Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and its Role in Healthcare Professionals in New Zealand

This paper discusses the scope and functions of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCA) 2003 and its role and significance in the role of health professionals in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It also compares and contrasts palliative care with pediatric care and discusses the scopes and standards of practice related to both these professionals.

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Introduction
Healthcare sector has become the most crucial yet effective sector in this 21st century
as advancement of the healthcare means has increased the possibility of positive outcomes
and has developed interventions for critical healthcare conditions (Shannon & McKenzie-
Green, 2016). However, with advancement of the healthcare means, illegal healthcare
facilities and professionals has acquired a large section of community, thereby increasing
their risk of disease burden (Lovatt et al., 2015). To protect these communities from harmful
effect of such actions, the New Zealand government has implemented The Health
Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 so that people could be provided with safe and
secured healthcare service by trained and registered healthcare professionals
(Legislation.govt.nz, 2019). Besides this, this act helps public by protecting their health and
safety rights and ensures that healthcare professionals show competence to quality and safety
throughout their practice (Legislation.govt.nz, 2019).
The primary aim of this paper is to discuss the scope as well as the functions of the
Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCA) 2003 and its role and significance
in the role of health professionals in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Further, with application of this
act, the role of palliative care practitioner would be compared with the pediatric care nursing.
Finally, the scopes and standards of practice related to both these professionals would be
discussed.
The HPCA (2003) Act
The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA) was passed by the
NZ parliament on 11th September 2003 and from 18th September 2003, the act was completely
implemented in the healthcare system (along with 13 other professions) of New Zealand
(Ministry of Health NZ, 2019). This act was implemented in the healthcare sector so that

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healthcare professionals that do not bear any professional license could be tracked and the
risk of safety and security related harm could be eliminated for the benefit of public
(Legislation.govt.nz, 2019). Due to implementation of this act, all the professions come under
the umbrella of one legislation due to which it is easy to regulate these professions (Ministry
of Health NZ, 2019). The primary aim and purpose of this act is to determine that all the
healthcare professionals working with governmental registration are complying with the
legislations and are implementing safety and security aspects in their care process
(Legislation.govt.nz, 2019). However, in this section, it should be clarified that there are
many healthcare professionals that do not require the registration under this act, as the risk
and harm related to their care processes are minimal (Ministry of Health NZ, 2019). Hence,
as per Ministry of Health NZ (2019), if any healthcare profession does not regulated under
this act, that does not make the profession illegal.
Scope and function of HPCA (2003) Act
The primary function of this act is to protect the public seeking service from
healthcare professionals and ensure that all the healthcare professionals are complying with
their professional rights and responsibilities (Ministry of Health NZ, 2019). Hence, the scope
and function of this HCPA act is to determine and develop a regulatory and accountability
regime for the care professionals registered under this act. Further, the primary scope of this
act is to determine that no healthcare professional practices beyond their scope of practice so
that they could practice under or within their scope of practice. Hence, it works by restricting
the services that are conducted beyond the scope of practice of healthcare professionals
(Ministry of Health NZ, 2019).
While addressing the function of this act, the two of three most important power that
this possess should be discussed. As per this act, if the regulatory authorities that regulates
the healthcare act are unable to identify any illegal action, then they would be questioned for

