For the first time Auckland nursing schools are reporting that mid-year students are struggling to get new graduate positions as the job market tightens.
District health boards in the region say they are still committed to taking on new graduates. But it appears tight budgets and low nurse turnover also means it’s no longer a graduates’ market and flexibility will be needed if graduates want a sought-after place on a new graduate programme.
Further afield, many DHBs polled by Nursing Review say they are also committed to taking on similar numbers of new graduates in the New Year and in some cases are ring-fencing positions.
But nurse educators group NETS spokeswoman Kathy Holloway said there was still some concern expressed at its last meeting that the Auckland mid-year graduates’ problems might flow on to the much larger cohorts job-hunting at the end of the year.
Anita Bamford, joint head of nursing at AUT, said it has approximately 65 third-year students about to sit state finals in July and in the past, at this stage of the year, most had job offers.
But this year they were hearing of a large number of upcoming graduates without job offers and the students with offers were keeping quiet, as it was a very competitive market.
Likewise Sue Gasquoine, head of Unitec’s nursing school, said in the past the mid-year cohort had at least one if not two job offers per student at this time of the year. But some students in the latest cohort had yet to receive a single job offer. This followed the pattern for 2009 and was something the school’s programme leader could not recall happening for many years.
Bamford said last year they eventually found new graduate programme places for the six students who had trouble getting jobs, but this year the situation was much worse. Concern about the issue had prompted her to put it on her faculty’s executive agenda. She believed it could be a sign of a wider workforce issue for the country. “It’s not like we don’t need them [new graduate nurses].”
Meanwhile, CPIT and UCOL, with graduating mid-year cohorts, were not aware of students having problems finding jobs, though UCOL head of nursing Brian Gilchrist said 20 per cent of last November’s graduates did not get dedicated places on new graduate programmes because MidCentral Health DHB did not have a February intake.
Taima Campbell, Auckland District Health Board’s director of nursing, said their new graduate intake last September was 42. She said they had 29 confirmed vacancies for this September’s intake. They would continue to recruit new graduates into vacancies up to the end of July. She added the upcoming September intake was “likely to be very close” to last year’s.
Jocelyn Peach, director of nursing and midwifery at Waitemata DHB said it would be taking the usual number of graduates for its September intake despite financial constraints and lower turnover.
Counties Manukau DHB director of nursing Denise Kivell said Counties had offered 51 new graduate contracts but not all new graduates had confirmed places yet. She said they also had fewer students interested in primary health care placements and no inquiries for aged-care vacancies had come in despite promoting aged-care as an option.
Kivell said the diversity of available hospital jobs might not be the same as in the past, but there were still jobs. She said she advised students to “get a foot in the door” by applying widely and being ready to accept their third choice of role.
“Sometimes new graduates don’t perceive they won’t get what they applied for so consequently when they are turned down for the first position they are shocked.”
Waikato DHB director of nursing Sue Hayward said it had secured ongoing placements for new graduates into each area or ward roster – an approach that MidCentral DHB said it was also going to take.
Hayward said all boards were aware if budget constraints impacted negatively on new graduate recruitment this could seriously affect the future ability of health organisations to provide appropriate health care.
