Employment Opportunities for Graduate Nurses and Midwives

Issue

Concerns about the availability of graduate positions for newly registered nurses and midwives for 2013.

Response

While the Australian Government does not employ nurses in service delivery roles, it is committed to ensuring that Australia has a highly qualified and skilled nursing workforce available to meet the health needs of Australians. It is supporting nurses through a range of training and incentive programs.

Through Health Workforce Australia, the Australian Government has committed $432.2 million over three years to deliver new clinical training places for health students including nurses.

In addition, the Australian Government provides scholarships for postgraduate students through the Nursing and Allied Health Scholarship and Support Scheme, the Aged Care Scholarships program and the Puggy Hunter Memorial Scholarship Scheme.

The completion of a graduate year, or transition to practice program, is not a requirement for registration as a nurse or midwife. Outside of the hospital setting, there are a number of other areas of employment for nurses, including aged care, primary health care and the disability sector.

On 20 April 2012, the Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard MP, and the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler MP, released a comprehensive 10 year package to reshape aged care. The Living Longer Living Better aged care reform package will build a better, fairer, sustainable and nationally consistent aged care system to meet the social and economic challenges of the nation’s ageing population.

As a key element of the reform package, the Australian Government has committed funding of $1.2 billion over five years to 2016-17, to develop and implement an aged care workforce productivity strategy, in collaboration with the sector, to ensure that an appropriately skilled and qualified workforce is available to care for older Australians.

A valuable source of information is the Nursing and Midwifery Graduate Jobs portal. This online service, an initiative of Health Workforce Australia and funded by the Australian Government, includes information about transition to practice programs and other employment opportunities for graduate nurses and midwives in the public, private and not-for-profit sector across Australia.

Reviewed: 24 April 2013