For those who don’t know what OnlyFans is - it’s an online subscription platform in which members pay for content from a range of people, including chefs, photographers and celebrities. Still, it is best known for its…more saucy forms of adult content.

For many Australians, it’s a huge source of income and has become a popular side hustle.

The fear for the Council is that medical workers are at risk of being “a distraction for patients” even if they produce explicit content on their own time and in a way that does not identify their profession.

The Council had sent an email to nurses and midwives, “OnlyFans - Are you breaching the professional standards by subscribing to online services?”.

“If a practitioner is the content creator, then being recognised or publishing photographs in uniform, they could be reported for their conduct - deemed by the complainant as unprofessional, or as one said, a distraction for patients,” the email as shown by the Sydney Morning Herald explained.

“The social media guidance is clear on the obligation of nurses and midwives to maintain professional boundaries, and where relevant the Nursing and Midwifery Board may consider social media use in your private life (even when there is no identifiable link to you as a registered health practitioner) if it raises concerns about your fitness to hold registration.”

Some nurses were alarmed by the warning, with one referring to it as “slut-shaming”, and the nurses’ union said it didn’t object to workers earning a second income from online platforms.

So can nurses and midwives still provide responsible patient care and sell salacious content online?

With costs of living pressures rising and the wages of medical staff like nurses and midwives a constant discussion - it’s a question that is likely to spur wider legal implications on content creators in the workplace.

The starting wage for a registered nurse or midwife in NSW is $67,000.