Dunedin graduate torn between New Zealand and Australia
I would like to share my story
Unfortunately, I was not offered a new graduate position here in New Zealand.
After working in the health sector for 10 years before starting my nursing training — which took me four years — I can’t help but feel incredibly disappointed and deflated.
I worked incredibly hard throughout my degree, consistently achieving good grades and receiving excellent feedback from all my placements. I also received positive feedback from every patient I’ve ever had, with many telling me that I am going to be an amazing nurse. I felt so proud hearing that, as it affirmed the passion and care I pour into my work.
I really thought my interview had gone well, and for the first time in my life, I felt optimistic about what the future held.
However, when I didn’t get offered a position, it was a major blow. I have dedicated so much to my career and my education, and to face this setback has been hard to process.
This is one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever faced, and I’m torn between my professional aspirations and my desire to stay close to the people I love.
Now, I find myself considering the option of moving to Australia, something I never thought I’d contemplate. I’ve already started looking at new graduate positions there, and the support they offer, along with the better pay, is tempting. But the decision to move is not an easy one.
In addition to my career aspirations, I have a house, a partner, and pets that make the thought of moving even more difficult. My whole family is here in New Zealand, and I have a newborn nephew who is a huge part of my life. I don’t have much family, so having that close connection with him means the world to me.
I never imagined I’d have to leave them behind, but I also feel the weight of needing to move forward with my career and build a future for myself. The thought of being away from my family, especially my nephew, is heartbreaking, but I also know that staying in New Zealand without an opportunity to advance my career could hold me back in the long run.
It’s a real shame that I can’t share my skills and passion with my own country.
I feel ready to contribute to the health-care system here, but with no opportunity to do so at the moment, I’m left with the difficult decision of moving elsewhere.
This is one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever faced, and I’m torn between my professional aspirations and my desire to stay close to the people I love. I never imagined I’d be in this position, but it’s where I am now — trying to figure out what’s next while balancing all of the emotions that come with it.
Dunedin graduate of Otago Polytech
‘I can see they need more nurses’
The overall feeling of receiving news of not being matched is disappointment. To go through hundreds of hours of placement — which felt essentially like a 13-week interview — and then be turned down is very demotivating.
I have been training for five years now, because I had to swap universities and got knocked out by COVID-19 for a while.
I know I put in all my effort for the degree and the ACE [advanced choice of employment job-matching service] recruitment process so to not get a job after this is upsetting.
I’m completely unsure of what to do now. Essentially it’s a waiting game but I’m worried I will be out of a job with a huge student loan over my head.
I had to quit my part-time job due to the 13-week clinical placement in our final semester and now it might not be possible to use my nursing degree.
As a new nurse I’m wanting to learn and grow and a hospital setting is an ideal environment for improving our practice and knowledge.
It’s hard to understand why there aren’t enough jobs. Every ward I have been on placement in has had a shortage of staff, which impacts on the care the public get. I can see they need more nurses.
I have heard that the jobs some may be offered will be mostly in elderly residential homes. While this is where my passion for nursing began, I would prefer to start out in a place with more support for new graduates.
So, now I am applying overseas as it seems like the only option.
Overall this feels demotivating and really disappointing – it seems unfair to keep training nurses and have us accumulate a massive student loan without enough positions.
Auckland graduate
‘Disheartened and let down’ nursing graduate returns to hospitality
I applied for medical, surgical, perioperative, emergency and cardiothoracic but said I was willing to do anything. Prior to applying we weren’t aware that some of those areas weren’t hiring new graduates for the coming year. Had I known that I would have changed my choice of preferences.
I’m feeling really disheartened and let down to be completely honest.
We have been told for the past three years that we are so needed and that getting a job would not be an issue. It’s scary to think about the fact that as there are limited jobs, we may not be able to find one easily.
I now have a $65,000 student loan to pay which I’ll have to start paying with a minimum wage job.
I began studying nursing to care for people as well as set myself up for a future that I was told and believed would be attainable. But now I will most likely be working in hospitality as I was prior to nursing school, to ensure I can pay my bills as well as now pay off my student loan until I can find a job as a registered nurse. It’s extremely scary and honestly doesn’t feel real.
I’ve worked really hard for this, attained consistently high marks throughout my degree, was a student representative for my nursing school, interviewed well and had great feedback on all of my clinical placements so I’m very confused about this whole outcome.
I just hope that this doesn’t happen to the new graduates next year because it’s not a nice place to be in and I am feeling really undervalued.
Southern graduate
Aged care is an option says one grad
I was just reading your article about the new grads. I just wanted to refer to a section about working in aged care which said it was not supportive for new graduates.
