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The Nurses Organisation says 77 percent of Maori nursing graduates have found jobs, but the figure should be 100 percent if the workforce is to reflect the population.
Spokesperson Hilary Graham-Smith says the Advanced Choice of Employment or ACE programme, which is supposed to help nurses get their first jobs within the 20 district health boards or private hospitals, isn't working at an acceptable level.
In 2017 two thirds of ACE applicants gained positions in the mid-year round but only half got jobs in the end of year round.
That compares with medicine, where every new graduate doctor has a place on an entry programme.
Ms Graham-Smith says it's a sign of the chronic under-investment in nursing.
She says the nursing workforce is ageing, many are leaving in their 50s, and New Zealand is not attracting, training or retaining enough nurses to future proof its health care services.
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