{"id":391040,"date":"2026-04-21T21:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391040\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:20:09","slug":"health-study-enrolments-hit-record-high-but-staffing-gaps-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391040\/","title":{"rendered":"Health study enrolments hit record high but staffing gaps persist"},"content":{"rendered":"

People studying<\/a> pharmacy courses surged the most in the same timeframe, from 1850 to 2610 \u2013 a 41% rise.<\/p>\n

Dental studies (960) and radiography (920) numbers also reached decade highs last year.<\/p>\n

The Dental Association says most of the rise in dental studies<\/a> is driven by an increase in Bachelor of Oral Health enrolments.<\/p>\n

Dental policy director Robin Whyman said these students will be qualified as oral health therapists, rather than dentists.<\/p>\n

\u201cDentistry<\/a>, which trains dentists for our community, has a cap of 60 domestic students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public may see an improvement in access to child and adolescent oral health<\/a> services if the students undertaking these programmes remain in the oral health workforce, and can achieve employment in the Health NZ community oral health service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest barrier to New Zealand students wishing to join the dental workforce is the cap on domestic training places, with between 800 and 900 applications per year for the 60 domestic places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public health enrolments were the only sub-sector to drop, from 8725 in 2016 to 6480 last year.<\/p>\n

Numbers in medical studies, optical science, veterinary studies, rehabilitation therapies and other health courses stayed steady.<\/p>\n

Nurses Organisation National Student co-chair Poihaere Whare said the rise in the numbers of those studying nursing is \u201cawesome\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means we\u2019re attracting people into training, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she said high enrolment levels don\u2019t necessarily translate into a stable workforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that one in three [students] don\u2019t actually finish their degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 61% of new graduates have already stated that they will look elsewhere, overseas or internationally, if they can\u2019t secure a job<\/a> here in Aotearoa New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whare stressed that it\u2019s also becoming harder for students to take part in unpaid placement, with rising living and fuel costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlacements are often full time and require students to cover travel, accommodation, uniform, childcare and food [costs].<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if the Government can look at paid placement<\/a> allowances, maybe looking at travel and accommodation support to tertiary providers, some fuel subsidies, and better local placement planning would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth Minister Simeon Brown. Photo \/ RNZ, Mark Papalii<\/p>\n

Health Minister Simeon Brown<\/a> said it\u2019s encouraging to see rising enrolments in health courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2023, hundreds more doctors and around 2000 nurses<\/a> have joined Health New Zealand\u2019s front line, many of them recent graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur health graduates have a vital role to play in the future of our healthcare system, and we will continue to support them into frontline roles where they are needed most, so more New Zealanders can access the care they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said strengthening and increasing our homegrown health workforce remains a focus in his role.<\/p>\n

Whare said expanding supported entry roles across hospitals, community, primary care, and aged-care settings would help retain graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been striking <\/a>for the last couple of years in regards to safe staffing and better work conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNurses are doing what they have to do to ensure their patients are well-looked after and advocated for.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd maybe if they\u2019re able to align it with the training numbers, and how many funded jobs are available would be really beneficial for the people on the ground trying to match students to jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People studying pharmacy courses surged the most in the same timeframe, from 1850 to 2610 \u2013 a 41%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3013,10709,380,30691,82477,22220,305,134,527,2959,3594,302,111,139,69,6379,73394,1974,13120,48782,49191,383,4728,18370],"class_list":{"0":"post-391040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-but","9":"tag-concerns","10":"tag-decade","11":"tag-enrolments","12":"tag-gaps","13":"tag-going","14":"tag-have","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-healthcare","17":"tag-high","18":"tag-hit","19":"tag-its","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-ongoing","24":"tag-persist","25":"tag-record","26":"tag-remain","27":"tag-shortages","28":"tag-staffing","29":"tag-study","30":"tag-surged","31":"tag-workforce"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}