‘We gave three years, we want answers’
I am a recent mid-year nursing graduate and one of the many NETP applicants not placed. It seems no applications from my cohort were matched.
When the freeze was announced, we asked for answers and were given misleading information, promising security, but eventually it was exactly what NZNO announced.
We are in limbo; my entire life and everyone around me has been consumed with this process of becoming nurses. It’s overwhelming, all-consuming, and the cost to our families is more than financial — the emotional toll is horrendous.
Nine weeks of full-time unpaid labor, where I was treated poorly, marked an emotional end to my bachelor of nursing and was quite soul-destroying. This was followed by the whole of July in limbo, and now, what do we do next?
Once we become RNs, many workplaces will no longer employ us due to the legalities of our scope of practice. What do we do?
I know many from my cohort are already applying to Australia, and trust me, you are losing some fantastic, talented, and intelligent nurses.
We want answers because we gave three years of our lives, forced our families to suffer through the process, for what? Please help us, get our voices heard.
New graduate
Single-parent graduate ‘anxious and disheartened’
I am writing this letter in response to the recent hiring freeze/not freeze of new graduate nurses. I have just completed my bachelor of nursing degree and recently sat state finals. I’m now waiting on my results.
After my final clinical placement on a hospital medical ward, I had an interview there in which I was told there were no fulltime positions available. They said they would work on trying to create a position for me, although they acknowledged the reality of budget cuts and hiring issues.
The same message was given to other students from my class at their interviews, if they were lucky enough to get an interview.
During my transitional placement (this description should definitely be changed), there were two or three heavily pregnant staff members on the ward I was on, and another leaving to go to Australia. However I was still unsuccessful in my application.
Also during my placement, staff were being pushed into taking their annual leave due to budget cuts, and some were clearly upset at this. (To me, this is not saving money, but just making it look like money is being saved.)
I am not sure how many in my class of just over 20 were lucky enough to secure a position, but for the smallest class in years you would think we would all have found jobs. I do know that at least five of us were all called recently from the talent pool in regards to one sole position, outside the city where we trained.
I am left feeling disheartened and anxious about my future in nursing. I was hoping to secure a position with the support of ACE and the NETP programme.
I am a 44-year-old solo mum who took a chance to study at this later age in life, to create a secure career that would ideally put me in a better financial position.
Now I am left feeling as though I will be struggling to find work once my exam results and registration comes through, with a student loan, a mortgage to pay, and all the things myself and my family have had to sacrifice for me to complete my degree.
New graduate
New grads ‘left in dark’
As a new grad nurse, I have been seriously affected by the hiring freeze. I excelled in my transition placement and ACE interview.
With the bombshell of a potential hiring freeze dropped on us just weeks before state exams, this caused unneeded stress to us all. The day after state exams, it came out that there were no NETP positions in Midcentral at all.
This was a huge disappointment to my entire class, and meant we would be placed in the talent pool. To get a new grad position, we would have to uproot our entire lives and shift to another part of New Zealand. Christchurch new grads have also been hugely affected.
Te Whatu Ora have commented via the media that those of us who were not matched with a position had turned down initial offers. But none of us received initial offers! We simply got an email saying there was no room for us in our DHB due to no vacancies. Yet the hospitals in my region, and other regions, are so short-staffed? I really don’t understand!
My classmates and I feel like our government have abandoned us.
It would not be easy for me to uproot my entire life and family to shift to another part of the country for the same working conditions and pay. Therefore I have decided that if I have to move to get a new grad position to gain experience, I will go to Australia for a year. Then when I return, I will go private and will NEVER work directly for the government/Te Whatu Ora.
Job ads for registered nurses online (such as rest homes) require people to apply who have one to two years’ experience as an RN. How do we get experience when we cannot get a job?
I am 20 years old and have studied fulltime for three years. I have a bachelor’s degree, which included 1200 hours of unpaid clinical placements (where RNs are often too busy to teach, so we get left with a hefty patient load).
I have had to overcome many barriers to get this degree, in a nursing crisis where jobs were guaranteed. Yet myself and others have been left abandoned and completely in the dark. I don’t know what to do right now with my degree other than go to Australia if I get to the end of this year without an RN job.
New graduate
New grad ‘disheartened, upset and in debt’
For me, it’s the unknown of being in the talent pool. It’s upsetting to be told, time and time again over three years, that people need nurses and it’s really important that you finish your degree, and then to get to the end of it and be told there’s no jobs available and you’ll just have to be an health-care assistant for a while longer.
We got an email the other day stating that the only positions available were in aged care or practice nurse positions outside the city. I wouldn’t drive over an hour for work — there’s no way I can afford that.
In regards to aged care, I’ve been told by nurses on placement not to start in aged care as you never get out of it. Now the script has been flipped and we are being told that beggars can’t be choosers and aged care is a rewarding vocation.
