A large number of lower-qualified nursing staff across Australia are not overseen by the national medical watchdog and their numbers are increasing, reports show.
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Nursing federation ACT secretary Jenny Miragaya has called for assistants in nursing to come under the scrutiny of the same board that looks over qualified nurses.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia oversees Canberra's 5600-plus registered and enrolled nurses, but does not have the power to oversee assistants-in-nursing, a cohort of workers rising in popularity at hospitals nationally.
The board has the ability to discipline misconduct as it works alongside the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Ms Miragaya said there appeared to be a trend of hospitals engaging assistants-in-nursing in more active roles as opposed to observational roles.
''The push is now to employ them as hands-on staff,'' Ms Miragaya said.
An ACT Health spokeswoman said 34.26 full-time equivalent assistants-in-nursing staff were employed at the Canberra Hospital last financial year, up from 19.01 three years ago ''to assist with care requirements over and above core nurse staffing numbers''.
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report clearly shows the trend of using more nursing assistants.
Ms Miragaya said she was particularly concerned about the aged care sector.
In 2003, 56.5 per cent of the aged care workforce were personal care assistants. This increased to 64.7 per cent in 2007 and 68.2 per cent in 2012.
In the same period, the proportion of registered nurses dropped from 21.4 per cent to 14.7 per cent while enrolled nurses decreased slightly from 12.5 per cent to 11.6 per cent.
''The workforce has less skills to look after people in aged care,'' Ms Miragaya said.
A leading Canberra agency supplying nurses, the ACT Nursing Service, says on its website there is increased demand for assistants-in-nursing.
''It involves supervision and care of patients who exhibit challenging behaviours or who are at risk of self-harm,'' its website says.
''This is generally on a 1:1 patient/ nurse ratio.
''Assistants-in-nursing can also work on the wards to help other nurses with workflow.
''In both instances the assistant nurse is under the clinical supervision and direction of the ward staff.''
A spokeswoman from AHPRA said it would be up to the ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher to add assistants-in-nursing to the national scheme beneath the nursing and midwifery board.
Health ministers make decisions about which professions are included in the national scheme, not AHPRA or the national boards.
''AINs [assistants-in-nursing] are not regulated at the moment,'' the spokeswoman said.
On Monday, a spokesman said Ms Gallagher was ''considering the option to include oversight of assistants-in-nursing by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia in the ACT''.
Meanwhile, responding to Fairfax Media reports, Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said he was concerned about rising rates of compensation for alleged medical malpractice cases.
''My view is that patients should have the right to be appropriately informed about doctors who have been found guilty of malpractice, misconduct or negligence,'' he said.
''The opposition is currently monitoring [malpractice] legislation recently tabled in Queensland and will be consulting healthcare consumers' groups and doctors about this issue.'' with Tom McIlroy
