The number of overseas nurses applying to work in New Zealand has dropped by about 60 per cent over the last three months.

The figures, reported by 1News, come as New Zealand’s “horrendous” nursing shortages leave those in the sector burnt-out and worried they’re stretched too thin to keep patients safe.

Immigration NZ received more than a hundred work visa applications each month earlier this year, 1News reported.

That number dropped to just 39 in October.

Immigration NZ received more than a hundred work visa applications each month earlier this year, which dropped to just 39 in October. Photo / 123RF

National leader Christopher Luxon told 1News: “New Zealand doesn’t have a competitive offering for international migrant nurses to come to New Zealand.

“They are choosing to go to other places.”

But the Minister of Immigration Michael Wood said the fall in work visa applications was due to people applying for different visas.

Wood told 1News, “the numbers drop under those [work visa] categories, but actually many people are coming here under a visitor visa category who will then go on into nursing roles.”

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The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) said earlier this year the nursing sector was more than 4000 nurses short and the Government needed to admit there was a crisis.

President of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Anne Daniels. Photo / Supplied

NZNO president Anne Daniels said nurse shortages in New Zealand were “pretty horrendous”.

“The fewer nurses there are, the more likely [it is] that the workloads increase.

“Right now, we have an extremely exhausted, burnt-out, morally injured workforce of nurses that who, when they go to work, know they are not going to have the number of staff they need to work with in a team to keep themselves and their patients safe and the likelihood of them making mistakes in that context increases as well.”

Immigration officials were warned earlier this year of a growing reliance on a migrant workforce in nursing, rather than domestically trained nurses.

About one in four nurses were from overseas.

Any fast-tracking of residency pathways could perpetuate this.

Wood told 1News, “that was some advocacy may be to have a slightly tighter policy in respect of residency pathways.

“We’ve also had advocacy telling us to loosen that up and speed it up.”

National leader Christopher Luxon said overseas nurses were choosing to go elsewhere as NZ didn't have a competitive offering for them. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Luxon said, “right here, right now - in the middle of a very intense crisis, we need to be able to open up our channels.”

To become a registered nurse in New Zealand, students must complete 1100 hours of placements in hospitals and “real” clinical settings.

But as it stands, that work is unpaid.

Health Minister Andrew Little wanted nursing students to be paid for hospital placements “as soon as possible”, with officials actively considering significant reforms.

Minister of Immigration Michael Wood said the fall in overseas nurses applying for NZ work visa applications was due to people applying for different visas. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“Nursing graduates have to do their final practical period in a hospital, that’s where we see the biggest drop-off of nursing students.”

He said there are many associated costs with doing in-hospital practicums, including transport and, potentially, living costs.

Little said the Government needed to address that, signalling changes over the coming months.

“It is going to require for them [nursing students] to get some financial support while they’re doing that work.”

“We need as many New Zealand-trained nurses as possible, and particularly Māori and Pacific, where we have a huge shortage”, he said.