Employment offers have today been made to 844 newly graduated registered nurses.

The vast majority of those 844 will be employed by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora. The rest have been offered roles by our partners in the ACE matching scheme.

“We’re really pleased to have these registered nurses join our teams around the country and look forward to the contribution they’ll make to improving health outcomes for their communities”, said Nadine Gray, National Chief Nursing Officer, Health NZ.

“This year we have fewer vacancies than recent years and lower turnover rates, so being able to get so many new registered nurses into roles straight away is a great start.”

“But this is just the first step, and we are continuing to support around 770 further graduate registered nurses into employment from the end of year cohort.”

This remaining pool of graduate nurses will today be opened up to a wider range of non-Health NZ employers.

“We’re working really hard to encourage employers in primary, community, aged care, and other non-Health NZ settings to recruit more graduate nurses. In particular this year Health NZ has set aside funding to incentivise other potential employers to hire more graduate nurses”.

These incentive payments are expected to enable an additional 200 nurses to be hired than would otherwise be the case. Up to $20,000 will be available to employers per graduate nurse hired, subject to eligibility criteria.

“Also, employers with roles suitable for graduate nurses will now be able to advertise free of charge on Health NZ’s Kiwi Health Jobs website. The website allows graduate nurses to search for jobs specifically targeted to them.

“We expect that some of the remaining nurses will be picked up through the normal turnover we have at Health NZ into the new year. We can’t guarantee roles for everyone, but we are committed to supporting our NZ trained graduates into as many roles as possible in 2025.”

Another addition this year will be enhanced ‘candidate care’, to be provided by Health NZ. This will initially involve support with CV writing, interview skills and other support required by job seekers. This new offering will mainly involve online resources at first but will grow over time.

“We would encourage graduate nurses to be flexible around the location and type of work they are seeking. Even if it is not their first-choice role, all roles will offer valuable work skills and experience and help them develop their nursing careers.”

The ACE matching system allows graduate registered nurses to express an interest in up to three potential employers and five practice settings they want to work in.

Longer term, Health NZ’s Workforce Plan contains a number of actions designed to support the nursing workforce. We expect to release the latest version in the near future.