A call to ringfence temporary positions for new graduate nurses has made some inroads for 2012, but a culture change is still needed, says Chief Nurse Jane O’Malley.
As Nursing Review went to press, district health boards were finalising new graduate trainee numbers for early 2012.
The first signs of a slight increase in vacancies – since the recession saw nursing turnover drop to record lows – were reported at a recent meeting of new graduate programme coordinators.
Overall, it looks like the number of DHB and community new graduate positions will be similar to last year, when not all of the roughly 900 nursing entry to training (NETP) funding subsidies on offer by Health Workforce
New Zealand were taken up by employers.
Also, many boards are still following a vacancy-driven model rather than O’Malley’s call to ringfence a dedicated number of 12-month positions to be filled each year by a new cohort of graduates.
Waikato DHB has been the pioneer in ringfencing and for several years has consistently offered 70 NETP year-long contracts. Counties-Manukau also employs to one-year contracts, but only some positions are ringfenced, while Waitemata this year has budget sign-off to offer increased guaranteed permanent places for 2012, and Canterbury is also taking on more graduates but on permanent contracts. Auckland looks likely to take on more graduates this year, though like Capital & Coast it only employs to vacancies and also offers permanent contracts.
O’Malley said nobody she spoke to argued against the logic of giving as many new graduates as feasible a year’s experience rather than losing them to Australia or another career.
She said several boards had signalled to their nurse managers they would be moving from the vacancy-driven, permanent contract model to a ringfenced, short-term contract model, but for others it was a major culture change.
“They (directors) actually think it is a sensible idea, but they just have to work with their services who are used to employing and retaining their new graduates,” O’Malley said. “They have to get used to idea that their new graduates are on loan to get a good year of practice and then they will move on.”
Ringfencing pioneer Sue Hayward, who is also chair of the Nursing Education Advisory Team (NEAT) said having protected new graduate positions provides consistency to charge nurses who can plan ahead.
She said following O’Malley’s call, NEAT had been working with the DHB directors of nursing and many DHBs had either introduced protected places for new graduates for 2012 or were moving towards it over the next 12 months by slowly transferring vacancies that emerge into ringfenced new graduate positions while also ensuring a balance between junior, intermediate and senior nursing staff.
Hayward said she was able to assure directors that the ringfenced model worked, including retention of new graduates at the end of their 12-month contracts, with all but three of Waikato’s 2010 cohort getting permanent positions with the board.
Boards adopt mixed model for new grads
A nurse leader initiative will see Waitemata District Health Board increasing its new graduate intake to a record 86 in February.
Jacqui Finch, Waitemata’s workforce development nurse consultant, said the initiative’s aim was to create a predictable and continuous pipeline of new nurses and the board signed off a business case proposal to guarantee 60 permanent NETP jobs along with 10 NETP expansion positions and 16 in the mental health new graduate programme (NESP).
She said there had been some signs of a loosening up of turnover but the business case allowed for some areas to be staffed over budget so Waitemata could honour the commitment to increase places and offer permanent contracts.
Denise Kivell, director of nursing for Counties Manukau DHB, said they had opted to employ their new graduates on 12-month contracts, as the DHB was able to employ more this way than if they offered permanent contracts. All of last year’s cohorts had permanent positions at the end of the programme. She expected the board to sign up about 50 NETP and 10 NESP graduates in February, with only some of the positions ringfenced, as she currently used “a bit of both” ringfencing and vacancy-driven models.
Toni Dal Din, a nursing spokesperson for Capital & Coast DHB, said they were discussing introducing ringfenced new graduate positions in 2013, but meanwhile the DHB was still reliant on vacancies to recruit into and vacancies were very low.
Capital & Coast had taken about 85 NETP graduates in 2010 but this dropped to 54 last year (excluding the 18 mental health new graduates) and was expecting a similar number this year, with a waiting list of graduates ready for a second intake when enough vacancies occurred.
Taima Campbell, director of nursing at Auckland DHB, said they were still continuing with a vacancy-driven model and employed graduates on permanent contracts. Asked whether she would explore ringfencing, she said she was not sure that it was clear what ringfencing meant across the sector yet. Meanwhile, the board took on 88 NETP graduates in two intakes last year compared to 110 the year before. But next year’s February NETP intake currently stood at 60, could swell to 73, and the DHB had also requested funding for a further 60 NETP positions in September.
Meanwhile, O’Malley said work was well under way on a “real time” database project to improve the monitoring and predicting of graduate employment trends. She said the focus would be on who is graduating, who is registering and who has entered a new graduate programme. Options being examined include a database developed to put medical graduates into resident medical officer positions and a database being developed by the Northern Regional Training Hub.
O’Malley said the hope was to have a nursing database available to trial with the mid-year graduating cohort.
