12 May 2025
Roger Taylor
[FYI request #29492 email]
Tēnā koe Roger
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00074319
Thank you for your email on 9 December 2024, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
(Health NZ) for the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
I am requesting information regarding workforce wellbeing, burnout, and retention
within the healthcare workforce. Specifically, I seek the following details:
1. Retention Rates:
Please provide annual retention rates over the past five years for the following groups:
a. House Officers (PGY1 and PGY2)
b. Registrars
c. Nurses (including breakdown by specialty if available)
d. Allied Health Professionals
2. Wellbeing and Burnout Resources:
What resources, programs, or initiatives does Te Whatu Ora currently provide to
address burnout, mental health, and overall wellbeing for the above workforce
categories?
What percentage of the workforce has accessed these resources annually over the
past five years?
3. Workforce Morale and NZ Pulse Survey:
Please share the most recent results of the NZ Pulse Survey (or similar morale
assessment tools) as they pertain to the above workforce groups.
Provide any analysis, reports, or conclusions drawn from these results regarding
trends in morale and wellbeing.
4. Wellbeing Strategy:
Does Te Whatu Ora have a formal strategy or plan for improving workforce wellbeing
and addressing burnout? If so, please provide a copy.
What funding has been allocated for these efforts over the past three years?
Response
Please find a response to each of your questions below. I am refusing
Part 1 Retention Rates
(a-d) of your request under section 18(g) of the Act, as the information is not held by Health
NZ, and I have no grounds to believe that it is held by another entity subject to the Act.
However, I have provided headcounts for Leavers and Starters employed by Health NZ from
2019 to June 2024. See Tables 1-4 below.
Note: Tables 1-4 below provide information as at 31 December 2024 from our Health
Workforce Information Programme (HWIP), which holds data on the District employed
workforce providing a national, regional and local picture of the health and disability sector
workforce. Further information about HWIP is available at
www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/for-health-
professionals/health-workforce-development/health-workforce-initiatives/health-workforce-
information-programme/.
Table One: Allied and scientific and Resident Medical Officer (RMO) New Hires - Jan
2019 to December 2024
Occupation Group
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Allied and scientific
2012
2158
2335
2542
2438
2083
Resident Medical Officer (RMO)
3650
2031
3587
3949
3683
3631
Grand Total
5662
4189
5922
6491
6121
5714
Table Two: Allied and scientific and Resident Medical Officer (RMO) Leavers - Jan 2019
to December 2024
Occupation Group
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Allied and scientific
1732
1502
2098
2331
2006
1617
Resident Medical Officer (RMO)
3273
1983
3236
3480
3334
3316
Grand Total
5005
3485
5334
5811
5340
4933
Table Three: Nursing New Hires broken down by ANZSCO - Jan 2019 to December 2024
ANZSCO Description
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Enrolled Nurse
109
101
135
138
152
109
Nurse Educator
48
56
60
173
60
47
Nurse Manager
87
107
146
146
134
70
Nurse Practitioner
22
13
15
23
14
20
Nurse Researcher
21
17
37
28
34
17
Nursing Clinical Director
8
12
6
11
5
2
Registered Nurse (Aged Care)
79
58
105
124
142
64
Registered Nurse (Child & Family Health)
121
152
168
197
140
50
Registered Nurse (Community Health)
213
280
593
277
205
172
Registered Nurse (Critical Care & Emergency)
584
575
769
730
1130
840
Registered Nurse (Developmental Disability)
8
9
6
5
-
-
Registered Nurse (Disability & Rehabilitation)
56
48
60
90
158
91
Registered Nurse (Medical Practice)
4
5
9
13
11
10
Registered Nurse (Medical)
1048
903
1147
1300
1382
831
Registered Nurse (Mental Health)
473
585
485
455
505
505
Registered Nurse (Paediatric)
149
140
144
166
328
282
Registered Nurse (Perioperative)
313
248
414
391
465
283
Registered Nurse (Surgical)
685
611
882
887
1099
821
Registered Nurses nec
731
671
1024
876
980
398
Grand Total
4759
4591
6205
6030
6944
4612
Table Four: Nursing Leavers broken down by ANZSCO - Jan 2019 to December 2024
ANZSCO Description
