Since the pay equity boost, base rates for more experienced nurses in New Zealand were equal or higher than in some states of Australia. Photo: 123RF
A health recruitment specialist warns the grass may not be much greener over the Tasman for New Zealand nurses.
Nearly 5000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia since August.
Tonix Health Recruitment managing director Kate Nattrass said many nurses were doing short-term contracts in outback Australia, which could pay two or three times as much as they were getting in New Zealand.
"But my concern and what I'm hearing too is some of these nurses are feeling professionally unsafe. They're left a lot in isolation and they don't feel that well supported."
Since the pay equity boost, base rates for more experienced nurses were equal or higher than in some states of Australia.
However, Australia and Britain were getting "increasingly aggressive" about poaching New Zealand nurses to deal with their own critical shortages amid global demand, Nattrass said.
Some overseas-trained nurses were using New Zealand as a backdoor to get into Australia more easily, she said.
"We're putting quite a lot of resources into supporting them to get New Zealand Nursing Council registration but then finding they are using that to go to Australia. So we try to filter that out as best we can.
"But then too we hope that maybe they will see the light as well and use that registration to come back into New Zealand."
New Zealand had a lot to offer overseas nurses, not just in terms of pay and conditions, but through its culture and lifestyle, she said.
"They just get so excited about the thought that they can not only come to New Zealand and live here but bring their partners and children with them."
Tonix Recruitment is doing a recruitment drive next month in Singapore, which sources its nurses predominantly from the Philippines, the birthplace of 25 percent of the world's registered nurses.