April 04, 2023
Australia lure for Māori nurses
The kaiwhakahaere of the Nurses Organisation is concerned the flow of nurses across the Tasman could affect the provision of services for Māori.
Five thousand New Zealand nurses have applied to register with the Australian regulatory body.
Kerri Nuku says this country has relied on a mix of locally-trained and overseas nurses, but at the moment the overseas nurses are going elsewhere.
“The concern for us is if we’ve got New Zealand-trained nurses going overseas, and let’s face it some of those could be our Maori nurses, then we’ve got a huge issue around how we look after our Maori patients inside of Aotearoa because we know what works is by Maori for Maori with Maori and to lose such a valuable workforce to Australia would be absolutely devastating,” she says.
Ms Nuku says health professionals across the board are reacting to the pressure created by the lack of resources and funding.