I matched with an aged care facility through Ryman Healthcare. The starting rate is $36 per hour for fixed (not casual) shifts and they are running their own supported programs for new grads. I initially did want to work for Te Whatu Ora but changed my options.
I’m aware that I am probably in the minority of circumstances.
Auckland graduate
The joy of graduation ‘snuffed out’
I am 28 years old, and considered a mature student. I graduated with my first degree in 2019, and began my first career a year before COVID-19 began. In the midst of the pandemic, I would watch the news after I finished working from home each day and watch how hard health-care professionals worked. I witnessed their sacrifice and felt compelled to give back to my community the way they were.
Throughout my nursing degree, I have been exceptionally fortunate that my partner has completely financially supported the both of us, so that I could follow my dream of helping others. Without her sacrifice, I would have never been able to become a nurse, and so this degree is hers as much as it is mine. We sacrificed the chance to save for holidays away, sacrificed saving for a deposit for our first home, sacrificed getting engaged because we would only be able to afford it once I began working as a nurse.
We were supposed to be celebrating passing our exams, and excitedly sharing where we had been hired . . . That spark, that joy has been snuffed out.
The impact of finding I did not have a job this week has been immense, on both me and my partner. I was excited and eager to begin giving back to my community and also giving back to my partner who has worked tirelessly to keep us afloat for the past three years. The depth of our disappointment is immeasurable. She has bore witness to how hard I, and my classmates, have worked to achieve this degree, and can attest to how much we genuinely care about the work that we do.
Throughout my degree, I have been an A grade student every semester. I have had exceptional feedback from my preceptors and teachers. While on placements I maintained my Saturday job, meaning I worked six days or 50 hours a week, and still managed to show up with enthusiasm and excitement for my nursing career ahead of me.
When we began this degree, we were promised that we would find work so easily. Even this time last year, we were told how the pre-registration students were busy attending interviews and getting the jobs they most wanted.
Every nursing student in the country would tell you that their graduation day was supposed to be one of great celebration. We were supposed to be celebrating passing our exams, and excitedly sharing where we had been hired. We were supposed to hear the joyous sounds of celebration from our peers, their families, and our teachers — who have all poured their heart and soul into sharing and advancing the nursing profession into future generations.
That spark, that joy, has been snuffed out. Instead of great cheers of celebration, we will now be hearing the dismay of our loved ones saying things like: “I can’t believe you don’t have a job”; “I thought we needed nurses in New Zealand?”; “What happened?”
I was hoping to work in emergency medicine, or in trauma theatre. I did my final placement in a busy emergency department, so I had the desired experience. I have a fantastic academic record, and strong character references. I have work experience behind me and maturity on my side. None of it was enough.
I started nursing because my community mattered to me. I wanted to give back to my New Zealand community first. But that sentiment doesn’t pay the bills.
I was never even contacted for a single interview. One of the employers I chose was Southern Cross. They came to our university employment expo and talked a big game. So imagine our disappointment when we saw on the news that they had made so many of their staff redundant, sadly right after we submitted our ACE applications (with no chance of changing our choice — it was already too late.)
If I don’t have a nursing job in New Zealand for the next few months, then I will have to look overseas in countries like Australia. What choice do I have? If I don’t work as a nurse for a year then I’ll have to pay $1200 to refresh my competency skills. That feels like such a slap in the face, and frankly a one-way ticket to Australia is cheaper.
I started nursing because my community mattered to me. I wanted to give back to my New Zealand community first. But that sentiment doesn’t pay the bills.
I am feeling disappointment and sheer disbelief that a country, with a health-care system on the verge of collapse, is turning us away. It will only be once the politicians are in a hospital bed with no one answering their call bell, will they finally understand the true value of a nurse.
Auckland graduate
‘Exhausted’ graduate tries to keep chin up
This has been an exhausting semester for our cohort who have systematically had our expectations and hopes for after our studies undermined. I love this degree and I’m really devastated today but I don’t believe I could have worked any harder so I’m trying to keep my chin up and wait for other opportunities to arise.
Auckland graduate
Proud Kiwi now considering crossing the ditch
I am based in Dunedin. Although it was never explicitly communicated to us, I have heard rumours that only around 19 places were offered for the entire city.
It is a very frustrating situation. The shortage is out there – it’s real – and yet the hiring freeze effectively puts new graduates into limbo.
For my entire three years during the study of my degree I never once considered moving to Australia. I love living in New Zealand and it is where I see my long-term future, but now I am considering it, especially when learning of programs they have for new graduates. For the past three years I was the most critical person whenever a classmate brought up the prospect of moving to Australia for work; I would bring up the expenses, the crowding of the cities, the weather, trying to help them not fall into a “grass is greener on the other side” mentality. It might be hard to communicate appreciably, but the fact that now I myself am considering the move speaks volumes.
