Specialist registration may be granted if you meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements set out in sections 57 and 58 of the National Law, as well as any registration standards issued by your National Board.
The Ministerial Council approved the recognised specialties and specialist titles for each recognised specialty, and may be granted to practitioners in dentistry, medicine and podiatry.
See Specialties & Specialty Fields for a complete tabulated list. Also refer to the registration standards of your relevant health profession.
You may be eligible for and hold both general registration and specialist registration at the same time. If you qualified overseas and do not hold an approved undergraduate or entry level qualification, you may hold specialist registration only, and be limited to practising only in your specialty.
Using professional titles
A practitioner who holds specialist registration in a recognised specialty is not limited to using only the specialist title approved by the Ministerial Council. A registered specialist may use any other title of their choice, as long as they do not present themselves as holding a type of registration (including specialist registration) that they do not hold.
Using ‘specialist’ title without holding specialist registration
When there is no specialist registration available to a health profession under the National Scheme, registered practitioners must take care in their use of professional titles. This will avoid misleading the public into believing that you are a specialist practitioner when you are not. Using the title ‘specialist’ when you are not registered by your National Board as a specialist has the potential to mislead members of the public about your registration status.
Difference between specialist registration and endorsement for area of practice
Specialist registration and endorsement for areas of practice are both mechanisms available under the National Law. They both identify on a public register one or more sub-groups or classes within a health profession whose members have specific characteristics that are different from the rest of the profession.
There are offences under the National Law that prohibit both:
- unauthorised persons from advertising themselves as holding endorsement of registration in an area of practice and
- persons from advertising themselves as specialists when they are not.