Drop in jobs for nursing graduates

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 4

Drop in jobs for nursing graduates

Canterbury will be able to employ only about 30 comprehensive nursing graduates this year, said the Canterbury Hospital Board’s chief nurse, Mrs Brenda Wilson, yesterday.

The Nurses’ Association says about 700 of this year’s nursing graduates will not be able to get work nursing in the forseeable future. Mrs Wilson told the board health services committee that the board took 50 graduates last year but would only take 30 this year. If people resigned, it was possible more people could be employed in March, she said.

“There is usually a peak of resignations in November/December as people travel but this year there has been a slowing down in resignations — people are reluctant to leave their jobs without an assurance they will get back in again.” So far, 80 local nurses had applied for comprehensive nursing positions and 70 from outside the board, she said. The board still had to place the 35 enrolled nurses who sat their examinations in November, said Mrs Wilson. “Though we have not got a commitment to them beyond their period

of training, we have always felt that if we train people, it costs us money to train them and we should have positions for them or we should not train.”

In the past, areas such as Canterbury could have expected 13 to 19 resignations a month, she said.

“Because of the economic downturn, nurses are often the sole bread winners.

“We have nurses from areas such as Ellesmere and Darfield working in Ashburton and travelling those distances to maintain their family income.”