ALL NURSING GRADUATES this year will receive a permanent contract, the HSE has told student nurses.

In a letter dated 25 May, seen by TheJournal.ie, nursing interns due to graduate in the coming months were told that they would receive a permanent contract. 

The letter, sent by the HSE’s Director of Human Resources, Anne Marie Hoey, states that “the health services is conscious of the need to continue to augment our staffing to support existing and new services and to work in services that are and will continue to be delivered in new and innovative ways”. 

“Mindful of the needs of services and the skilled workforce required, the HSE is offering each of the graduate nurses and midwives in 2020 a permanent contract,” Hoey writes. 

Many student nurses have been at the front line of the fight against Covid-19 – with a significant proportion of all coronavirus cases among healthcare workers.

In March, the government announced that student nurses and midwives would be paid by offering them a contract as a healthcare assistant. 

Recent years have seen the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation repeatedly criticise the HSE recruitment controls, with the union pointing to significant numbers of graduates not receiving permanent jobs or contracts in Irish hospitals.  

Minister for Health Simon Harris has previously said that he would like to see every graduate nurse offered a job in the HSE. 

“The HSE is offering each of the graduate nurses and midwives in 2020 a permanent contract. Details of services in community and acute hospitals who are recruiting will be communicated to all graduates in the next two weeks,” a HSE spokesperson said. 

“Details of the services recruiting will be communicated to graduates.”