Resources for the revised codes and guidelines

News

25 Mar 2014

The Advertising FAQ (March 2014) is being regularly updated with additional questions. Check back to this page to see the latest information available.

Revised guidelines, code and policy effective 17 March

Updated National Board requirements came into effect from 17 March:

revised Guidelines for advertising regulated health services
revised Guidelines for mandatory notifications
revised Code of conduct, and
new Social media policy.

These documents were developed and released by the National Boards regulating Australia’s 602,000 registered health practitioners through the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme).

The revised codes, guidelines and policy explain the National Boards’ expectations of practitioners and have been designed to improve awareness, understanding and compliance.

Health practitioners need to know and understand these documents to ensure their practice meets National Board expectations. National Boards released the content of these documents on 13 February on their websites, so that practitioners could familiarise themselves before the requirements take effect.

National Boards have also issued FAQs to answer questions asked since the new information was published.

The Guidelines for advertising regulated health services, Guidelines for mandatory notifications and Social media policy were developed jointly by the 14 National Boards in the National Scheme and apply to all registered health professions in Australia.

Most National Boards have a shared Code of conduct while some have different codes, see table below.

National Board	Code of conduct
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice	Shared code
Chinese Medicine	Shared code
Chiropractic	Shared code with minor modifications
Dental	Shared code
Medical	Separate code, Good medical practice
Medical Radiation Practice	Shared code with minor modifications
Nursing and Midwifery	Separate code, review progressing separately
Occupational Therapy	Shared code
Optometry	Shared code with minor modifications, review progressing separately
Osteopathy	Shared code
Pharmacy	Shared code with minor modifications
Physiotherapy	Shared code
Podiatry	Shared code
Psychology	Separate Code of ethics, reviewed last year

FAQ and additional information

FAQ (118 KB,DOCX) on the transition from the previous to the new/revised documents.
FAQ (119 KB,DOCX) on advertising - revised 24 March 2014
Document (513 KB,DOCX) showing the differences between the previous and revised Mandatory notifications guidelines.
Document (634 KB,DOCX) showing the differences between the previous and revised shared Code of conduct.

For more information

Lodge an online enquiry form
For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 8708 9001 (overseas callers)
For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200