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Enrolled Nurse
103
108
143
138
106
106
Nurse Educator
41
42
60
81
64
55
Nurse Manager
125
144
206
232
162
154
Nurse Practitioner
14
10
19
27
24
33
Nurse Researcher
22
19
29
27
18
16
Nursing Clinical Director
10
16
14
14
13
17
Registered Nurse (Aged Care)
46
40
53
72
63
50
Registered Nurse (Child & Family Health)
65
78
111
93
46
39
Registered Nurse (Community Health)
176
173
427
434
235
198
Registered Nurse (Critical Care & Emergency)
496
426
647
704
639
518
Registered Nurse (Developmental Disability)
8
7
3
1
-
-
Registered Nurse (Disability & Rehabilitation)
37
36
44
51
73
68
Registered Nurse (Medical Practice)
6
5
5
4
7
5
Registered Nurse (Medical)
666
583
865
785
712
646
Registered Nurse (Mental Health)
352
437
480
416
341
312
Registered Nurse (Paediatric)
103
60
121
138
186
146
Registered Nurse (Perioperative)
206
187
290
361
299
232
Registered Nurse (Surgical)
440
348
591
657
520
514
Registered Nurses nec
476
403
690
695
453
279
Grand Total
3392
3122
4798
4930
3961
3388
Notes
* Health NZ District data was extracted from the HWIP database on 23/04/2025 and reflects people
employed by the Health NZ Districts as at 31 December 2024.
* HWIP collects data from the Health NZ Districts as at the end of each quarter, and data as at 31
December 2024 is the most current data available.
* Data includes permanent and fixed term employees and excludes contractors, employees on long
term leave, parental leave, leave without pay and those with zero contracted hours.
* For this request data has been included from 18 Health New Zealand Districts.
* Employee Count is a distinct count of individual employee numbers. There is the potential for
individuals to be counted more than once if they have roles in more than one Occupation Group.
* All FTE values are contracted FTE (where 1 FTE = 2086 hours per year).
* Occupation Groups are based on the ANZSCO codes assigned to various roles. In a small number of
cases, the ANZSCOs may be adjusted from those originally submitted.
* Nursing count shows those coded under ANZSCOs within the HWIP Nursing Occupation Group. This
will include Nurse Managers, Nurse Educators, Nurse Researchers, Nurse Practitioners, Nursing
Clinical Directors, Registered Nurses and Enrolled Nurses.
*
KEY NOTE: Resident Medical Officer (RMOs) numbers have been included in these figures, but it
must be noted that these numbers fluctuate as their roles are typically managed differently as they
rotate within and between Districts during their training.
* New hires/starters are employees whose reported employment start date was between 1 Jan 2019 to
31 December 2024.
* New hires/starters will include people who have left one district and started work in another, or have
started work in the Te Whatu Ora National Office. Due to the anonymised nature of the data collection,
this cannot be tracked or quantified.
* Starters and Leavers will include people who have changed roles within Districts
* Leavers are employees whose reported employment end date was between 1 Jan 2019 to 31
December 2024.
* Leavers includes both voluntary and involuntary leavers - involuntary leavers are those reported as
leaving a district for reasons restructure, redundancy, dismissal, death, or for health reasons. It also
includes those on on fixed term where their contracted ended.
* Leavers count will include people who leave one district to work in another, but due to the anonymised
nature of the HWIP collection, we are unable to identify and exclude movements between districts.
* Leavers includes both voluntary and involuntary leavers - involuntary leavers are those reported as
leaving a district for reasons restructure, redundancy, dismissal, death, or for health reasons.
2. Wellbeing and Burnout Resources: What resources, programs, or initiatives does Te
Whatu Ora currently provide to address burnout, mental health, and overall wellbeing
for the above workforce categories? What percentage of the workforce has accessed
these resources annually over the past five years?
Health NZ is implementing a range of initiatives to help grow our health workforce, promote
specialties where there is most need and better retain our skilled doctors and other health
professionals. Though this work is not aimed at reducing burnout or improving mental health
or wellbeing specifically, it is likely to have flow-on benefits in these areas.
