Nurse practitioner trainee numbers clarified by Te Whatu Ora

The number of nurse practitioner trainees getting fully funded support in their final year will step up from 50 to 72 in 2023 but still fall short of funding every eligible trainee until 2024.

Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand interim workforce lead Ailsa Claire confirmed the numbers yesterday after health minister Andrew Little’s announcement of a “doubling” of NP trainees caused some head-scratching by nursing leaders.

On 1 August, the minister said the number of NPs being trained would double from 50 to 100 by 2024, but this caused confusion as there are already 70–90 new NPs being registered each year.

Only 50 places a year were available on the fully funded Nurse Practitioner Training Programme (NPTP) which offers more supervised clinical practice and other additional support to final-year trainees. This prompted concern among nursing schools about a two-tier system for NP trainees – those who gained an NPTP place and those who did not.

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Ms Claire confirmed in an emailed response to New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa that the minister’s announcement related to doubling the number of funded NPTP places for trainees.

She says the increase was in response to a letter from nursing schools in May calling for a nationally consistent approach to funding and training for NPs.

“Te Whatu Ora plan to work with the NP education providers to develop this nationally consistent education programme for the final year of NP training,” says Ms Claire.

Ms Claire says the additional NP training places were focused on supporting more Māori and Pacific to become NPs with priorities in mental health and addictions, rural, high deprivation and high health-need areas.

NPTP scheme director and NP Sandra Oster says it was pleasing to have confirmation of more NPTP places next year.

“But it would have been wonderful to be able to fund all qualified [NP] candidates who are ready to go,” says Ms Oster, a University of Auckland academic and chair of Nurse Practitioners New Zealand. She says with proper support and preparation for potential NPs and their employers the sector should be able to have 100 candidates a year.

The number of NPTP places will now grow from 50 this year to 72 in 2023 and then 100 in 2024.

Ms Claire declined to say how much the larger number of NPTP places would cost, saying it was “commercially sensitive”.

In 2021, the Ministry of Health lifted funding for the NPTP programme from $850,000 a year to $1.6 million when the number of places rose from 20 to 50.