To have all of this come out less than a week before we started our state final made studying for the exam so hard. It made you wonder what you were studying for if there were no jobs at the other end. This should have been announced after the state final, or months before. It was unfair to us that it came out when it did.
There’s so many people in my year group that would make absolutely wonderful nurses that aren’t being given a chance to show how good they would be.
There’s so many people in my year group that would make absolutely wonderful nurses that aren’t being given a chance to show how good they would be, and I think that’s terrible. It shows that the Government and Te Whatu Ora don’t care about the health system and the assets that new graduate nurses bring to it.
To put yourself through more than 1100 hours of unpaid work, to miss out on opportunities to see family, to be unable to pay bills, to have a big student loan (mine is $50,000), for nothing at the other end is really disheartening and it makes me quite upset.
My friends that were matched are still waiting for their job offers. They don’t know where they will be working and it’s been three weeks since they were told they’d been matched.
Thanks for the opportunity to say this. It’s so important that the health system, the Government and the public hear what we have to say.
New graduate
Canterbury
Future ‘bleak’ for new graduate nurses
I am writing this because the Kaitiaki article published on July 24, “Three out of five nursing students to get hospital jobs, Te Whatu Ora figures show”, does not accurately reflect the current reality for new graduate nurses here in Waitaha Canterbury.
The article reports that “the remaining 166 unmatched nurses — a small number of whom did not accept initial offers – have been placed in a national talent pool, which will open to employers this month”. However, my colleagues and I believe this is erroneous, because as of July 25 we have yet to receive job offers from Te Whatu Ora. Therefore no one has “declined” these supposed offers.
I have been matched into the national talent pool. The talent pool is not offering any Te Whatu Ora jobs based in Waitaha, Canterbury. The offers are as follows:
- Primary health care (Akaroa, Hanmer, Kaikoura)
- Aged care facilities across Canterbury
I understand that aged care is an important and valued area of nursing; however, it is historically understaffed. This leaves myself and many other students apprehensive about applying for these positions as we fear we will not receive appropriate and safe training and support to protect not only the patients, but our newly gained registration.
Furthermore, like many new graduates, I have a young whānau. It is not realistic to uproot my family to move to another region in Canterbury or overseas, particularly given the current rental and housing market. As a result, it feels like we are being forced into aged care.
I cannot begin to express the feelings of uncertainty, stress and hopelessness we are feeling from the possible lack of employment and lack of communication and transparency from Te Whatu Ora and our government. On top of that is the financial pressure of having a student loan, that for many is upwards of $25,000, and no job to pay it off.
The situation has had an exceptionally negative impact on my mental wellbeing. Needless to say, the future is looking very bleak for new graduate nurses.
New graduate
Canterbury
Once hopeful student, now filled with ‘dread’
I am writing this in response to the Kaitiaki article “Three out of five nursing students to get hospital jobs, Te Whatu Ora figures show”. This article reports that unmatched nurses who did not accept initial employment offers were placed into the national talent pool. However, I believe this is inaccurate, because as of today, July 25, we here in Waitaha Canterbury have not received any job offers.
I am one of those fortunate enough to have been matched to a NETP position in Waitaha Canterbury. Though I am thankful for a possible job, I am highly disheartened and disappointed in the lack of communication we have received regarding employment offers.
During the interview process, we were informed that we will find out results of NETP/NESP matches and employment offers on July 17 – the day after our state final exam.
However, on July 17 we were sent an email stating that we will not find out details of employment offers until July 24.
On July 24, I was sent a somewhat ambiguous email stating that I have a NETP position within Te Whatu Ora Waitaha, but I will not find out the area where I am employed until August 7 – three weeks after the initial date of employment offers.
Furthermore, we have been informed in the email that the start for NETP has been changed from September 2, as they are now staggering this intake, with three different start dates. I have been told I am now starting employment with Te Whatu Ora on October 7. I am unsure why these dates have been staggered and increased to three instead of one, and again express my disappointment in the lack of communication.
I am unsure of the exact numbers in my cohort who received job offers, and how many went to the talent pool. I know I should be happy and celebrating that I will be employed, but instead I am consumed by what I can only describe as survivors’ guilt.
The majority of my friend group were placed in the national talent pool and now have what seems two options: compromise their careers and registration by working in the notoriously understaffed aged-care sector or move overseas. However many new graduates have whānau and young tamariki, so the latter is not a feasible option for them.
Another issue is that the education institute where I studied – Ara Institute of Canterbury – has increased its nursing student intake to four intakes a year instead of the previous two.
The reasoning for the increase in intakes was to train more nurses. However we are constantly being told conflicting information by government officials about the need for more nurses here in Aotearoa.
When I first started studying to become a nurse I was hopeful and excited for the future — now I am dreading it.
New graduate
Canterbury
— See also Jobless nursing graduates feel heart-broken and abandoned