Graduate ‘devastated’ after missing out
I applied for graduate nursing positions in Canterbury, Marlborough, and the West Coast.
The only response I received was from Canterbury, where I was placed in the talent pool, but I did not receive an offer. After being told that talent pool can take up to eight months to come off. I spoke to both charge nurses for my top two picks and they said there was not funding or skill mix enough for another new grad. Which is disappointing knowing that there is need but Te Whatu Ora isn’t enabling this.
Honestly, I am devastated. Nursing is not just a job to me — it is the career I have worked incredibly hard for and the only thing I truly want to do. After years of study, placement hours, and previous health-care experience as both a health-care assistant in acute clinical areas and as an ambulance officer, I felt I had given myself the best possible chance. Not being offered a position has been heartbreaking.
Right now, I am exploring any opportunities that may become available, but the uncertainty is extremely stressful. It is difficult not knowing when, or if, I will get the chance to begin the nursing career I have worked so hard to achieve.
I think it is important people understand the impact this is having on graduate nurses. Many of us are passionate, qualified, and ready to work, but are being left without a clear pathway into the profession we love.
— Name withheld by request.
Of the 964 registered and enrolled nurse graduates who sat their finals this month, just 428 have so far been matched with a job at HNZ — 44 per cent.
This is unchanged from a year ago when just 45 per cent of mid-year graduates were matched with HNZ jobs — a drop from previous rates of up to 90 per cent, described by students as “shockingly low”.
Auckland’s Megan Budgen has been unable to find work since graduating late last year, despite applying for more than 100 nursing jobs.
She has her fingers crossed for the current round — otherwise would be eyeing Australia, or forced to consider giving up on nursing entirely.
‘Nursing is not just a job to me — it is the career I have worked incredibly hard for and the only thing I truly want to do.’
“If I’d known this when I started in 2021, I’d have been like ‘no, I don’t want to do it, I could easily get a job somewhere else’,” she said.
“We see on the news so much that we’re so short-staffed that people are dying yet the Government isn’t putting enough funding into hiring and keeping nurses.”
HNZ chief nurse Nadine Gray told Kaitiaki that 359 offers went out on July 22, and a further 79 were expected to go out on July 24. More would follow in coming weeks, she said without specifying how many. All are RN positions, she confirmed. It was not yet clear how many jobs were available for EN graduates.
NZNO student co-leader Poihaere Whare warned graduates would be eyeing up Australia — and that enrolments would dry up.
“Why would you do something for three years and there’s no guarantee of a job?” she said. “If they don’t get placed here, they’re going to leave.”
She called for better planning, to accommodate the nearly 3000 nursing graduates coming through each year.
“We’re willing and ready and waiting to go — we just need the opportunity to prove ourselves.”
HNZ revealed last week it would only be offering 1800 new graduate jobs over its 2026/27 financial year which runs from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 — even though nearly 3000 graduates are expected over that period.
Another 400 places are available for graduates in primary health care (PHC) under an initiative where HNZ pays practices up to $20,00 per annum to take on a new RN graduate.
Last week, 773 registered nurse (RN) and 191 enrolled nurse (EN) mid-year graduates sat their final nursing exam — a total of 964, according to the Nursing Council.