Graduate-entry job offers for registered nurses (RNs), through national job-matching service ACE, are expected today.
Outgoing NZNO student leader Bianca Grimmer — also waiting on news — said many were anxious about their prospects, following dire 45 per cent hiring rates for mid-year graduates and only half hired at the end of 2024.
Then in September, a ‘reset and review’ document leaked to RNZ revealed Te Whatu Ora planned to employ more graduate nurses but on fewer hours, and with less on-the-job training.
Grimmer said many in her cohort were feeling undervalued and already planning to cross the ditch.
“I do know some students who have already chosen they’re going to Aussie no matter what. After what happened with that midyear intake, they thought, ‘Well, you know what, we’re respected overseas more than we are here’.”
‘We tauira put a lot of work into our degrees and at the end of it we’re hoping to secure a really good job – so we can help our people.’
After NZNO-Te Whatu Ora 2025/26 bargaining had dragged on for more than a year, with so far no agreement to NZNO’s claim for full-graduate employment, Grimmer said new nurses were not feeling listened to.
“Everyone’s quite stressed, quite nervous. We’ve done our best – we’ve put all our eggs in all the baskets we possibly can,” she told Kaitiaki.
“We just hope that, with this delay, maybe that means there are more vacancies and hopefully we’re all a bit safer and can feel a little bit better and hopefully come out tomorrow with most of us having jobs.”
‘Plan-B’ for most grads
Incoming NZNO student co-leader Poihaere Whare agreed many graduates were feeling uncertain and undervalued, particularly over the possibility of reduced hours.
“Will 0.6 FTE [full-time equivalent] be enough for them financially to be a nurse, with the cost of living at the moment?”
“A lot are feeling undervalued because of the uncertainty of not knowing what is going to happen, with the renaming of [nurse-entry-to-practice] as SFYP [supported first year of practice],” Whare said.
“Does that mean changes to the programme, or what is the support going to look like?”
Many had “plan B” in place — overseas, said Whare, calling for Te Whatu Ora to employ all nursing grads who applied.
“We tauira put a lot of work into our degrees and at the end of it we’re hoping to secure a really good job – so we can help our people. That’s the main thing we want to do.”
Job offers were initially expected after state finals earlier this month. However, Te Whatu Ora delayed the job offers, with no explanation.
However, an ACE (advanced choice of employment) email seen by Kaitiaki said “the extra time will be used to consider additional positions across Health New Zealand”.
Te Whatu Ora national people and culture director Robyn Shearer said they were “working to place as many graduates . . . as possible into employment across the health system in New Zealand”.
RNZ reported that Whatu Ora’s ‘reset and review’ paper talked about more “flexible” job options of 0.6 FTE instead of the usual 0.8 FTE for new graduates.
NZNO bargaining team member Rachel Thorn said employing more graduates was a key part of NZNO’s claims — and something Te Whatu Ora had also pledged in its own Health Workforce Plan.
“They said they wanted to grow their own nurses. So I absolutely think if they want to grow their own nurses, they should be offering full employment otherwise why would people go into it?”
Outgoing co-leader Davis Ferguson last week told RNZ his three years of study had been a “rollercoaster” and disheartening for many.
