Educating and preparing competent nurses

The Nursing Council is responsible to the public of New Zealand for the registration of nurses, enrolled nurses and nurse practitioners.

The Nursing Council has an important role in setting standards for nursing education.  It prescribes the qualifications and the education standards for nursing programmes in each scope of nursing practice to ensure that graduates are well prepared and competent to meet the health care needs of New Zealanders.

In addition to setting the standards for education providers offering nursing programmes, the Nursing Council approves and monitors the programmes.   It ensures that tertiary education institutions are kept informed about legislative requirements regarding competence and current Council policies to protect public safety.  The Council maintains oversight of educational and clinical issues and works closely with both education providers and government quality assurance agencies such as Committee on University Academic Programmes (CUAP), Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics New Zealand (ITPQ) and New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

Other work includes the approval of education programmes for nurses who wish to change the conditions in their scope of practice, and ensuring policies such as the clinical-hours requirement and programme length are met for individual nurses in the undergraduate programmes.  A review of the undergraduate programme standards is currently underway.

Click here for Education programme standards for the registered nurse scope of practice.