I was wondering how to ensure that participants in postgraduate courses have recent clinical practice. Nurses and Midwives in non-clinical roles can maintain registration if their role pertains to nursing & midwifery respectively, but they may not have practiced clinically (direct patient care) for many years.
Some post grad skill-based courses involve advanced skills and intimate, sensitive examination. In these cases it may be inappropriate for such candidates to be accepted into the course without first doing a refresher.
Apart from asking participants on course enrollment how many clinical hours in the past 12 months they have done, is there a way to ensure current clinical practice? There does not seem a way to distinguish current clinicians from those requiring a refresher when checking the AHPRA register and a phone call to AHPRA says that this information is not available without legal recourse.
Has this issue has arisen for anyone and if so, how have you addressed it?
I look forward to your thought on this. Cheers, Edwina