It comes as Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora confirmed earlier this week that it had offered employment to 844 of 1619 graduate nurses in the most recent cohort.
Many nurses have spoken to the Otago Daily Times about the pressures of finding work in the present environment.
A Dunedin nursing graduate and mother, who declined to be named, said finding a job had proved frustrating.
"I have done three years of juggling parenting and mortgage payments while studying in an area that has had a chronic shortage.
"I applied to work in mental health which is grossly understaffed, and was not able to secure a job, along with others in my cohort who also were not able to secure jobs in mental health."
She said she had four children and a mortgage, and was unable to move out of the area to work.
"I am feeling disheartened that I worked extremely hard and could not secure a job at the end. I am also willing to work in aged residential care, however there are no advertisements for those roles."
She described the application system as "clunky"and confusing.
"We don’t apply direct to the jobs that we want. We apply through another company and basically it’s all based on this sort of algorithm.
"Although you pick the area you want to work in, you can’t actually apply for the actual ward that you want to work in."
She wanted HNZ to be more upfront about where there were positions for graduate nurses.
"I think it’s just really upsetting that you go into an area where you’re constantly told that it’s understaffed and you are in different wards in the hospital and you see that they’re understaffed and yet half of the graduate nurses from the country didn’t get jobs."
Other nursing graduates who wished to remain anonymous said they experienced similar difficulties.
HNZ national chief nurse Nadine Gray said "homegrown nurses" were a vital part of the health system.
Other health providers would have the opportunity from today to offer jobs to the remaining nurses "left in the talent pool", she told RNZ.
Incentives of up to $20,000 were being offered to primary, community and aged care to hire more graduate nurses.
Ms Gray said for many nurses their preference was to work in a hospital, rather than in aged care, but HNZ wanted them to consider working in all parts of the health system.
Those not offered jobs yesterday would not necessarily head to Australia, because in its cities there were no longer many vacancies due to a flood of nurses arriving from all over the world in recent times, she said.
About 3000 nurses were hired last year, meaning HNZ now employed 35,000.
Asked if there had been a failure in planning, she replied that it had been "an extraordinary year" with thousands of foreign nurses arriving in New Zealand in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We’re supporting nurses, we’re committed to that over the coming months to get them into jobs — not just in hospitals and specialist services, but right across the health system."
Meanwhile, Wanaka-based WellSouth nursing director Kate Norris has been working with nurse-led groups to advocate for and inform this initiative.
"I am delighted to see this announcement. It’s incredibly important that we can support pathways for nurses into primary care. This not only addresses workforce challenges but also enables our communities to have more options for clinical care.
"Primary care offers a rewarding career for graduate nurses, presenting opportunities to progress on to becoming registered nurse prescribers and for some, nurse practitioners. I look forward to supporting our southern providers and new graduate nurses to take advantage of this opportunity."
— Additional reporting RNZ
