{"id":541447,"date":"2026-07-24T05:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541447\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T05:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:27:15","slug":"chief-nurse-encouraged-by-sector-wide-employment-for-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/541447\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Nurse encouraged by sector-wide employment for nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Graduate nurses have a wide range of opportunities across the health sector, and we encourage them to explore all options for their first role. <\/p>\n<p>Health New Zealand has confirmed today that we will be offering around 1800 roles to upcoming graduate nurses over the next year, with the first job offers going out this week.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Nurse Nadine Gray congratulates those who have sat exams this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany graduate nurses naturally look first to hospital roles, but there are exciting opportunities right across the health system that provide valuable experience and the chance to make a real difference in people&#8217;s lives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNursing offers diverse career pathways.\u202fAlongside hospital-based positions, aged care and primary care is\u202fa great place\u202ffor graduate nurses to start and build their careers, with more than 300 graduate registered nurses employed in primary care over the past year.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>This is also essential to building a sustainable long-term workforce across the health sector, Gray says. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 60 percent of practising nurses work outside hospitals in primary, community and aged care settings, and these roles offer excellent foundations for a long and rewarding nursing career. My own first nursing job was in aged care, and was the best start to a fulfilling career in nursing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Health NZ continues to support graduate employment across the sector, including funding to help primary and community providers employ up to 400 graduate registered nurses this year. <\/p>\n<p>Health New Zealand is committed to employing graduate registered nurses and graduate enrolled\u202fnurses in the coming year.\u202fRecruitment will occur across\u202fthe year\u202fand be\u202fspread nationwide\u202fto\u202fcover all specialties, including emergency departments, medical and surgical services, and mental health and addiction services. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether you begin your career in a hospital ward, a community health service, primary care clinic or rural setting, your first role is the beginning of a professional journey that can take you in many different directions,\u201d Gray says. <\/p>\n<p>Nadine Gray\u202fsays\u202fkeeping recruitment comparable to last year, and higher than historic levels,\u202freflects\u202fHealth NZ&#8217;s\u202fcommitment\u202fto\u202fbuilding a strong pipeline of experienced and specialist nurses who have trained in New Zealand. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u202fremain\u202ffocused on continuing to grow the workforce so New Zealanders can access\u202ftimely, quality care \u2013 and supporting locally-trained nurses. I want to congratulate all nurses on completing their studies and look forward to welcoming them into the health workforce this year,\u201d says Gray. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graduate nurses have a wide range of opportunities across the health sector, and we encourage them to explore&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-541447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541447","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=541447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}