Registration FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about the Registration
1. Why is the NHAA seeking registration?

The NHAA has supported a form of statutory registration for Naturopaths and Herbalists since the 1920s.  Registration ensures minimum practitioner education standards and provides protection of title. Protection of title means that only those who are qualified can practice under the title of ‘Naturopath’ or ‘Herbalist’.

Importantly, professional registration protects the public from untrained or poorly trained practitioners claiming to be something they are not. The only way to guarantee the bona fides of a naturopath or herbalist is through registration.

2. What are the benefits of registration?

Registration provides many benefits, including:

  • A readily accessible and publicly available register of accredited practitioners
  • Assurance that practitioners are suitably qualified to practice
  • Easier access to an independent complaints process
  • Improved communication between health professions
3. How will registration benefit Naturopaths and Herbalists?

Registration benefits the practitioners in many ways. These include:

  • Ability to communicate more readily with other healthcare professions
  • Ability for other healthcare practitioners to find a registered practitioner who they can be confident has the required training and ethical standards so they can refer their patients without fear of taking on a vicarious legal liability. Assured continuing access to herbal medicines and other tools of trade
  • Increased community confidence in the professions and its practitioners, with the ability for the public or prospective patients to check whether a practitioner is registered or find a registered practitioner who they can consult with.
4. What is the history of NHAA’s involvement in the registration process?

Over the NHAA’s history, we have worked on many initiatives to build and sustain high-quality education standards, support clinical practice and access to our medicines, as well as advocating for the profession and promoting the value of our services in health care.

Something that the NHAA has consistently viewed as integral to the continuation and development of a sustainable and valued profession is registration. This has been one of our priorities for many years, and  we have continued to make progress on this issue. Right now, we are closer than we’ve ever been to advancing the cause of registration.

5. Will our Scope of Practice be constrained?

No. The Australian Health Practitioner Registration Agency (AHPRA) provides a framework for a Naturopathy Registration Board to oversee the profession.

The Naturopathy Registration Board, which will be established when naturopathy achieves registration, will be made up of members of the profession, with one Naturopath representing each of the states and territories. The only other people on the Board would be two community representatives, with AHPRA simply providing administrative support.

Currently, practitioners are more controlled by the government than they would be if we had registration. For example, if someone makes a complaint about a Naturopath, it is reviewed by the health commissioner (or equivalent depending on the state/territory), with no input from any representatives of the profession to provide context. With statutory registration, however, the profession itself determines its own practice and education standards.

If anything, with statutory registration our scope of practice has the potential to broaden because in Australia Scope of Practice is determined by what you have been formally taught with very few Health Practices restricted by law.

The primary goal of APHRA is protection of the public through protection of the naturopath title so that only those who have the appropriate training can, by law, call themselves a naturopath.

6. Will I miss out if I don’t upgrade to a degree?

No, practitioners who are currently working as naturopaths or herbalists and hold non- degree qualifications (acquired before the end of 2018) which allows them to be a member of most professional associations, will be covered with the transition to professional registration.

Anyone who graduates after 2018 should be required to hold a bachelor’s degree to become a member of a professional association. Eventually, the minimum qualification for practice will be a bachelor’s degree. However, in the initial stages of registration (usually the first five years) there is a process referred to by AHPRA as grandparenting; this provision ensures that practitioners who are skilled and practicing are not unjustly disadvantaged because they have not completed an approved qualification. For example, in cases where a bachelor’s degree was not available at the time that practitioner trained, they would still be able to obtain registration via this pathway.

7. What about the traditions?

Naturopathy is a system of healthcare with a deep history of traditional philosophies and practices – our traditions define who we are as a profession.

  • First, Do No Harm (primum non nocere)
  • Healing Power of Nature (vis medicatrix naturae) • Treat the Cause (tolle causam)
  • Treat the Whole Person (tolle totum)
  • Doctor as Teacher (docere)
  • Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

These principles have international recognition and acceptance confirmed by the World Naturopathic Federation in 2016 after a worldwide review to collect and codify the foundational knowledge of naturopathy including naturopathic history, definitions, principles and theories from around the world.

8. But what about “Evidence based Medicine” won’t we need a double-blind study for everything we do?

No, when a profession becomes registered education and practice standards are established. This means that the Bachelor level degree curriculum will the accepted standard of training that will determine the standards of practice (with appropriate grandparenting arrangements in place), including philosophies, traditional evidence, diagnostics etc. Even the TGA acknowledges the value of Traditional Evidence, our traditional understandings and practices are more protected with Registration as the people who decide what is acceptable Naturopathic practice are members of the profession itself, because the Naturopathy Board is made up of practicing Naturopaths from each state/territory (and two members of the public).

9. Will we have to conform to the “Medical Model”?

No – The Naturopathic Board establishes the practice model.

The Australian Health Practitioner Registration Agency (AHPRA) provides a framework for a Naturopathy Registration Board to oversee the profession.

The Naturopathy Registration Board, which will be established when naturopathy achieves registration, will be made up of members of the profession, with one Naturopath representing each of the states and territories. As well as naturopaths on the Board there will be two community representatives, with AHPRA providing administrative support only.

Currently, practitioners are more controlled by the government than they would be if we had registration. For example, if someone makes a complaint about a Naturopath, it is reviewed by the health commissioner (or equivalent depending on the state/territory), with no input from any representatives of the profession to provide context. With statutory registration, however, the profession itself determines its own practice and education standards. If anything, with statutory registration our scope of practice has the potential to broaden because in Australia Scope of Practice is determined by what you have been formally taught with very few Health Practices restricted by law. The primary goal of APHRA is protection of the public through protection of the naturopath title so that only those who have the appropriate training can, by law, call themselves a naturopath.

10. Is Registration about being covered by MediCare?

No, registration and being able to claim on MediCare are two completely unrelated concepts. The work to add Naturopathy to NRAS has never been about expecting the government to pay for Naturopathy.

11. Will this make it easier for GPs to refer to Naturopaths/Herbalists?

Yes, currently if a GP refers to an unregistered practitioner, they can be held responsible for errors the practitioner they refer to might make. With Registration the Practitioner is regarded as an independent registered professional which makes it easier for other healthcare practitioners to find an appropriate practitioner who they can be confident has the required training and ethical standards so they can refer their patients.

12. I hear the last report failed – is that true?

No. The last report people are talking about in this context is probably the Lin et al., (2005) report. Rather than failing to achieve registration it convinced the Victorian government that Naturopathy and Western Herbal Medicine needed to be registered along with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

The Victorian Government decided to register one profession at a time and started with TCM, however, during that process and before Naturopathy and Western herbal medicine could be added it was decided to move health professional registration from state jurisdiction to federal under AHPRA overseen by NRAS. When the dust finally settled on the formation of AHPRA there was no official pathway in place for the addition of Health professions. We have been asking for this to be made available and in September 2018 it finally became available. Of course, enough time has now elapsed that we need to update the original Lin report.