Better health and ageing for all Australians

Health practitioners

Bringing Nurses Back into the Workforce

If you are a registered nurse/midwife (Division 1 in Victoria) or enrolled nurse (Division 2 in Victoria) who has been employed previously in the Australian nursing workforce, but you have not worked as a nurse/midwife in Australia for 12 months, you may be eligible for cash bonuses to encourage you to come back to work in a public or private hospital, or residential aged care home.

Want to come back to this page another time?
You can get to this page using the short URL
www.health.gov.au/backtonursing

This funding, announced on 15 January 2008 by the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, and the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP, is part of a $138.9 million plan to bring extra nurses/midwives into the Australian health workforce. If you started work on or after 15 January 2008 and meet the eligibility criteria you may qualify for the bonus payments.

More detail on this program is contained in the following fact sheets:

Application form for hospital nurses (PDF 26 KB) - to be completed by returning nurse/midwife

The Royal College of Nursing, Australia (RCNA) is administering the aged care nursing positions under this program.
Aged care application form

If you have a question about the program, please email BacktoNursing@health.gov.au and include your name and contact details.

Page last reviewed: 26 February 2009


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