Even in ideal circumstances it is hard as a new grad, and the present situation makes it only worse.
Maxwell Arnott, Dunedin
‘It feels lonely’
I am extremely disappointed and frustrated in the current climate.
I was supposed to graduate last year in 2023, but during my transition placement, I contracted Glandular Fever and had to take a year off to recover. I spent 8 months working my butt off working in health care-related jobs to try and better my chances of getting a match for this year. I began my nursing training under the impression of a guaranteed job at the end and justified the 1100 unpaid hours I spent with a potential job straight out of university.
I understand why and how this has happened, but it still feels unfair, and broken because I put my heart, soul, and tens of thousands of dollars into the last four years to be unmatched.
I only had one interview, so I knew I would get that job match or be in the talent pool. However, I was the only one in my nursing friend group to be unmatched, and to be honest with you, it feels lonely.
Although I am getting lots of support and encouragement from my fellow students, very few understand this feeling of wanting something so bad that you’ve worked so incredibly hard for and being told that sorry, but there’s not enough to go around!
Auckland graduate
Graduate disheartened over broken promises
I did my transition placement in a post anaesthesia care unit and as such, was really hoping to get a job there. However, during the last few weeks of my placement I had meetings with nurse educators who told me that unfortunately they couldn’t even think about offering me a job there despite the fact that I’d performed exceptionally on all counts. This, coupled with the knowledge that public health care was being defunded by the Government, was extraordinarily disheartening and frustrating.
Our entire degree we’ve been promised we will have extensive opportunities for jobs once we graduate, in every sector, but now we only have a choice of non-hospital jobs. This isn’t to discount community nursing, so much valuable work is done in the community. It just feels like we’ve been forced into it and told too bad when we say that they’re not the jobs we wanted.
How can we impact patient’s and the public’s lives positively if we can’t get a job?
I came into this degree wanting to be an amazing nurse who could genuinely impact patient lives, we all did, but how can we impact patient’s and the public’s lives positively if we can’t get a job?
Alongside my fellow nursing students, now nurses, we have struggled and fought through the last three years under the promise that things would get better. Promises by everyone around us that nurses are so needed so we’ll find something. Except now instead of being told we have so much opportunity, we’re being told to take our first offers regardless of our passion for it,or move to Australia.
I’m one of the few in my cohort who really would love to stay in NZ, but I don’t know what I’m going to do. At the moment I’m looking at job advertisements online, and discussing my options with my family, but if I can’t get a position as a hospital nurse, I’ll likely do something like join the Navy and be a nurse for them, I’d go through hell and back during basic training but at least I know I’d have a guaranteed job that I’d enjoy and be passionate about.
Auckland graduate
‘Heartbreaking’ – graduates in shock as they eye Australia
This is an incredibly heartbreaking position to be in. Three years of hard work for what feels like nothing.
I have received excellent grades throughout yet I am denied a job.
It has been reported that New Zealand 4,500 nurses short Even though Te Whatu Ora has hired more since then, we have all seen on our placements how short-staffed hospitals are. so this is not a matter of not needing any new nurses. It is because employers are not allowed to hire — or only allowed to hire what the budget allows which in a lot of cases is no one.
I had incredibly positive feedback from all three of my ACE interviews and was honestly not expecting this. I am putting this down to there not being any openings in the practice settings/specialities I applied for rather than a reflection of me as a student.
ACE has told us that being in the “talent pool” doesn’t guarantee us a position. They have only said as positions become available “over coming weeks and months” we will be offered them. So we are basically just having to wait on a “maybe”.
They tell us to be practical and apply for jobs externally. Unfortunately when you look at nursing job ads, they are wanting two or three years of experience, making it impossible for new graduate nurses to land a job this way.
NETP is a pathway specifically designed for new grad nurses which includes immense support from our team as we transition into our career as a nurse on our own.
This is why the NETP [nurse-entry-to-pratice] pathway is CRUCIAL. It is a pathway specifically designed for new grad nurses which includes immense support from our team as we transition into our career as a nurse on our own.
As I aspire to become a nurse practitioner, the support and funding in place as part of NETP for completing a post-graduate certificate is a huge help for someone ambitious like me.
I am currently looking at positions in Australia as their starting pay for new graduates tops New Zealand’s and they have numerous new graduate positions available.
After this response from Te Whatu Ora, if anyone said to me they want to study nursing, I would be strongly encouraging them not to. I am sure many nursing students out there are not feeling motivated right now after finding out so many of us are left feeling stranded.
During the July intake when the hiring freeze began and so many missed out on jobs, I remember thinking: “What’s the point in continuing?” It was incredibly demotivating.
I did not think I too would end up in this position as I was constantly told it would be fine by the time we graduated.
Paris Boyce-Bacon, Auckland
