The Dental Board of Australia has released a public consultation paper to seek feedback on the proposed revision to the Scope of practice registration standard and proposed guidelines. The draft guidelines were released on the Board’s website on Wednesday, and closes on June 19.
According to a release put out by the board, the Scope of practice registration standard was developed by the Dental Board of Australia and approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council on 22 April 2010. The Scope of practice registration standard came into effect from 1 July 2010 and established the requirements for the scope of practice for all registered dental practitioners.
When approving the standard, Ministerial Council requested that it be reviewed by the National Board within 12 to 18 months after taking effect in order to assess whether it had any unintended and negative impacts on the scope of practice of dental hygienists, dental therapists and oral health therapists. On 23 May last year Ministerial Council released the Scope of practice review oral health practitioners report (the Health Workforce Australia (HWA) report) to the National Board. At that time, Ministerial Council also requested that the National Board provide advice to Ministers on scope of practice and new models of care and training, as part of its review of the standard.
The Health Workforce Australia (HWA) report made five recommendations on the standard:
- adjust the standard to reflect team based practice with autonomous decision making and without supervision requirements for review within five years, with a view to remove the bar on independent practice
- clarify the age restriction for dental therapists and oral health therapists when practicing dental therapy on persons of all ages
- develop a general description of all dental practitioners which is understandable by the public
- assist dental professionals to simply describe their scope of practice and update it regularly, and
- develop and implement a national communication strategy to explain and describe the current standard and any changes.
With respect to the recommendations above, relating to seeking further clarification with respect to scope of practice, the National Board has also received general feedback, particularly within the dental hygiene, dental therapy and oral health therapy divisions, that there was uncertainty about their scope of practice. This was also reflected in the HWA report, which states that with the removal of more prescriptive requirements which existed in some jurisdictions prior to the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme), dental practitioners were unclear about their scope of practice requirements.
The Board has recommended some changes to the standard, which are outlined on their website at www.dentalboard.gov.au.
