After finishing hundreds of unpaid placement hours in Auckland, Megan completed her Bachelor of Nursing late last year.<\/p>\n
In Aotearoa, new nurses have to apply for graduate positions, some do this through Te Whatu Ora\u2019s application system called Ace.<\/p>\n
Others apply directly to private hospitals, community organisations and primary care.<\/p>\n
But since graduating in March, Megan has applied for more than 100 nursing jobs and hasn\u2019t had any luck.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve failed, or there\u2019s something that I\u2019m not showing in my application. I didn\u2019t realise it was going to be this hard to get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan told Checkpoint she\u2019s getting by on the Jobseeker benefit while she continues to look for work.<\/p>\n
If she can\u2019t find work soon, she\u2019s eyeing up Australia and said she may be forced to give up on nursing entirely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t get a job, I\u2019m either likely going to have to re-study something else, or go into a completely different workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe running joke at the moment is that I become a flight attendant, which I don\u2019t really want to, but I\u2019ve got to get a job somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan said it doesn\u2019t make sense how hard it is to find work because of reported shortages and staff burnout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see constantly that the hospitals are understaffed and people are dying.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into an election year, how can you promise us as nurses, new grads and even the public that the hospitals are going to be staffed?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearing stories of graduates not being able to get work has students worried too.<\/p>\n
Eden Sandhu is in her final year of studying nursing at Ara Institute of Canterbury.<\/p>\n
But seeing nurses the year above missing out on jobs has made her anxious.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike thinking that there\u2019s no guarantee of securing a graduate position is just draining.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re told that there\u2019s a shortage, but all of us still experience anxiety that people aren\u2019t getting jobs, will there be a position for me when I graduate?\u201d<\/p>\n
To get their degrees, nurses have to complete hundreds of hours of on-the-job training, which is not paid.<\/p>\n
Sandhu said she had sacrificed so much financially to become qualified and worried about the future.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] a huge a worry because I\u2019ve got a family and a mortgage… it\u2019s not okay to have graduates coming through having to consider after three years, to find something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moving to Australia is something that\u2019s been on Sandhu\u2019s mind over the past few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if New Zealand focused on supporting the students through placement, offering paid placements, upping the amount nurses are paid for the incredible stress levels they carry, and focusing on how to keep nurses here and not have such a terrible environment that people need to shoot off, that would change how I feel about leaving,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would want to stay, I do want to stay, but unfortunately [if I don\u2019t find a job] I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nurses Organisation\u2019s National Student Unit co-leader Dawn Blyth is also in her final year of study.<\/p>\n
People in her cohort have already applied to Australia\u2019s graduate programmes.<\/p>\n