The number of new graduate nurses placed in work through the “one-stop job shop” has risen to 777 by late February, according to the latest Ministry of Health statistics.
This means there were 551 or 41.4 per cent of new graduates still left in the talent pool seeking positions in government-subsidised NETP (nursing entry to practice) or NESP (mental health) new graduate programmes.
A bumper 1,328 graduate applicants signed up to the ACE “one-stop job shop” late last year, including 247 July graduates applying for a second time after being unsuccessful in the mid-year round.
But the job numbers did not match the high application numbers with initially only 605 nurses (45.5 per cent of applicants) getting positions in the first round in early December compared to 730 (59 per cent) at the same time the year before.
The number finding work over the summer saw numbers rise to 705 by late January, and by February 22, there were 777 (58.5 per cent) who had been placed in jobs as registered nurses.