Some examples of these types of initiatives follow. For more, see the Health Workforce Plan
2024
—https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/publications/health-workforce-plan-2024.
Health NZ has successfully worked with tertiary providers to increase student retention across
all health programmes, particularly Māori and Pacific students. Investment was made into Te
Rau Puāwai to increase the Māori Mental Health workforce. This programme is run out of
Massey University and engages all levels of academia through to PhD in psychology, nursing,
rehabilitation, social work, Māori health, Māori studies, and health sciences. The programme
provides cultural as well as academic advice for Māori to aid in successful completion rates.
Additionally, we support and fund the Voluntary Bonding Scheme (Scheme), which aims to
encourage newly qualified health professionals to work in the communities and specialties that
need them most, and to retain essential health professionals in New Zealand.. Health NZ has
expanded the Scheme for general practitioners and midwives and to include anaesthetic
technicians and pharmacists. The Scheme also supports registered and enrolled nurses,
dentists, oral health therapists, radiation therapists, sonographers, and medical physicists.
The Scheme provides newly qualified healthcare professionals in hard-to-staff specialties and
locations with payments in the first 3 to 5 years of their career to help repay their student loan
or as top-up income
We offer a range of employee assistance programmes (EAP) across the country. Though
these are not aimed at burnout specifically, they are provided to support our staff’s wellbeing
more generally. The table below shows the percentage of staff (headcount) that engaged with
EAP services each month in 2025.
Table 3 – Percentage of staff engaging EAP per month
Date
Engagement
Jan-24
0.7%
Feb-24
0.9%
Mar-24
1.0%
Apr-24
1.0%
May-24
1.1%
Jun-24
0.9%
Jul-24
1.0%
Aug-24
1.0%
Sep-24
1.0%
Oct-24
1.0%
Nov-24
1.1%
Dec-24
0.9%
Jan-25
0.8%
*Note: The data in this table is estimated headcount data, based on quarterly data obtained by HWIP
from district payroll systems. To protect the privacy of staff, this information is collected anonymously.
Hence, some staff may engage with EAP in more than one month.
Due to the number of EAP providers nationally and discrepancies in the way data was
collected by each provider, Health NZ does not hold national data on engagement of EAP
services prior to 1 January 2024, and finding and collating that data would require significant
work that could not be done without impacting Health NZ’s other operations. Therefore, I am
refusing the parts of your request that relate to data from previous years under section 18(f) of
the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or
research.
I have considered whether fixing a charge for the supply of the information or extending the
timeframe for response would enable Health NZ to respond. I do not consider that either
option would remove the impact that searching for and collating the information would have on
our other operations.
Health NZ has multiple initiatives in place to support staff wellbeing, including wellbeing
conversations, peer to peer support, staff briefings, team meetings and team events. Health
NZ also expects its leaders to have a strong and explicit focus on wellbeing and building staff
morale as part of their everyday work in leading people. We have also been focused on
respect at work programmes and are currently developing a Health NZ Leadership
programme which will start late in 2025.
There are also initiatives focused on recognising staff who go above and beyond in their roles,
including peer-to-peer recognition programmes, organisational excellence awards, and health
and safety champions. Our work on Te Mauri o Rongo in partnerships with unions is
developing and ensuring a focus for all staff.
Our onboarding processes including induction, as well as pōwhiri, mihi whakatau and poroaki,
which are routinely held to welcome and farewell staff, demonstrate HNZ’s commitment to
creating a positive place to work for all its workforce. There are also tailored local initiatives,
including to celebrate or recognise landmark and awareness-raising days, such as Pride
Week, Pink Shirt Day, and International Day of Persons with Disability.
We are developing several other pieces of work that are aimed at improving staff wellbeing,
including the Mayo Clinic’s Well-Being Index, resources to train staff in Stress First Aid (peer-
to peer support) and debriefing, which is a structured approach for staff and teams to use
following a particularly significant event or difficult period of time. See my response to part 4
of your request for more on the Well-Being Index.
3. Workforce Morale and NZ Pulse Survey: Please share the most recent results of the
NZ Pulse Survey (or similar morale assessment tools) as they pertain to the above
workforce groups. Provide any analysis, reports, or conclusions drawn from these
results regarding trends in morale and wellbeing.
