Specialist registration

Specialist registration may be granted if you meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements set out in sections 57 and 58 of the National Law, as well as any registration standards issued by your National Board.

The Ministerial Council approved the recognised specialties and specialist titles for each recognised specialty. You may be granted specialist registration in dentistry, medicine and podiatry.

See Specialties & Specialty Fields for a complete list. Also refer to the registration standards of your relevant health profession.

You may be eligible for and hold both general registration and specialist registration at the same time. If you qualified overseas and do not hold an approved undergraduate or entry level qualification, you may hold specialist registration only, and be limited to practising only in your specialty.　

Using professional titles

If you hold specialist registration in a recognised specialty, you are not limited to using only the specialist title. You may use any other title of your choice, as long as you do not present yourself as holding a type of registration (including specialist registration) that you do not hold.

Using ‘specialist’ title without holding specialist registration

You must take care in your use of professional titles to avoid misleading the public into believing that you are a specialist practitioner when you are not. This includes when there is no specialist registration available to a health profession under the National Scheme or when you are not registered by your National Board as a specialist.　

Difference between specialist registration and endorsement for area of practice

Specialist registration and endorsement for areas of practice are mechanisms available under the National Law. They both identify one or more sub-groups or classes within a health profession whose members have specific characteristics that are different from the rest of the profession.

There are currently three professions with specialist registration under the National Law: podiatry, dental and medicine. The Ministerial Council (Australia’s health ministers) is responsible for approving a list of specialties for each profession and for approving one or more specialist titles for each specialty on the list.

An endorsement of registration recognises that a person has an extended scope of practice in a particular area because they have an additional qualification that is approved by the National Board.

Under the National Law it is an offence for:

• an unauthorised person to advertise themselves as holding endorsement of registration in an area of practice, and
• a person to advertise themselves as a specialist when they are not.