An Bord Altranais is the regulatory body for the nursing profession.
Its main functions are:
- to establish and maintain a register of nurses;
- to provide for the education and training of nurses and student nurses;
- to inquire into the conduct of a registered nurse on the grounds of alleged professional misconduct or alleged unfitness to engage in such practice by reason of physical or mental disability;
- to give guidance to the profession;
- to manage the Nursing Careers Centre, which was set up in 1998 to facilitate a centralised system of processing and selection of applicants wishing to enter nursing; promote and market nursing as a career; provide careers information to registered nurses and midwives.