History and Methodology of the Competency Standards
The Competency Standards for naturopathic practitioners were first created in 2013 by a committee of naturopaths. The original document was modeled on existing documents available through the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and, where possible, benchmarked against National Boards such as Chinese Medicine, Chiropractic, Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery, Osteopathy, and Pharmacy. The standards were subsequently reviewed in 2015 and 2019 following calls for submissions from naturopathic stakeholders, including all naturopathic associations and the higher education sector.
In 2026, a comprehensive review of the competency standards was undertaken by the ARONAH board. To guide the development of the core domains and key competencies outlined in this document, a comparative analysis was performed against similar frameworks detailing the knowledge, skills, professional attributes, and competencies required for both registered and non-registered health professions in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
2026 Draft ARONAH Naturopathic Competency Standards (PDF)
The current standards were comprehensively benchmarked against materials provided by participating Australian and New Zealand stakeholder associations, including the Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA), the Complementary Medicine Association (CMA), and the Naturopaths & Medical Herbalists of New Zealand (NMHNZ). Furthermore, the review team analyzed international naturopathic competencies from Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, and the USA, alongside the National Prescribing Competencies Framework (Australia). The framework was also rigorously benchmarked against a wide array of regulated health professions and professional bodies, including:
- Chinese Medicine Board of Australia
- Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (specifically Nurse Practitioners)
- Psychology Board of Australia
- Pharmacy Board of Australia
- Dietitians Australia
- Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)
- Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC)
The structural format for these updated Competency Standards draws extensively from the Australian and New Zealand College of Perfusionists (ANZCP) Competency Standards for Clinical Perfusionists.
Key Updates in the May 2026 Draft
The May 2026 draft represents a major redesign of our professional standards rather than a minor revision. While the earlier ARONAH standards utilized 15 broad competencies, this updated version reorganizes the framework into six core domains and 19 distinct competencies. This shift adopts a contemporary domain > competency > evidence of competency structure used across regulated Australian health-profession frameworks.
Crucially, this new draft moves the profession from a general, internal competency set toward a public-safety, health-system-facing framework. It modernizes professional expectations by explicitly addressing:
- An explicit, measurable definition of threshold competence.
- Public health obligations.
- Cultural safety, health equity.
- Emerging healthcare environments, including digital communication, telehealth, and AI enabled tools.
- High-risk clinical contexts.
- Expanded requirements for therapeutic product safety, pharmacology, lawful supply, traceability, and pharmacovigilance.
- Clearer clinical systems management, risk-escalation, red flags, and clinical governance protocols.
By unbundling clinical activities into distinct, traceable competencies, this document brings naturopathy closer to the language of regulated health fields. It provides clear guidance to practitioners, while making it substantially easier for educators and assessors to map curricula, placement outcomes, and clinical assessments.
Invitation to Respond
We invite suitably qualified and experienced parties to review this updated ARONAH document to ensure the framework is contemporary, relevant, and useful for the future of the profession.
The preferred format for stakeholder submissions is:
- Content requiring change
- Justification of required change
- Example modification to existing content
Submissions will be reviewed by the ARONAH board, and modifications will be incorporated as appropriate into the finalized versions of the documents. All submissions will be published on the ARONAH website unless expressly stated otherwise by the submitting party. A document review board summary report outlining the changes made to each document and the justification for those changes will also be published on the website.
Key dates for this review are indicated below. While ARONAH will make every effort to maintain this schedule, it reserves the right to vary these dates as deemed necessary.
Consultation opens: 25th May 2026
Consultation closes: 7th June 2026
Changes considered and document finalised: 22nd June 2026
Board report released: 26th June 2026