assessing and accrediting processes. The accreditation process will be streamlined, making it more proactive, targeted and agile.
What does this mean for our education providers?
ANMAC will endeavor to minimise the impact these changes have on stakeholders. There may be delays in processing some accreditation assessments due to the implementation of the new accreditation processes. If your submission is affected, we will contact you to renegotiate timelines.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) has been informed of the review process. ANMAC is continuing to maintain communication with the NMBA regarding any changes.
Further information
For further information please contact communications@anmac.org.au