Nursing jobs in New Zealand

Bring your nursing skills to New Zealand and treat yourself to a unique combination of professional satisfaction and a brilliant lifestyle.

Imagine, within half an hour of finishing a day’s duties, you can be on a beach. Or up a mountain. Or tramping through fresh, clean beautiful bush. On the other hand, you could just be chilling out at a relaxed café or restaurant, meeting new friends and enjoying the view.

Professionally, you’ll find New Zealand’s healthcare standards are up with the best. Our hospitals are modern, well equipped and, compared to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (including the US, Ireland, Canada, Germany etc), we rate especially well on patient safety, timeliness and efficiency.

Right now there are hundreds of nursing jobs waiting for people like you who are looking for a fresh and positive life.

As a nurse, you’ll have several choices of visa:

• Skilled Migrant Category, a resident visa that allows you to work and live in New Zealand
• Work to Residence, a two year work visa, which allows you to work towards qualiifying for a resident visa
• Essential Skills, a temporary work visa, which allows you to work in New Zealand if you have a job offer from a New Zealand employer and the role cannot be filled by a New Zealander

Healthcare opportunities in New Zealand

• New Zealand spends around 9.2% of our GDP on healthcare, higher than the 2009 OECD average of 8.9%.
• There are plenty of jobs for nurses in New Zealand, and nurses are listed on the Essential Skills in Demand list.  This will make it easier for you meet the immigration requirements.
• It’s expected that we’ll need up to 25,000 more nurses by 2030, according to a 2009 government report.

Register with NZ Now

To find out more about working opportunities in New Zealand simply complete the NZ Now registration form so we can tailor our responses to your particular situation and needs.

FAQs

What’s nursing like in New Zealand?

Around half the nurses in New Zealand work in hospitals, either private or public. See more about the public and private system here. Other major places where nurses work are in general practice (doctors’ offices), primary care and in the community sector.

Hospitals here are modern and well equipped, with contemporary diagnostics and clinical technologies widely available.

New Zealanders’ health is similar to other OECD countries. However, like many other Western countries, New Zealand is dealing with such challenges as obesity and smoking related illnesses; as well as providing medical care for an ageing population, (with a life expectancy in New Zealand now at 80.2 years).

Hospital nursing staff tend to work as part of a therapeutic team on rostered shifts. Standard hospital shifts are 8 hours, but many wards operate 10 or 12 hour shifts.

Employment in clinics and doctors’ offices is usually based on set hours, generally from Monday to Friday.

How easy is it to get work as a nurse in New Zealand?

The first thing you need to do is become registered with the Nursing Council of New Zealand. Once you’ve done that you can start applying for jobs, either directly with the employer – including any of the District Health Boards – or through an employment agency.  At this stage you can apply to Immigration for an appropriate work or residence visa.  It can take a few months for all the documentation and paperwork to be completed but once you’ve done that, there should be numerous nursing jobs available. The hardest part may be deciding where in New Zealand you want to live and enjoy our great lifestyle!

For more information about the registration and immigration process, click here.

What will my salary be in New Zealand?

Nurses, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and Anesthetic Technicians are all paid according to the number of years post-registration experience you have, up to the top level of 5+ years.

For permanent roles, annual starting salary for newly qualified staff is currently in the range of (NZ) $40,000 - $45,000 and for the top level $49,000 - $61,000 (depending on location). Overtime payments – or Penal Rates as they are called here – can add another $5-10,000 per annum, depending on the hours worked.

Regardless of the current exchange rate, you’ll find your income is relative to the cost of living in New Zealand. Nursing salaries allow you to live a comfortable life while enjoying a healthy work/life balance. To give you an idea of the price of standard items click here.

Tax is deducted from your salary or wages with each pay. You’ll be taxed according to your income as follows:

• Up to $48,000 per annum 17.5%
• $48,001 - $70,000 per annum 30.0%
• Over $70,000 per annum 33.0%