Today we took our 8,000 strong petition calling for a nurse entry to practice position for every new graduate nurse to Parliament. Ryan Boswell from TV1 and his cameraman were waiting to find out what was going on.
You can see the ONE news piece here: Desperate nurses call for jobs action
NZNO president Marion Guy talked about the nursing shortage New Zealand is facing – we will be short more than 15,000 nurses by 2035!
Kaiwakahaere Kerri Nuku explained how important it is to have a homegrown nursing workforce. We need nurses who are representative of our population; that means we need to train and retain way more Maori and Pacific nurses and rely less on internationally qualified nurses.
We had a quick photo with the petition before Marion, Kerri and our CE Memo Musa went into the Beehive to meet with Minister of Health Tony Ryall. An entire class of school kids spontaneously joined us!
Marion, Kerri and Memo head into the meeting.
The rest of us, enrolled nurses, registered nurses, student nurses, new grads, delegates and NZNO staff, unfurl the petition. It’s massive! 8,000 signatures takes a lot of paper to print.
While a few members roll the petition back up, the reporter talks to new grad, Kim Lane. Kim talks about what it’s like to spend years getting a nursing degree and have no job to go to at the end of it. Madness! We’re going to need every nurse we can get in a year or two…
Here’s hoping the Minister sees the sense in what we’re asking for. The nursing workforce must be a priority.
NZNO's Blog 
August 13, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Sadly teachers are all in the same boat. I believe there are less teaching positions available than nursing.
I am in a position to employ New Graduates & have made it a personal policy to “grow our own” by employing at least 2 New
graduates at each intake, into our ward.
Interestingly, when lamenting our nursing situation to friends, I have found not all the general public are sympathetic. Their argument being, that everyone works hard for a degree, & most aren’t guarenteed employment following.
Nevertheless, I was priveldged to train at a time when a position was guarenteed & I fiercely want this to be reestablished.
August 13, 2014 at 10:11 pm
I’m an immigrant myself, but i cant understand why they keep, hiring foreign Trained nurses(FTN), who only need to enroll for a 12 weeks Competency Assessment Program( CAP), when they already have newly graduate New Zealand Nurses trained and educated in the same facilities that offers CAP to FTN… Yes they don’t have experience, but they passed and graduated from 3 years of studies and training… they wont get experience not unless you hire them… Is this the way government look after its people? How will they repay their student loans if you don’t give them the opportunity to work…