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Nursing Council of New Zealand
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Annual Report 2013
30
Table 3
All registrations – comparison with previous years
Registered nurses
Enrolled nurses
31 March
NZ O/seas
Total
NZ O/seas
Total
Total
2013
1,639 1,257
2,896
150
21
171
3,067
2012
1,395 1,232
2,627
49
8
57
2,684
2011
1,275 1,265
2,540
108
39
147
2,687
2010
1,231 1,270
2,501
106
25
131
2,632
2009
1,268 1,363
2,631
52
24
76
2,707
Registrations
Table 4
Applications for registration – New Zealand-educated applicants
Under section 15
of the HPCA Act
Examination
Outcome
Sat Passed Registered
Registered with
conditions related to
ftness to practise
Not
registered
Registered nurse graduate 1,772 1,680
1,639*
0
0
Enrolled nurse graduate
194
170
150*
0
0
*These fgures differ from the number of nurses who passed state fnal examinations,
as some nurses registered after 31 March. See page 2.
Internationally qualifed
nurses
Internationally qualifed nurses (IQNs) are
an important part of the New Zealand
nursing workforce. They accounted
for 41% (1,278 out of 3,067 total
registrations) of nurses registered in
New Zealand in 2012-2013. Overall,
they make up around 25% of the nursing
workforce in New Zealand, with 12,493
of the 50,060 nurses practising at the
end of March 2013 holding qualifcations
from outside New Zealand.
In the 2012-2013 year the Council
received 1,467 applications for
registration from overseas nurses.
1,278 applications were approved. It is
important to note that applications and
approvals do not correlate exactly, as
some applications received in March
2013 were not processed by the end
of the fnancial year. Conversely some
approvals arose from applications
received in the previous fnancial year.
Taking that into account, approximately
87% of applications were approved
for registration.
Most nurses registering in New Zealand
in the past two years have come from
the Philippines and India. Nurses
registered in Australia are able to enter
New Zealand via the Trans-Tasman
Mutual Recognition (TTMR) arrangement,
which recognises Australian registration
as being equivalent to New Zealand
registration. Nurses registered in
Australia may not be Australian, hence
the difference between the 171 TTMR
registrations and the 86 Australian nurses
registered to practise in New Zealand.
The number of countries from which
nurses come continues to diversify.
While numbers in the ‘other’ category
(Table 6) were lower in 2012-2013,
the range of countries is broadening
– for example with nurses from
European countries affected by the
global economic crisis starting to seek
work further afeld.
Nursing Council staff may propose to
decline an application for registration
for a variety of reasons, including the
applicant not meeting educational
equivalence or English language
requirements. Some applicants choose
to withdraw their applications at this
stage or do not take up the opportunity
to be heard by the Council’s Registration
Committee, which makes the fnal
decisions. Some applicants may reapply
for registration. For these reasons the
number of applications declined does
not match the number of applications
received. Ninety-two applications were
declined by the Registration Committee
during the year.
Every nurse working in New Zealand
must be registered and hold an APC.
This informs the public that the nurse has
been assessed by the Council as being
competent to practise.
Nurses are registered in one of three
scopes of practice: enrolled nurse,
registered nurse and nurse practitioner
(for descriptions see page 24). They may
not practise outside the scopes in which
they are registered. The publicly available
New Zealand Register of Nurses enables
anyone to check on the qualifcations
and scope of practice of any nurse who
holds a current APC. Information on the
Register is updated daily and can be
viewed on the Nursing Council website.
The number of New Zealand-registered
nurses has increased in recent years
in line with the increased number of
students taken into nursing programmes
when workforce shortages were an issue.