A nurse is predicting that New Zealand nurses will be attracted overseas if their pay is not significantly boosted.
Nurses protest on the streets of Auckland as they take industrial action after failed negotiations. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Nurses went on strike over pay and staffing 10 days ago, and talks on reaching a settlement are continuing with district health boards.
Siobhan Lehnhard, who is a nurse with the Auckland District Health Board, said there was a shortage of nurses around the world and New Zealand nurses will be in demand.
"The NHS in the UK is going to lose 84,000 nurses over the next five years, the United States is going to be short 1.1 million nurses by 2020, and Australia is going to be short 85,000 nurses by 2025. So each of those countries is significantly more wealthy than New Zealand, each of those countries pays on average more money to nurses."
Siobhan Lehnhard said at times in her job she has had to look after as many as 18 patients at once because there was not enough staff.