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justifications and they would be held accountable for the processes (Ministry of Health NZ,
2019). Further, the healthcare professional’s regulatory authorities would be appointed by the
healthcare ministers through direct recruitment due to which, the scope of authenticity and
compliance with the care professionals would increase (Ministry of Health NZ, 2019).
Significance of this act with the role of health professionals in Aotearoa/New Zealand
The previous sections mentioned the role of this act to determine that the healthcare
professionals registered or regulated under this act could comply with their professional
codes and duties (Oliver, Wilson & Malpas, 2017). This makes this act one of the most
crucial act that makes the illegal healthcare acts preventable in New Zealand. However, this
act also plays a key role in determining the role of healthcare professionals working in the
healthcare facilities across the nation (Legislation.govt.nz). As per Ministry of Health NZ
(2019), the healthcare regulatory bodies and the healthcare ministry has already developed an
effective and amended healthcare roles and responsibilities related competency for the
healthcare professionals such as the registered nurse, nurse practitioners, enrolled nursing
professional and the nurse assistance. These jobs have different set of responsibilities
determined for them and hence, with application of HPCA, it is easier to regulate that all the
healthcare professionals belonging to each job role are performing their tasks effectively and
complying with their ethical roles and responsibilities (Legislation.govt.nz, 2019). Further, all
the healthcare professionals working under their job roles are provided with a practicing
certificate for their ability to perform their won roles and responsibilities so that while serving
to the people, they could comply with their safety and security aspects (Shannon &
McKenzie-Green, 2016). However, this regulation and determination of job roles are
implemented in several healthcare professionals in which the risk of harm is present. In job
roles related to mental healthcare or physiotherapeutic healthcare acts, are minimal and hence

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these professionals and job roles are not regulated under the common regulatory act under the
HPCA act 2003 (Legislation.govt.nz, 2019).
Comparing and contrasting palliative care with pediatric care
As per The Ministry of Health NZ (2019), palliative care or the end of life care helps
the patients who are at the end stage of their life, with dignified and compassionate support
and care. This job role aims to provide the patients suffering from end of life sufferings with
optimized quality of care so that patients and their physical, mental, psychological and
spiritual needs could be addressed within their community base care approach (Ministry of
Health NZ, 2019). Further, it also aims to provide the patients and their family with support
so that in the time of their loss, they could be consoled and a therapeutic relationship could be
developed between the nursing professionals or caregivers and the patients and their families
(Legislation.govt.nz, 2019). On the other hand, the pediatric care in New Zealand is based on
the value that all the children should be provided with rights related to optimal physical and
mental health with social growth (Ministry of Health NZ, 2019). Hence, it promotes and
spread awareness about the importance of nutrition for the holistic growth of children across
the nation. In this aspect it should be mentioned that the roles and responsibilities of both of
these care professionals are different and requires a different set of ethical code of conducts
that has been developed so that their professional achievement and responsibilities could be
regulated through the use of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003
(Ministry of Health NZ, 2019).
As per the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, the code of standard
and practice standards should be associated with the job roles and responsibilities of the
process (Paediatric Society of New Zealand, 2019). For palliative care, as per the HPCA the
professionals require integrity, professionalism, duties towards the patients involved in the
care process and their duties towards their employers so that holistic care could be provided

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to the patients. As per Ministry of Health NZ (2019), these standards determine that all the
patients that are involved in the care process should be provided with effective and critical
care so that all the misconducted, misrepresentation, objectively, and law related to the
knowledge of the ethical codes could be effectively understood. Hence, as per the Paediatric
Society of New Zealand (2019), the ethical and practice related codes make this profession
applicable for regulation under the laws of HPCA 2003. However, on the other hand, while
working with children in New Zealand, the healthcare professionals do not ways involve in
the healthcare treatment of the patients but are involved in the care process through
awareness, education and training to the parents so that they could conduct the care of their
children on their own (Paediatric Society of New Zealand, 2019). Hence, as per Shannon and
McKenzie-Green (2016), this profession or specific section of this profession is not involved
in the regulation process directly. Therefore, this is the core difference between the job roles
of professionals associated with the palliative and pediatric care working in the healthcare
facilities of New Zealand.
Conclusion
While concluding the report, it should be mentioned that majority of the healthcare
professionals and their job roles are being regulated by the Health Practitioners Competence
Assurance Act 2003. After implementation of this, the care professionals are able to
understand that their roles and responsibilities are scrutinized effectively and they do not
perform tasks that are beyond their job roles and responsibilities. Hence, this effectively
determine the effectiveness of the care process. This report effectively points out the
significance and function of this act and with description of two job roles and responsibilities,
differentiates the way this act helps in the identification and regulation of risk factors.

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References
Legislation.govt.nz. (2019). Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 No 48 (as
at 12 April 2019), Public Act – New Zealand Legislation. Retrieved 5 August 2019,
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disability-system/health-practitioners-competence-assurance-act
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