That’s just 15 per cent of the 191 ENs who graduated in July — despite promises from the Minister of Health Simeon Brown he would “actively encourage” recruitment.
Meanwhile, 200 EN graduates are still looking for work — some from as far back as 2024.
Christchurch enrolled nurse Debbie Handisides said the figures were “deflating” after Brown promised he would do better for ENs.
NZNO’s enrolled nurses met Brown in December to share concerns about lack of graduate jobs and a failure by some regions to allow them to work fully within their newly-expanded scope of practice.
‘There’s a lot of mistrust — they keep telling us we are important, yet we keep seeing low job numbers.’
After two follow-up letters, the Minister finally replied in March, saying he valued ENs and was “actively encouraging the employment of enrolled nurses” across HNZ and the wider sector.
However, the latest graduate job figures showed these words were “empty” and “disingenuous”, NZNO’s enrolled nurses told Kaitiaki.
“We keep hearing from the Minister, we keep hearing from the chief nurse, that we are being acknowledged, we are being heard, they want to do something for us — yet we see these numbers. So it’s very deflating,” said Handisides.
She said it made it harder to see the enthusiasm of EN students on placement, knowing how few of them would get jobs.
“There’s a lot of mistrust — they keep telling us we are important, yet we keep seeing low job numbers.”
The employment rate is similar to last year’s, when just 15 per cent of EN graduates were employed by HNZ.
New EN role ‘not always recognised’
On top of that, ENs were still being denied the right to practice to their fullest extent in some regions, Taranaki enrolled nurse Glenda Huston said.
“We have all of our different districts, who have different directors of nursing, who have their own personal beliefs and understanding of what an enrolled nurse is able to do.”
In 2025, the Nursing Council launched a new scope of practice for ENs allowing them to become independent practitioners without RN supervision and take up more leadership roles.
‘We are committed to ENs’ — chief nurse
Chief nurse Nadine Gray said HNZ was committed to hiring more ENs, but it would take time to “build the pipeline”. This is despite there being 200 ENs currently in the talent pool.
The EN role had changed, she said, and HNZ was “working with the sector” to encourage broader and higher EN employment, by improving understanding of the new role, and reviewing models of care and clinical practice protocols.
HNZ had committed to offering a total of 70 EN roles by the end of the current financial year — June 30, 2027. About 320 ENs are expected to graduate in that time, which would mean about 22 per cent would score HNZ jobs, she said.
Gray has also promised HNZ jobs for 1800 of the 3000 registered nurses (RNs) estimated to graduate over the next 12 months — about 60 per cent.
Minister of Health Simeon Brown did not respond to questions from Kaitiaki.
At a glance:
- There have been 29 EN graduates employed by HNZ since its new financial year began on July 1, 2026*.
- There have been 201 ENs graduates so far this year; 13 in March and 191 in July, according to Nursing Council figures. Another 120 or so are expected in November.
- There are currently 200 ENs sitting in the HNZ-ACE employment pool including 70 who graduated this year and 132 from 2024/25, according to HNZ.
* HNZ has so far refused to provide the number of EN graduates it has employed to date in 2026. Kaitiaki’s simple request for this figure has been redirected as a formal 20-day Official Information Act request.