Authorised midwives – legislative requirements

Authorised midwives

The term 'authorised midwife' is defined in the Regulations as a registered midwife whose registration is endorsed under section 94 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. For more details, refer to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia website and the endorsement 'Eligible Midwife – Prescribe Scheduled Medicines'.

In addition to the authorisation applicable to other midwives, an authorised midwife is authorised to obtain, possess, use, supply or prescribe any medicines in Schedules 2, 3, 4 or 8 in the lawful practice of his or her profession as an authorised midwife (section 13 of the Act). This approval was published in the Victorian Government Gazette No. G 35 Thursday 29 August 2024.

In addition to the authorisation applicable to other midwives, an authorised midwife is authorised to obtain, possess, use, supply or prescribe medicines in Schedules 2, 3, 4 or 8 that are ‘approved by the Minister’ (for Health) in the lawful practice of his or her profession as an authorised midwife (section 13 of the Act). This authorisation does not extend to:

• activities unrelated to his or her endorsed practice
• supplying medicines that have been prescribed by another registered health practitioner (e.g. for self, spouse or employees); that is the role of a pharmacist
• supplying scheduled poisons by wholesale, an activity that requires a wholesale licence.

An authorised midwife’s scope of practice will be supported by an employer’s clinical governance framework and will be guided by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s professional practice framework, which details how professional decision-making within a sound risk management, professional, regulatory and legislative framework is to be managed.

Important clarification

In general, regulatory requirements are applicable to each authorised midwife but the circumstances of employment need to be considered to ensure compliance with the regulations.

Hospitals (and some other health services providers) are authorised to possess and use scheduled medicines in accordance with the conditions of a Health Services Permit (HSP) and related documents that are specific to each permit holder and will contain details relating to the manner in which medicines are to be obtained, stored, used, recorded and destroyed.

In some cases, the HSP and related documents will contain requirements that are more specific or additional to regulatory requirements that relate, in general, to authorised midwives. The current version of these documents, which is commonly controlled by the Director of Nursing or Director of Pharmacy, should be available for perusal by relevant staff; in some cases, it is available on a hospital’s intranet.

However, if an authorised midwife is not practising under the auspices of a health services provider, issues relating to the manner in which scheduled medicines are obtained, possessed, used, recorded and destroyed will be the sole responsibility of the authorised midwife to whom the medicines are supplied.

Safe, lawful and appropriate treatment

In addition to the requirement to ensure treatment is lawful, authorised midwives are required to meet professional standards that are contained in other legislation and that are determined by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Authorised midwives must not issue a prescription or otherwise authorise treatment without satisfying themselves that it is safe, appropriate and lawful to treat the patient with the medication. Issuing a prescription or otherwise authorising treatment, simply because another practitioner has done so, is unlikely to satisfy the regulatory requirement to take 'all reasonable steps' to ensure there is a therapeutic need.

This website contains a range of documents, in the section for documents to print or download, which summarise the legislative requirements and issues that relate to all registered nurses and midwives, including one document that is specific to nurse practitioners (see below).

Nurses and midwives

• Nurses and midwives - key legislative requirements in Victoria
• Authorised midwives - key legislative requirements in Victoria
• Nurse practitioners - key legislative requirements in Victoria

In addition to the preceding documents, which are intended primarily for nurses and midwives, the following documents contain information that relates to multiple categories of health practitioner:

Matters that relate to many health practitioners

• Possession and storage - includes regulatory requirements and matters to be notified to authorities
• Supply, administration and records - includes software and recording requirements, destruction of Schedule 8 poisons and labelling requirements for dispensed medicines
• All reasonable steps and other key terms - includes an explanation of the meaning and application of the subjective term 'all reasonable steps', which appears in several regulations, and how it might be applied to certain situations
• Schedule 2 and 3 poisons - legislative requirements for health practitioners