On Friday Te Whatu Ora chief executive Dale Bramley claimed that about 1800 graduate registered nurses (RNs) would be offered hospital jobs — which he said was one of the largest graduate intakes in a decade.
He did not include the total number of applicants.
Now, figures supplied to Kaitiaki cast a new light on the numbers – showing only about half of the latest advanced choice of employment (ACE) round actually got a job match.
The rest of that 1800 were old jobs from the last round, or about-600 future jobs “expected” sometime before next July — pushing 2025 graduates into the 2026 graduate year.
Unmatched graduates would move to the ACE talent pool, or look for jobs on the likes of Seek, Te Whatu Ora chief nurse Nadine Gray told Kaitiaki.
By the numbers
Figures supplied by the Nursing Council of New Zealand show that 1700 RN students sat their state final exam last month. This resembles last year’s end-of-year ACE applicant number, 1614.
Based on the 800 current matches announced by Bramley on Friday, it appears about 47 percent of those who sat exams were offered jobs — similar to the 45 percent and 52 percent in the two previous rounds.
In the meantime the tally of unmatched graduates from the past 12 months keeps growing — now nudging 2000 from the last three rounds. It is unclear how many of the unmatched have found work to date.
Gray remained confident the additional about-600 jobs would be offered this financial year. “We expect over 80 percent of graduates who have passed their exams to secure positions within Health New Zealand.”
Last week’s matching round was the beginning of “a much larger national recruitment process”, she said.
Gray did not reply to questions on whether the 600 jobs were guaranteed, how unmatched graduates would support themselves, or how Te Whatu Ora would address the unmatched backlog.
Outgoing NZNO student leader Bianca Grimmer said the ongoing about-50 percent match rate was a “compounding” problem.
“Each time we have an intake you’re going to have this group of people left without jobs and they just roll into the next intake.”
Grimmer said graduates could not wait forever for nursing work. “I don’t know many students that would wait all the way up to July next year to get a job.”
Students had approached her already about contacts for overseas work, she said. “I hope we get 600 more jobs for students to go into . . . but it’s something people can’t just sit around and wait for — because they can’t feed themselves.”
50 job applications, and counting
Experience is key in a tough job market between ACE rounds, says one nursing graduate.
RN graduate Kelli Pieneman has now missed out in two successive ACE rounds — between rounds she applied for about 50 nursing jobs, and cold-emailed about 20 organisations.
Even with glowing references from her preceptor and clinical tutor, job hunting outside of ACE was difficult — most roles were for experienced nurses, with organisations unwilling or unable to train new graduates.
“I’ve tried aged care, I’ve tried GP clinics, even occupational health nursing, everything that perhaps I didn’t really want to get into — but anything’s better than nothing.”
Pieneman, who lives in Auckland, said the longer nurses went without work, the longer they were away from vital clinical experience. “I did my pre-reg at the start of the year . . . so I haven’t done anything since then, I’m missing out on all that experience I need to get into a position.”
In her 40s now, she said personal circumstance meant she could not leave the city. Pieneman still had plenty of support behind her to keep going, but with the job market going into hibernation over Christmas she wasn’t hopeful of any work soon.
Grateful, but kind of gutted
New RN graduate Jaime Wood was one of the 800 successful matches from Friday, but it was not all good news.
Wood was accepted for a .6 FTE role in a surgical orthopaedic ward, but it would decrease to .5 next April — .1 temporarily covering maternity leave. “It’s a bit concerning,” she said. “I really enjoy work, so finding out it’s only part-time sucks.”
With her husband working they could still survive with her part-time income, but it delayed dreams like buying a house in Taranaki where they live.
For the past few years her husband was keen to head to Australia after she graduated, but Wood had always wanted to stay in New Zealand.
“Well, if I want to get a job in the [nursing] area that I like with the hours that I need, I still might have to go to Australia.”
Meanwhile, Gray said there were still job opportunities outside of the ACE programme, including the likes of primary health, community care, and aged residential care.
She said graduate nurses typically work 0.6 to 1.0 FTE, “with 0.8 FTE a long-standing guideline to support training needs”. Gray has not yet provided an FTE breakdown for the new jobs, as requested by Kaitiaki.
The Nursing Council figures included 120 enrolled nurse students who sat their exam.
Kaitiaki is still seeking clarification with Te Whatu Ora on how many ENs have found work.
Nursing state final results are expected today.