More student nursing places announced amid health workforce shortage

More students will be able to train to become nurses, the Government announced on Sunday, as the health system struggles to plug workforce gaps.

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said the 2023 mid-year nursing intake would be increased by 130 places.

“All of these students are currently on a waiting list and would otherwise have been deferred to 2024,” she said.

It comes as thousands of nurses have registered to work in Australia since August last year.

There may be more support on the way for nurses, with Verrall saying the Government was exploring “a range of options in order to support nurses all the way through their career”.

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“For the 2024 intake Te Whatu Ora is working with nurse education providers to support an additional 700 clinical placements nationwide,” Verrall said. “This means that from 2024 we are supporting a significant increase in the number of nurses we train domestically, currently around 7400, boosting the growth of our future nursing workforce by an estimated 10%.”

In April, National announced its policy to knock more than $22,000 off nurses’ and midwives’ student loans to encourage them to stay in New Zealand for five years and stop graduates being “aggressively recruited” overseas.

Nurses and midwives would need to enter into a bond agreement to commit to work in New Zealand for at least five years after graduation.

National would also give qualified overseas nurses and midwives a six-month temporary visa without a job offer, allowing them to bring their immediate family and to look for work. It would also give 1000 overseas nurses and midwives $10,000 to move to New Zealand.

Verrall said at the time National’s plan “won’t work as it simply is not enough to attract more nurses into the profession”.

“We know the most effective way to grow our nursing workforce is to pay our nurses fairly. And that is what this Government is committed to.”

Arya Zale, a student nurse who organised a petition calling for nursing students to be paid minimum wage for their placement hours and full tuition funding for nursing programmes, said in April nursing was “hard to sell”.

“The drop out rate of nursing, the fact the nursing profession is still underfunded, under supported, and understaffed,” Zale said at the time.

Asked on Sunday if the Government considered payment for nurses on placements, Verrall said they were exploring “a range of options in order to support nurses all the way through their career”.

“From training through to their first few years of practice.”

If payment for tuition was on the table, Verrall said they were “eager to explore ways that we can support nurses throughout the career”.

On Sunday, Verrall acknowledged the nursing workforce shortage.

“Since the end of 2021 we have recruited 1000 more nurses and increased pay for most nurses by 14%,” she said.

“We are starting to see results. More than 8000 nurses registered for the first time in the 2022/23 registration year, a 60% increase from the around 5000 nurses who registered for the first time in the previous year.”

In December the Government moved nurses and midwives onto the immigration green list, meaning they can get immediate residency in New Zealand.

ACT released figures in March showing an additional 1049 vacancies across the Te Whatu Ora health system, with the vacancy rate rising to 10.7%.