title: Professional portfolios and Australian registered nurses' requirements for licensure: developing an essential tool.
abstract: A requirement of many nurses in the process of licensing for practice each year is a declaration of continuing competence to practice. In Australia, each state and territory currently has its own regulatory authority for nurses and midwives, whose main role is to protect public safety. Like many other registering authorities in the Asia-Pacific region, Australian regulatory authorities undertake the random auditing of nurses and midwives in order to assess their competence to practice. Professional portfolios commonly are considered to be a tool that nurses can use to demonstrate to regulatory authorities, employers, and others how they meet the required competencies. This article examines the different types of portfolios that fall under the umbrella term, professional portfolio, and recommends that nurses explore the strategies that identify evidence of their continuing competence to practice for inclusion in such a document.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Gippsland Campus, Monash University, Churchill, Victoria 3842, Australia. jane.mills@med.monash.edu.au
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mills
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007586:Job Application; D008008:Licensure, Nursing / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*