Australia has released its first ever National Nursing Workforce Strategy, a landmark plan from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing that sets a ten-year direction for the country’s largest health profession. Endorsed by all Health Ministers and shaped by input from more than 7,000 nurses, students, employers and community members, the strategy is a shared roadmap for how governments, regulators, education providers and employers will attract, retain and empower nurses over the decade ahead.
Whether you are a nurse thinking about your next career move or a healthcare organisation planning your future workforce, the strategy will influence the decisions you make from here. In this article, we unpack what the strategy says, why it matters and what it means in practice for nurses and for the organisations that employ them.
Why Australia Needed a National Nursing Strategy
Nursing represents more than 54 per cent of the national healthcare workforce, making it the single largest health profession in Australia. In 2023 there were 455,000 nurses with general and provisional registration, including 389,787 registered nurses and 65,213 enrolled nurses. Nurses have the highest rates of consumer contact of any health workforce across acute care, residential aged care and remote settings, and they are often the first and most consistent point of care for patients and families.
Demand for that care is climbing. An ageing population, increasingly complex chronic conditions, a geographically dispersed population and rapid advances in technology are all placing new pressures on the health and aged care system. The Nursing Supply and Demand Study 2023-2035, which informed the strategy, projects that without reform Australia faces an undersupply of 70,707 full time equivalent nurses by 2035. That equates to around 79,473 nurses needed to fill the gap.
The study also highlights a shortfall of around 9,088 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses against the national target of 3.43 per cent representation in the health workforce by 2031. These are not abstract numbers. Left unaddressed, the gap would mean longer waits, reduced access to care and heavier workloads for the nurses who remain.
The strategy is Australia’s coordinated answer. Rather than leaving workforce challenges to individual states, employers or education providers to solve in isolation, it sets out a shared national vision: a sustainable nursing workforce that adapts, innovates and excels to deliver evidence based health and wellbeing outcomes for all Australian communities.
The Four Priorities of the Strategy
The strategy is built around four priorities, each with its own objectives and actions. Together they cover 28 actions to be implemented over a ten-year horizon, with cross-cutting attention to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, cultural and linguistic diversity, and rural and remote communities.
Priority 1: Enhancing Workforce Planning, Education and Regulation
The first priority focuses on the systems that shape the nursing pipeline. It commits to nationally coordinated workforce data, modelling and planning, drawing on resources such as the National Health Workforce Dataset. It also targets more contemporary models of pre-registration education, better support for students to access and complete their studies, and student employment models that let undergraduates earn, learn and build confidence in real care settings.
For nurses, one of the most practical commitments is enhanced mobility and career flexibility. Inconsistent regulations, policies and practice requirements across jurisdictions currently create duplication and confusion, and can make it harder for nurses to move between settings, services and states. The strategy commits to smoothing those pathways.
Priority 2: Enabling Nursing Innovation
The second priority recognises nurses as leaders of innovation, not just recipients of change. Actions include preparing the workforce to drive the effective use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and genomics, creating funding models that support nurse led models of care, and enabling nurses to work to their optimum scope of practice in all settings.
Scope of practice is a central theme. Evidence shows that when health professionals are supported to work to their full capability, consumers get better access to care, outcomes improve and job satisfaction rises. The strategy also supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and communities to co design workforce initiatives that suit local conditions, and positions nurses as leaders of environmentally sustainable, climate resilient healthcare.
Priority 3: Elevating the Nursing Profession
The third priority is about recognition, respect and culture. It commits to advancing nursing leadership at every career stage, growing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurse leadership, adopting anti racism initiatives, and fostering a diverse, inclusive and culturally safe workforce.
It also commits to supporting internationally qualified nurses to transition into Australia’s health and aged care system, with improved applicant experiences and faster registration pathways. Finally, it aims to contemporise the identity of nursing so the profession is recognised for its scientific knowledge, skills and leadership, both within healthcare and in the public eye.
Priority 4: Delivering a Sustainable Nursing Workforce
The fourth priority tackles retention and long term sustainability. Actions include a nationally consistent framework for transition to practice, a national skills and capability framework, a national professional development framework and the adoption of positive practice environment standards in all settings.
Rural and remote communities receive particular attention. The strategy commits to rural career pathways with transition support, models of education that let students study closer to home, and the removal of barriers that stop nurses working to their optimum scope within multidisciplinary rural teams.
What the Strategy Means for Nurses
If you are a nurse or nursing student, the strategy signals a decade of investment in making your career more flexible, more supported and more rewarding. Here is what to watch.
First, expect more choice in how your career develops. Commitments around career flexibility, nationally recognised postgraduate accreditation and clinical academic pathways are designed to make it easier to move between clinical settings, education, research and leadership roles without starting from scratch each time. If you have been considering a move into aged care, community health or a rural placement, the strategy is explicitly designed to make those transitions simpler.
Second, your scope of practice is likely to expand. As legislative and regulatory barriers are harmonised across jurisdictions, more nurses will be supported to use their full capabilities, which is linked to higher job satisfaction and better patient outcomes.
Third, workplace culture is on the agenda. Positive practice environment standards, anti racism initiatives and a focus on wellbeing recognise that retention depends on how nurses are treated every day, not just on recruitment campaigns.
For internationally qualified nurses, the strategy’s commitment to smoother registration and transition support is significant. Australia continues to welcome experienced nurses from overseas, and dedicated support programs like HCA’s international nursing recruitment services can help you navigate the journey from registration through to your first placement.
And if you are ready to explore new opportunities now, from permanent roles to agency shifts that fit around your life, you can browse the latest nursing jobs across Australia today.
What the Strategy Means for Healthcare Organisations
For hospitals, aged care providers, community services and other employers, the strategy is both a signal and an invitation. It confirms that workforce shortages will remain the defining operational challenge of the next decade, and it names employers as key partners in the response, alongside governments, regulators and education providers.
Three implications stand out. First, workforce planning will become more data driven and more collaborative. Employers should expect richer national datasets and modelling to inform local planning, and increased expectations that they will contribute to and act on that evidence.
Second, the employers who thrive will be those who invest in positive practice environments. The strategy makes clear that retention follows culture: safe workplaces, visible career pathways, supported transitions to practice and access to professional development. Adopting these standards early is a competitive advantage in a tight labour market.
Third, flexibility is now a workforce strategy, not a perk. The strategy acknowledges that a lack of role choice and flexible work arrangements is driving nurses out of the system. Employers who build flexible staffing models, including the smart use of agency and surge workforce, will be better placed to protect care continuity while permanent pipelines grow. Partnering with an experienced provider of workforce solutions can help organisations maintain safe staffing levels while they build the sustainable, permanent teams the strategy envisions.
Turning Strategy Into Action
The National Nursing Workforce Strategy is ambitious, and its success will depend on collective effort. Governments will lead funding and policy reform, regulators will modernise registration and accreditation, education providers will evolve how nurses are trained, and employers will reshape the environments nurses work in. Individual nurses, meanwhile, are encouraged to engage, lead and help shape the change.
As Australia’s largest healthcare recruitment agency, Healthcare Australia works at the intersection of all of these groups every day. We see the pressures the strategy responds to, and we see the opportunities it creates for nurses and employers alike.
If you are a nurse ready to take the next step in your career, or an organisation planning for the decade ahead, we would love to help. Explore our latest opportunities, talk to our team about your workforce needs, and keep an eye on our news hub for ongoing analysis of what the strategy means as implementation unfolds.
