The University of Waikato has doubled its intake of nursing students for 2023 in the face of severe staff shortages in the health workforce, welcoming a record 211 new students into its Registered Nursing programmes.
The acting dean of Te Huataki Waiora School of Health, Dr Jo Lane, says: “We’re really pleased to welcome so many high-quality nursing students to study. At a time when the health workforce is in crisis, it’s imperative that we do everything possible to enable students wanting to enrol in health training to do so.”
The University of Waikato is the newest provider of nursing programmes, developing and delivering them in partnership with Te Whatu Ora Waikato, with an emphasis on equity, mental health and addictions, and Māori and Pacific health.
It offers two programmes that lead to becoming a registered nurse: a traditional three-year Bachelor of Nursing degree, and an accelerated graduate-entry Master of Nursing Practice degree. The latter allows students with a previous degree in any subject to complete their nursing training in just two years and be workforce ready.