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 that 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 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.
In late January, Ministry of Health chief nurse Jane O’Malley said the medium and long-term employment prospects for nurse graduates remained good. She said the 2013 statistics showed new graduates don’t always receive job offers “immediately”, but by four months after graduation, the annual NETS survey indicated about 75 per cent of November 2012 graduates had gained nursing jobs, with a number of those finding work in private hospitals and other jobs not included in the ACE process.
She also said that Ministry of Health and Nursing Council modeling both showed that the number of nurses would need to increase to cope with the growing and ageing population.
“We know that as the economy recovers, an increasing number of nurses are likely to reduce their hours of work or change careers creating more positions for new graduates.”
The three Auckland DHBs had by early February managed to take on the same or more new graduates (230) than the previous year employing about a third of the new graduates (more detail in “New grad nurse market tightest yet” at: www.nursingreview.co.nz/news-feed/february-2014).
High interest in the government’s scholarships to employ new graduate nurses in Very Low Cost Access (VCLA) practices saw the number of places boosted to 48 in the New Year. A high proportion of the places (13) were taken up by South Auckland practices. Practices spread from the Far North to east Christchurch also participated (more detail in “South Auckland general practices take on novice nurses at”: www.nursingreview.co.nz/news-feed/february-2014).
