Instead, enrolled nurses must wait a whole year before being reinstated, the Minister of Health has now confirmed.
NZNO’s enrolled nurse chair Michelle Prattley warned it was patients in rural areas or short-staffed specialties who would suffer the most, over the year without enrolled nurses.
“It’s those communities who are missing out on our skills.”
After meeting the enrolled nurse section (ENS) in December, Minister of Health Simeon Brown reassured them they would be restored to the voluntary bonding scheme (VBS).
“I have made it clear to Health New Zealand that ENs should be included in the voluntary bonding scheme, reflecting the important part they play in patient care,” he told Kaitiaki in December, after the meeting.
‘They probably thought we were a small workforce and would just shut up and not notice.’
The scheme pays new nurses $8500 a year if they work in hard–to-staff areas/specialties — often rural or remote — for at least three years. Until now, both registered and enrolled nurses (ENs) were included.
But Prattley told Kaitiaki this month that ENs were still excluded, and they had heard no news.
‘Too late’ says Te Whatu Ora
In response, Brown said that Te Whatu Ora advised him it was too late to restore ENs to the current intake, due to close “only days” after their December 4 meeting. The scheme closed on December 21.
“I have reiterated my expectation to Health New Zealand that graduate enrolled nurses will be included in the Voluntary Bonding Scheme, and I look forward to encouraging graduates to apply when applications open for 2026,” Brown said.
‘Our ENs . . . are taking roles where they aren’t getting supported into practice — or are opting to go overseas or even give up and leave nursing altogether.’
But the next intake will not open until later this year, for a 2027 start.
Te Whatu Ora chief nurse Nadine Gray said work was “continuing” on how EN graduates from 2024 and 2025 could be supported through the scheme.
‘They probably thought we would just shut up’
In 2024/25, 55 ENs were accepted onto the scheme, at a total cost of nearly $470,000 — an amount Te Whatu Ora would now be saving in its 2025/26 budget, Prattley pointed out.
“They probably thought we were a small workforce and would just shut up and not notice,” she said.
In fact, it would have been simple enough to extend the deadline to allow ENs back in, she said.
Christchurch EN Debbie Handisides said missing out on a supported entry role through the scheme for a whole year would have a significant impact on the workforce.
“Our ENs who didn’t get into this scheme, are [instead] taking roles where they aren’t getting supported into practice — or are opting to go overseas or even give up and leave nursing altogether.”
Why us?
ENs — who have been part of the scheme since 2020 — were not told why they were removed last November — or even that they had been.
When asked, a Te Whatu Ora spokesperson would only say a decision was made “following a review of the categories and priorities” for the scheme.
Kaitiaki has requested all correspondence from Te Whatu Ora regarding the decision to dump ENs from the scheme under the Official Information Act.
At a glance
The voluntary bonding scheme aims to encourage health professionals such as nurses, dentists, midwives, GPs, pharmacists and radiation therapists to stay and work in hard-to-staff areas/specialties through incentive payments.
In the previous 2024/25 intake, 422 registered nurses (RNs) and 55 ENs took up bonded roles.
As well as rural and remote areas, the scheme supports hard-to-staff specialties such as primary health, primary mental health and aged residential care, among others.