![\"Staff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ca873b9a54fb3c97e68c23bcf8085fbcc91f7af1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cThey\u2019ve all had to go for their graduate year interviews,\u201d Jacob said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot more pressure on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob is concerned that these graduates will find work outside of nursing and never return to the profession after all the investment in their training.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig numbers of students will end up going into retail and hospitality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Graduate nursing positions in Victoria are roles given to those who have just completed their tertiary education and are in their first year of practice. Budding nurses and midwives can apply for the positions only in the year they graduate.<\/p>\n
The Royal Women\u2019s, Monash, Royal Melbourne and St Vincent\u2019s hospitals all said that there would be no reduction in the number of graduate nurse roles that they would offer next year.<\/p>\n
The Royal Women\u2019s Hospital said it was aware that demand for graduate nurse positions in 2026 exceeded current availability, while a Monash Health spokeswoman said the hospital was working closely with the Department of Health to ensure that its funding models allowed it to continue recruiting and retaining an extensive nursing workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a health service, we recognise the importance of building and sustaining our nursing workforce for the long term and are doing everything we can to secure this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Union and department sources said the oversupply issue had been brewing for months and could have been avoided by funding additional graduate nurse positions.<\/p>\n
A Victorian Health Department insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the union\u2019s numbers were \u201cabsolutely accurate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did the government invest in the students doing nursing, but they invested a lot in bringing in overseas nurses into Australia as well,\u201d the department source said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019ve got a short-term oversupply in nurses. But the modelling says by 2027, we\u2019ll be in shortage again.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Staff at the Royal Women\u2019s Hospital COVID maternity ward in Melbourne in 2021. <\/p>\n
The department insider said that if the Allan government didn\u2019t act now, Victoria\u2019s healthcare system would soon have a \u201cbig problem\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis current situation is short term. So it needs a short-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In 2022, former premier Daniel Andrews announced the state government would pay the course fees of more than 10,000 nursing and midwifery undergraduates as part of a $270 million initiative to boost staffing across Victoria\u2019s strained health services.<\/p>\n
Under the scheme, domestic students enrolling in a professional-entry nursing or midwifery course in 2023 and 2024 received up to a $16,500 scholarship to cover their education costs.
They received $9000 while they studied, and a further $7500 if they worked in Victorian public health services for two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYear 11 and 12 students who are thinking about what they might like to do as a career, they can choose nursing, free of charge, a full scholarship covering every dollar of their HECS,\u201d Andrews told reporters when the initiative was announced at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation offices.<\/p>\n
Graduates unable to secure jobs next year will not receive the $7500 they were promised by the state government until they gain employment in the profession.<\/p>\n
Harradence said she was calling on the Allan government to fund the 2000-or-so graduate placements given Labor had recently strengthened nurse-to-patient ratios and had overseen a significant health infrastructure pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaxpayer dollars have paid for them to study, and it is a wasted opportunity for this investment not to be realised,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot lose these critical graduates due to poor planning and shortsightedness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge the government to hold urgent discussions with the private acute sector about their level of investment in graduate nurses, and urgently explore all viable options to ensure we have a sustainable nursing and midwifery workforce into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
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An Allan government spokesperson said it would always back nurses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with health services to open up more graduate positions in our public hospitals, as well as private hospitals, mental health, aged care, community health, rural and regional communities and primary care \u2013 where there remains a high demand for nursing graduates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the government would have known that this issue was brewing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey now need to commit to fixing it. As a result of their mismanagement, the health system will be under immense pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
A health department spokesperson said first round offers would be announced next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong retention across Victoria\u2019s nursing workforce since COVID has helped stabilise staffing levels, supported by last year\u2019s enterprise bargaining agreement which delivered improved pay and conditions for nurses who are now the highest paid in Australia,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still plenty of rewarding opportunities across Victoria\u2019s health system, including in mental health, aged care, and rural and regional communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students distressed by Friday\u2019s news are being urged to contact the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program\u2019s counselling service.<\/p>\n
Late last year, The Royal Melbourne backed down<\/a> from a plan to slash the working hours of early career nurses after the plan was revealed by The Age.<\/p>\n Separately, hundreds of successful applicants to The Alfred\u2019s 2025 graduate nursing program were told their positions had been slashed from a 32-hour working week to 24 hours.<\/p>\n