This week HNZ announced the 1800 roles on offer — but Kaitiaki calculated there would be nearly 3000 potential grads over that period, meaning there would only be enough jobs for 60 per cent.
Meanwhile HNZ is yet to confirm when those jobs would become available.
Chief nurse Nadine Gray said the first offers were going out this week and would be 0.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) but would not reveal how many — nor how many were registered nurse (RN) or enrolled nurse (EN) roles.
‘They are trying – but the job numbers aren’t quite matching the number of graduates that we’ve got and that’s really hard.’
Nearly 1000 new graduates — 773 RNs and 191 ENs — sat their finals this week but would have already received provisional job offers through recruitment service, ACE.
By the numbers
- The 1800 job offers would roll out over the new financial year, which runs from July 1 to June 30, 2027.
- There are 964 new mid-year nurses hitting the job market this week, another 1700 or so expected at the end of the year — plus a smaller cohort of about 80 next March (based on this year’s figures).
- With another 234 graduate RNs confirmed to be still waiting for jobs in the ACE “talent pool” at June 30, it brings to about 2978 the number of graduates likely to be seeking work over that period.
NZNO student co-leader Dawn Blyth said she knew that only half of graduates at one South Island campus had been offered Te Whatu Ora jobs this week — 75 of 150.
“It’s really disheartening for a lot of students to study for three years and hope for a job and then not get one,” she said. “They are trying – but the job numbers aren’t quite matching the number of graduates that we’ve got and that’s really hard.”
Queensland vs Christchurch?
Blyth said “a lot” of current graduates were now considering applying for the new graduate programme in Queensland, Australia, instead.
And many in her own cohort — who graduate in November — had already applied for Melbourne’s new graduate programme, lured by higher pay, job security and lifestyle.
“They’ve already made their mind up,” said Blyth, speaking in a personal capacity.
Acknowledging efforts to employ students, Blyth said it was “fantastic” to hear HNZ had resumed offering 0.8 rather than 0.6 FTE, “as students need 0.8 to survive”.
“It’s hard because Health NZ are in a really tricky situation that they can only offer jobs to budgeted vacancies and while we appreciate that and understand that, it’s really disheartening to get to the end of your study and have no job.”
Gray said graduate recruitment would occur across the year and all specialties including emergency departments, medical and surgical services and mental health and addiction.
But, in what has become a common refrain amid budget restraints, she urged graduates to look beyond hospitals.
HNZ would also be funding primary and community health jobs for up to 400 new graduate jobs through its primary care “tactical action plan“, she said.
More than 300 graduate RNs had already started working in primary health care (PHC) over the past year, under the initiative which pays practices up to $20,000 per year to take them on.
‘As a new grad, I think there’s a fear of being put under pressure because there are . . . bad staff shortages there.’
“Alongside hospital-based positions, aged-care and primary care is a great place for graduate nurses to start and build their careers,” Gray said. “My own nursing job was in aged care and was the best start to a fulfilling career in nursing.”
Gray said HNZ was committed to building a “strong pipeline of experienced and specialist nurses who have trained in New Zealand”.
Blyth said she supported graduates going into communities as well as hospitals, “it’s such an important part of society, to treat at the ground roots”.
Minister of Health Simeon Brown said 1800 job target matched last year’s, when HNZ offered 1716 graduate RNs jobs, of which 1666 were accepted.
But in total over their financial year, 1845 graduate RNs found work in New Zealand’s health system, including primary, community, non-government agencies and aged care, Brown said.
“The Government is committed to continuing to build a strong nursing workforce and employing locally trained, homegrown nurses.”
Last year, Kaitiaki revealed that just 45 per cent of RN graduates were being employed by HNZ — despite claims it was “the biggest intake in a decade“.