Nursing shortages – they’re not going away any time soon

Nursing is a prestigious career to go into. Nurses help to save our lives while also doing all the dirty work that doctors don’t want to. But as the nursing strikes have shown over the years, nurses are heavily overworked and severely underpaid. According to careers.govt, registered nurses earn roughly $60K a year while working anywhere from eight to 12 hours in a day.  

New Zealand is now facing a nursing shortage, meaning that nurses are having to work a lot more hours than usual for the same rate. This has resulted in 400 aged care beds closing across the country. 

So how does this affect people enrolled in Massey University’s Nursing School? I interviewed Holly Stone, a second-year nursing student at the Wellington campus about her experiences as a nursing student during a national nursing shortage.  

Holly has always cared about people and wanted to help them, but being a doctor “wasn’t for me”. But she wanted to do something in the same field. “I don’t think I would be able to handle that many years of study, or the tuition.” 

“I still plan on becoming a nurse, unfortunately,” Holly said when asked about future plans for her career.  

“I don’t know if I’ll stay in the country, honestly,” she added. “I love New Zealand, but I don’t think it’s a realistic option.” Though Holly knew that nursing is an “underappreciated” job in terms of pay, and realises that her only real option is to leave New Zealand, she can’t help but feel guilty for leaving. “I feel like I’m screwing over my country but I’ve seen people move and be treated better overseas.” 

Contrary to this point, overseas nurses have flocked to New Zealand as it’s quickly become a destination where nursing jobs are available, and the pay is better than many other countries. So why is New Zealand still in a nursing shortage when nurses can get paid more to come here? Nurses from overseas have been leaving “in droves”, according to Newshub’s Adam Hollingworth. Many of these workers are leaving because they’re sick of New Zealand's lengthy visa process, and the rights they lose while in “visa limbo”, such as the right to health care. This has created a profession that is unattractive to international nurses, but also New Zealand nurses.  

Holly isn’t alone in wanting to leave New Zealand. When asked if her peers felt the same way Holly said, “Yes. Nobody I’ve talked to wants to stay. They all have plans to leave as soon as they can.”  

On top of nursing shortages, Covid-19 has pushed the entirety of nursing online and they’re still paying internal course fees. It’s made the course unappealing to most. “We’re not getting the same quality of education but we’re still paying the price. It’s not fair.”  

The nursing shortage isn’t just affecting the current state of health care, it’s going to continue to affect health care until the issue is resolved.