Kiwi nursing graduates are now looking elsewhere for job opportunities as over half of them were not offered jobs by Te Whatu Ora.
A union member representing a group of nursing students says health agency Te Whatu Ora has failed in its most basic duty to plan for the future of the nursing workforce.
This comes after Te Whatu Ora offered just 844 of 1619 graduate nurses jobs, which is roughly only 50% of the cohort.
NZ Nurses Organisation student unit co-chair Bianca Anderson it was hard to fathom.
“It’s three years of hard work and hard clinical placements and then no job at the end of it so everyone’s devastated and wondering what comes next.”
She said it was confusing as there was severe understaffing in many areas which student nurses had observed during their placements.
“There’s definitely a need for nurses and I’ve had patients say to me how essential we are and how much they value us”.
Anderson said many nurses who were unsuccessful finding a job locally are now looking overseas even though many did not want to.
Her message to Te Whatu Ora was to consider both the patients and present and future of the nursing sector in NZ.
“Working hard to try and provide for our communities, at the end of it if we don’t get a job it’s utterly devastating and puts people off going into nursing which is a highly essential part of the healthcare system.”
