New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) is concerned about a recent graduate nurse recruitment botch-up by Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora.

A large number of graduates who completed their nursing degrees at Wintec in Hamilton were emailed by Te Whatu Ora last week with offers of full-time employment in their region. However, those emails were recalled five minutes later. The graduates were told a week later by email that the offers had been sent in error.

One graduate said she was sent an acceptance of offer form dated last week. After submitting the acceptance of offer, she received an email saying a system glitch had sent the emails early. Then yesterday, she received an email saying the job offer was invalid.

Te Whatu Ora has since apologised for the error.

Student Nurse Shannyn Bristowe says the uncertainly facing New Zealand nursing students around employment at the end of their studies was difficult to cope with.

"Te Whatu Ora say that graduate nurses are a vital part of the health system but what we are experiencing doesn’t reflect that. These graduates were offered employment - only to be confused by the sudden recall of those emails. It then took a week before they were told the emails had been sent in error and they did not have offers of employment. It’s completely unacceptable for people to have to go through this."

NZNO Chief Executive Paul Goulter says we should be encouraging New Zealand students to stay in their studies, and having confidence they will be employed at the end of them is critical.

"Te Whatu Ora have said that 166 graduate nurses currently do not have offers of employment. This will be a stressful time for them and errors like this only add to the uncertainly they will be feeling. It’s really important that Te Whatu Ora get their processes right, do not make errors like this, and move quickly to secure the futures of all graduate nurses."