All fourth-year nursing students are to be offered permanent posts once they graduate this September, the HSE has confirmed.
Graduates were informed of the decision yesterday following a meeting between the HSE and the Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
Hospitals will offer the positions “where vacancies exist or where agency costs can be displaced”, a spokesperson for the HSE said.
The INMO’s general secretary, Liam Doran, told members in a memo that the union has consistently campaigned for permanent jobs for all graduates in recent years.
“In order to ensure that this commitment is met a small group (comprising INMO/ HSE/Department of Health) has been established which, over the next two/three weeks, will seek confirmation from all hospitals that they have offered permanent posts to fourth years,” he said.
Mr Doran also asked final-year students to contact the union if they have not been offered a permanent role by mid-August.
The move is an attempt to alleviate the shortage of hospital staff across the country, coupled with emergency department overcrowding.
Figures compiled by the INMO show the number of patients on trolleys in Irish hospitals increased by 12% in the first three weeks of July, when compared to the same period in 2015.
