Nurses from six countries will be fast-tracked to work in Australia under a new pathway designed to address shortages and cut red tape.
More than 16,000 nurses joined the Australian health system from overseas in the past financial year, triple the number who registered to practise in Australia in 2018-19 – the final year before COVID.
Health Minister Mark Butler says the new fast-track pathway will cut application times for international nurses by up to 12 months. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said nurses trained overseas were applying to work here in record numbers, but many were waiting between six and 12 months to be approved to treat Australian patients.
“For too long, highly educated nurses with experience from countries like the UK, Canada and Ireland are left waiting on red tape approvals before they are able to work in our hospitals, aged care facilities and general practices,” Butler said.
“Australian patients will ultimately benefit from these changes since these nurses can start working and providing care to Australians sooner.”
Nurses from Ireland, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario will be eligible for the new pathway.
Streamlining the application process for international practitioners was a recommendation of the Kruk review into the nation’s health workforce.
Nurse Megan Hamill moved from Scotland to Australia seeking a more laid-back lifestyle and better wages.
The rollout of those recommendations has already given internationally trained general practitioners, psychiatrists and anaesthetists eligibility to apply for fast-tracked approval.
Unlike the colleges representing doctors, the fast-track pathway for nurses has generally gained support from nursing groups.
Ken Griffin, chief executive of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA), the peak body representing all nurses working outside hospitals, said the federal government was developing a national strategy looking at measures to boost training, recruitment and retention of nurses.
“This is one of those steps and just enhances what Australia’s always had, which is a healthy mix of international nurses in among local nurses,” Griffin said.
Megan Hamill moved from Scotland in October 2023, seeking a more laid-back lifestyle and better wages than those offered by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). She said the application process was initially overwhelming, but she was approved within four months.
After starting work in Melbourne, Hamill was drawn to agency stints in Muswellbrook, in the NSW Hunter region, where nursing colleagues welcomed her with open arms.
“They love having the UK and Irish nurses over here ... I’ve been told our work ethic’s very good, and our standard of training is really good,” she said. “It’s just such a nice feeling to come back and be wanted.”
Hamill, who bought a van with her partner last year to travel the east coast, encouraged her overseas nursing colleagues to take advantage of the “smoother and quicker” process.
“The work-life balance is so much better, and so is the pay,” she said. “We just travel from place to place and stop to work when we need money.”
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