Our History

NSNZ Recruitment grew out of a Nurses Society initiative, in 1991, designed to help new graduates, in response to the shortage of new graduate positions in New Zealand.  

Placements were organised for these new graduates in the United Sates, which required organising registration, including sitting NCLEX-RN and then placement. It started with taking a small group to New York to sit NCLEX-RN and later some of this initial group were employed at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre of New York. Numbers rapidly increased and, within a year, groups as large as 140 at a time were being flown out. Placements mostly focussed on New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, California and Hawaii.

Due to popular demand, the programme was soon opened to experienced registered nurses and it morphed into a full, international placement service.

Singapore was added, in 1994, to provide another option, that did not involve sitting a registration exam and was potentially quicker. Despite relatively low salaries and other challenges, several hundred nurses were placed there. A year later, Hong Kong, was added as a further option. In 1996, recruitment started for the United Kingdom the United Arab Emirates. Placements were also extended to include allied health professionals and doctors.   

Later candidate sourcing also broadened to include Australia and the United Kingdom, plus other selected countries from time to time.

An approach in 1999 from a major public health authority in Canada resulted in large-scale placement programmes across Canada. As with the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong, these mostly involved placing large groups, a mix of new graduates and experienced nurses, plus other health professionals. Substantial numbers have been placed in Canada.

With time, some options have been scaled back and replaced with new locations, many of which being unique. For several years, we regularly placed doctors on 90-day locums to remote Pitcairn Island. We have also recruited nurse educators as well as managers for several countries. We have periodically recruited dentists for public health services in Australia and locum general practitioners for rural and remote Australia. Since the early 2000s we have regularly recruited for several British Overseas Territories and for some other island locations in the America - Caribbean and surrounds. 

Current placements focus on several countries and span all health disciplines, with medical and allied health professionals now generally accounting for half of all placements.