Overseas nurses are working as 'stop-go' road workers rather than at hospitals because they can earn up to $10 more per hour.
A civil construction manager has told Checkpoint he has four nurses working in traffic management because registering their qualifications here is too difficult and he pays them more.
It comes at a crisis point for the nursing sector with around 3500 vacancies across the country and just a few hundred overseas visas approved since August.
Health Minister Andrew Little told us he's open to ideas on how to plug the gap.
RNZ reporter Tom Taylor went to find some.
