The Ministry of Health is offering nurses who have left healthcare up to $5000 in support payments to come back to work.
All parts of the health system which use nurses are short of staff at the moment and particularly aged residential care, a sector estimated to be at least 1000 nurses below strength nationally.
Applications for the ministry’s "return to nursing" support fund open on Monday, and a second round of funding is scheduled for May.
It is open to former enrolled or registered nurses who do not have an annual practising certificate, or for overseas-qualified nurses working in a health role in aged residential care or for a DHB or other organisation and who want to step up to a nursing role.
The funding would cover relevant fees, training and registration costs for a nurse to return to work.
It was intended to expand the nursing workforce to meet demand, fulfil safe staffing requirements and improve access to care, the Ministry said.
The Southern District Health Board has run a similar scheme to encourage non-working Otago and Southland nurses back.
Southland-based care assistant Jean Milnes said nurses were often in short supply when she worked in aged residential care — one of the reasons she no longer worked in the sector.
"The work was too burdensome and too stressful and there was too much accountability for me to feel safe," she said.
"Staff are asked to do things according to what training they have had or whether or not they feel they can adequately do but we may not have qualifications or anything, which is really quite scary and makes us quite vulnerable."
Healthcare assistants could dispense drugs and could sit a qualification for that but generally under the supervision of a registered nurse, who sometimes might not be available.
"There is such a shortage of nurses that more and more gets put on the caregivers," Ms Milnes said.
"You are often asked to stay on and the workload is intense, particularly if you are working with someone new on shift who is going through orientation."
Ms Milnes, who works for a healthcare agency, said she and colleagues were routinely asked to work extended shifts to cover absences or rostering gaps.
Short staffing meant patient care inevitably suffered and patients were often given "a quick flick so that more demanding cases could be attended to," she said.
"You feel guilty because you don’t have the time to give them, even just a little bit more care.
"You just know you could do more for them with a bit more time and that’s gut-wrenching and heartbreaking not to be able to give the care to someone who is in need.
