About half of new graduate nurses sitting state finals in July had nursing jobs to go to, according to the latest survey.
At least 42 per cent of the 414 mid-year graduates were still job-hunting by the end of July, a new graduate destination survey by nurse educator group NETS has found.
Forty seven per cent (194) had been offered registered nurse jobs, with the majority of those (173) being taken on in district health board new graduate programmes. Nearly 90 per cent of July graduates responded to the survey.
Historically, mid-year graduates had good job-hunting success rates until mid-2010, when job offers slowed in the first major flagging that low nurse turnover and tight district health board budgets were starting to put the squeeze on jobs for new graduates.
Cathy Andrew, NETS executive member and the survey compiler, said it would have a fuller picture of employment trends when it surveyed the July graduates again in September.
“To be honest, I think 47 per cent with job offers by the end of July is not too bad given the wider economic situation,” said Andrew. “I’m sure that more will have job offers by now.”
The tough job market in recent years, and lack of speed and comprehensive data on graduate employment trends, are motivators behind the new ACE graduate clearing house or ‘one-stop job shop’ that went live this month.
All DHB new graduate positions in 2013 will be allocated through the clearing house with upcoming new graduates sitting state finals in November having up to September 16 to lodge their online applications on the ACE website.
Meanwhile, the NETS survey of July graduates indicates that at least 13 (three per cent) were heading overseas. The most common areas of practice for employed new graduates remained medical or surgical (78), followed by mental health inpatient care (18), child health (18), and perioperative/theatre (14). Primary health care (including practice nursing) had employed 12, and 13 new graduates were in aged care.