Your request relates to the Pulse 2 Survey (Pulse 2), which was an internal survey of Health
NZ staff that ran in April 2024. Around 32.5% of Health NZ staff participated in the survey. The
overall average score was 63% across all questions. Health NZ continues to garner insights
from Pulse 2 and is committed to making further progress.
Attached as Appendix One is the Pulse 2 Survey results from 2024. Attached as Appendix
Two is a summary infographic. Attached as Appendix Three are workforce-specific Pulse
results from 2024 for Nurses, Resident Medical Officers, and Allied, Scientific and Technical
workforces.
The Pulse 2 survey saw an increase of 5,279 participants, bringing the total to 33,416
compared to Pulse One. The overall average score across the 16 questions improved – from
60% in Pulse One to 63% in Pulse Two – with 14 out of 16 questions showing incremental
improvements. Notably, the nursing professional cohort saw a 5% increase in satisfaction.
Scores varied across professions: Care and Support: 68%, Corporate and Other: 65%,
Nursing (excluding HCAs): 62%, Midwifery: 59%, RMOs: 53%, and SMOs: 51%. While nurses
had a significant increase in satisfaction, there were smaller increases for RMOs, Allied,
Scientific & Technical, and Midwives. Scores for SMOs and Corporate/Other remained static.
The results provide a consistent view across the country on what is working well and what
needs improvement, with consistent scores across regions and districts. All districts
communicated their Pulse 2 results to their teams and local unions. Following the
communication of results, we conducted a deep dive with some of the higher scoring teams to
understand the factors contributing to their staff being more highly satisfied, and to identify
actionable insights that other teams could apply to help improve their own performance.
While your request
relates to the most recent survey, we ran a survey in 2023 (pulse one) and
results are available here: https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/publications/ngatahitanga-pulse-
survey-reports/.
Actionable insights are determined at a directorate level and are based on the free-text
comments provided by employees, with resulting actions being implemented over a period of
time. As of 28 February 2025, 1,944 actions were confirmed by directorates. Of these 1,944,
some early 'quick wins' actions have already been completed. However, many actions require
changes in culture and behaviour, necessitating longer-term solutions and dedicated efforts
from teams. By the end of February, districts had completed 349 actions, with a further 793 in
progress. Actions underway are in response to key themes identified in the survey, and mainly
relate to employee experience, resources, and leadership.
4. Wellbeing Strategy: Does Te Whatu Ora have a formal strategy or plan for
improving workforce wellbeing and addressing burnout? If so, please provide a copy.
What funding has been allocated for these efforts over the past three years?
Health NZ does not have a formalised strategy in place to address wellbeing and burnout,
however work to improve wellbeing is ongoing across multiple areas of the organisation,
recognising that the wellbeing of our workforce is impacted by much more than personal
wellbeing, but also by culture (professional and organisational), the way work is done day to
day, occupational health support, health and safety, workforce issues and others.
In recognition of the multiple stakeholders in the work to improve employee wellbeing, Health
NZ has appointed a practicing clinician, to the role of Chief Wellbeing Officer, to help us
manage stakeholder engagement, improve data collection and reporting, and develop
national resources and programmes to address the most pressing needs identified from our
stocktake, such as support for critical incidents occurring in the workplace.
In addition to our Pulse Survey, we have invested in the Well-Being Index from the Mayo
Clinic as a measurement tool to establish a baseline and then to track employee wellbeing
over time as well as the impact of the work we are doing to support our staff and improve the
experience of working for Health NZ. We are in the process of rolling that out now and seeing
growing numbers engaging with the tool as we meet with teams across the country. However,
it is early days, and we do not currently have adequate data to produce a meaningful report.
Your request for what “
funding has been allocated for these efforts over the past three years?”
is declined under section 18(f) as this has not been captured by Health NZ as a discrete
budget, but part of wider multiple ongoing efforts to improve wellbeing across multiple areas at
Health NZ, and cannot be made available without substantial research.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may
proactively release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your
name and contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Fiona McCarthy
Interim Chief Human Resources Officer
Health NZ I Te Whatu Ora
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
