Just over 670 new graduate nurses – about 45 per cent of the original applicants for new graduate positions – are still job-hunting, according to an interim Ministry of Health update.
The Ministry said as at December 11 there were 671 still left in the ACE job clearing house talent pool, which is down from the initial 1481 applicants and down from the about 740 remaining in the pool in late November.
In the Ministry's initial information release (published in Nursing Review on December 10) it said 755 job offers were made on November 19, by district health boards and other employers, with 719 of those accepted.
In a "mop-up round" the remainder of those 755 initial have been accepted by nurses left in the talent pool and a further 23 new jobs had been offered and filled. It is understood that another 30 nurses have withdrawn from the pool but it is not known whether it was because they had found jobs outside of the NETP (nursing entry to practice) and NESP (new entry to specialist practice, mental health and addictions) positions offered through ACE.
Of the 755 initial jobs 52 went to July graduates applying to ACE for a second time and 6 of them to November graduates applying for their third time. The Ministry said analysis of the graduates still remaining in the talent pool in late November suggested that 76 per cent of July graduates were nursing within five months and 98 per cent of graduates from November 2013 were employed within 12 months.
