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The cost savings of replacing retiring nurses with new graduates is being pointed out to district health boards (DHBs) by the Chief Nurse’s Office.

Jane O’Malley (pictured), Ministry of Health chief nurse, said while the BERL report (see other story) would inform the Ministry’s future workforce planning, its immediate priority was to find jobs for new graduates with many struggling to find nursing jobs.

“I think our first priority ­­– before we start growing the number of students entering nursing schools ­­– is to work with the DHBs and other employers to match the number of (current) graduates coming out with (nursing) positions.”

The ministry was promoting the fact that replacing more of its retiring staff with new graduates would also ease the DHBs’ wage bill, as its workforces were currently top heavy with experienced nurses.

Paul Watson, from the Office of the Chief Nurse (OCN), said the office had noted the DHBs’ tendency to replace experienced staff with experienced staff had lead to skill mix issues. Between 70–90 per cent of DHBs nurses were at step five of the pay scale.

O’Malley said it was already known, and confirmed by the Berl report research, that the ageing nursing workforce meant a high proportion of nurses were about to reach retirement age creating a workforce gap. New graduates could help fill that gap.

“As vacancies arise, there is an opportunity for DHBs to maintain their establishment full-time equivalents (FTEs) at the same time to reduce their costs,” said O’Malley.

“I’m not saying that we see new graduates as a cheap option, but it could reduce the (wage) costs while maintaining their FTE.”

She said the ministry wasn’t talking about “open slather” replacing every experienced nurse with a novice at new graduate wages. Instead, DHBs had to take the opportunity to shift the skill mix from its current “top heavy” ratio of experienced nurses so it included more nurses at the lower end of the pay scale.

“It’s a win-win really.”

Not mandating “ring-fencing” of graduate positions

Meanwhile, O’Malley said there were still no plans to make it mandatory for DHBs to ‘ringfence’ a set number of one year fixed-term new graduate positions.

She said her office continued to present the data and facts on predicted future nursing shortfalls and current new graduate statistics to employers. Her office also discussed ways of better matching the number of new graduates to the number of positions, including ring-fencing.

“A lot of them (employers) are saying this makes good sense and they were thinking of sensible ways they can do it, including multiple intakes,” says O’Malley, although she didn’t believe mandatory ring-fencing was necessary.

“I’ve got every faith that directors of nursing will do this.”

A recent survey confirmed that only half of mid-year graduating nurses had found nursing jobs by the end of July. Up to 25 per cent of graduates who sat state finals in November last year were still job hunting four months later; the number of those that are still job hunting is not known.

O’Malley says a separate evaluation survey of graduates using the ACE clearing house process found that a number of graduates that were unsuccessful in gaining a new graduate programme place last year were successful applicants to this year’s July application round. The survey also showed that DHBs looked to the ACE ‘talent pool’ of job hunting graduates to fill subsequent positions that arise.

HWNZ’s “Year of Nursing” under way with Nov workshop

Retention strategies, new graduate employment, and improved workforce data are all on the agenda of a national nursing workshop being held in late November.

About 50 senior nurse leaders are to meet at the Ministry of Health in late November for the workshop, which is being hosted by Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ) in partnership with the Office of the Chief Nurse (OCN) and the National Nurses Organisations (NNO).

Nursing Review reported HWNZ chair Des Gorman in January this year declaring that 2013 was the year the agency would dedicate to the looming nursing workforce crisis. However, there has been little public action until the October HWNZ newsletter announced the November workshop (on page seven of a newsletter largely dominated by medical and general health workforce news).

Jane O’Malley, Ministry of Health chief nurse, said the meeting would be a workshop as members were already aware of the issues and there was largely consensus around the need for improved workforce data, new graduate employment, and retention strategies (like the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplace and Releasing Time to Care initiatives and removing legislative and funding barriers to nurses working at the top of their scope).

She said other things likely to arise included models of care and the role of the generalist, specialist, and advanced practice.

“It is a beginning conversation, not an end one,” says O’Malley. “Past work we have done across the professions around education and workforce will feed into it.”

The meeting is to be attended by representatives of the national nursing organisations (NNOs) group including the College of Nurses Aotearoa, NZNO, National Council of Maori Nurses, College of Mental Health Nurses, nurse educator group NETS, the Council of Deans and Nurse Executives New Zealand. HWNZ chair will be attending along with other HWNZ representatives and representatives from Health Workforce Australia.