AUSTRALIA'S largest private hospital is hoping to take on at least 30 Irish nurses in a recruitment drive later this year, a move forced by a general shortage of nursing staff.
Applicants will be offered two-year contracts and a variety of other inducements, including permanent residency, paid airfares, educational opportunities and assistance with accommodation.
The St John of God Hospital in Perth is targeting Ireland partly-because of the similarity of training here and in Australia. Founded by Irish nuns at the turn of the century, the hospital has 385 beds and treats 20,000 patients annually, with a further 2,500 women passing through its maternity unit.
The positions, to be advertised soon, will be mainly in neurosurgery, orthopaedics and maternity. Two rounds of interviews will be held in Dublin, in June and in September. Many of the jobs will be at level three "and higher", according to a spokeswoman. Salaries at those levels would be "over 40,000 Australian dollars", she added.
She stressed that nurses played an active part in determining wage levels through the process of "enterprise bargaining". This rewards productivity increases and resulted in a recent 8 per cent bay rise, she added.
Australia has been losing large numbers of its trained nurses to overseas employment, but the spokeswoman also identified wider job opportunities for women and a higher drop-out rate among recent trainees as reasons for the current shortfall.
The Australian government responded to the shortage this week by announcing incentives to promote the profession among school-leavers. But although the problem is expected to be resolved within two years, a spokeswoman for St John of God said those who completed the Australian contracts could "almost certainly" continue their careers there if they wished.
