500 signatures reached
To: Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas
KEEP VICTORIAN GRADUATE NURSES AND MIDWIVES IN THE WORKFORCE
More than 2000 Victorian nursing and midwifery students will miss out on a graduate program place in our hospitals in 2026.
Student nurses and midwives will find out if they have a graduate place on Wednesday 17 September 2025.
It is absurd that many of the students who received financial assistance from the Victorian Government and the taxpayer and encouraged to start their course in 2023 will be told they are not wanted or needed.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We know that our public and private hospitals are relying on nurses and midwives to work overtime and double shifts, and employers are still relying on agencies to fill gaps in the roster.
We also know Victorian public hospitals will need more nurses and midwives to:
- fill the additional positions required to fill the improved ratios being implemented in phases between April 2025 and June 2026
- open Frankston and Footscray hospitals
- fill new positions in 23 Victorian public hospitals and eight emergency departments that will be needed when the Victorian Government’s in-principle agreement to a hospital classification review is passed in legislation.
Private hospitals also continue to close services, particularly maternity services, citing workforce issues.
All Victorians should care that the Victorian Government invested in educating the next generation of nurses and midwives and is now throwing them away.
Why is this important?
This short-sighted decision will create an avoidable shortage of nurses and midwives in the future, a strain on the current nursing and midwifery workforce and increased pressure on the public and private healthcare systems.
To provide the healthcare services the Victorian community needs we must keep building our new and early career workforce as well as retaining our experienced nurses and midwives.
We must ensure today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce.
Use us or lose us. It doesn’t have to be this way – we call on the Victorian Government to employ all of our 2026 graduate nurses and midwives.