Nurses in Auckland (file image). Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A nursing student on the cusp of graduating says the prospect of working in the field she studied is so grim, she has taking up a job in event management.
Student nurses have reacted with frustration to a lack of specific support for them in yesterday's Budget.
But the health minister says help is on its way.
One of the headlines of Thursday's Budget was $1 billion to boost staffing numbers and pay rates within the health workforce.
On Friday, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall went one step further, making a promise to all the nursing students struggling to juggle their high-pressure placements with the need to put food on the table.
"I agree we need more support for our student nursing trainees to make sure that when they hit those years with lots of placements, and the costs of attending placements, that they don't drop out," Verrall said.
Te Whatu Ora was currently working on the specifics of this support, and while Verrall could not provide an exact timeline for the rollout, she said a workforce plan would be in place before the election.
The support would go beyond just study, she said.
"There is no one thing that we're going to do to address retention and training in nursing; we're going to have to do a number of things.
"Even those students who are towards the end of their training will benefit from some of the measures we put in place in order to retain people once they are nurses and support them in their first few years of work."
Nursing students had to complete a minimum of 1100 clinical hours alongside their study, including full-time stints at hospitals, rest homes or mental health wards, all while completing assignments and sitting tests.
They were currently unpaid for the placements and had to pay for transport, food, and in some cases, accommodation.
Some students currently in the final stages of training said the promised help might be too little too late.
Emma* was almost halfway through the last year of her nursing degree at AUT.
She said she could see a light at the end of the tunnel - but it was not bright enough to keep her within the profession.
"I've already got a job lined up for me that isn't in nursing... I'm doing event management."
Emma felt she had come so far, she had to finish what she started.
But with a $20,000 student loan hanging over her head, she said once she had the piece of paper, event management was a better bet than nursing to pay it off.
And her experiences on clinical placements had not given her any confidence to stick it out in the sector.
"When they get paid shockingly, get abused by patients and their families when they're trying their absolute best; when they're short-staffed and they have way too many patients - an unsafe load of patients - they're not compensated."
Yesterday's Budget outlined a $63 million investment in safe staffing, allowing for an extra 500 nurses.
Verrall said these nurses would come from both New Zealand and abroad.
"We have to pursue both international and domestic recruitment, but for the longer term, it is really important to grow the number that we can train in New Zealand."
But Emma questioned where the Kiwi nurses would come from, given so many of the nurses she met on placements were getting ready to quit.
"They've already got plans to leave and go to Australia because they're getting paid sweet nothing, so my question is where? Where the hell are they going to find these nurses? Because they're gone."
Kimberly*, a nursing student based in Masterton, said she had heard former health minister Andrew Little telling Checkpoint at the end of last year that nursing students should get some form of financial support during their third-year placements.
But leafing through yesterday's Budget documents left her frustrated.
"I was disappointed, to be honest. I had my hopes high."
The Masterton-based student had completed a six-week long placement across the Remutaka Ranges at Wellington Hospital.
She said it came at a high cost - staying at a backpackers for $96 a night, she racked up a bill of about $4000 dollars.
The current level of course-related costs did not go nearly far enough, she said.
"We have $1000 for course-related costs; that's to cover childcare and stuff, so I saved that for my placement.
"And then I saved up some money when I was working towards my accommodation costs, and my husband paid the rest."
While Kimberly was determined to finish her degree, she said many of her peers were on the cusp of dropping out due to financial pressure.
University of Canterbury acting executive dean of health, and former head of nursing at Ara Institute for 20 years, Cathy Andrew, said something had to be done quickly to improve retention, with about a third of all nursing students dropping out.
The shortfall in course-related costs suggested politicians were out of touch with the needs of students, she said.
"They're not living the day-to-day realities at the moment in households - where do you get the petrol, where do you get the warranted car, where do you get the costs for parking your car in central cities near hospitals where there are parking costs?
"I guess for all of us, the further we get away from those day-to-day realities, it's harder to appreciate what they're like."
* The names of the nursing students in this story have been changed
