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OSCE Workforce Transition Programme
Thousands of nurses have passed the OSCE and hold New Zealand registration, yet cannot get a first job because they lack local experience. We give them that experience in your facility, at no cost to you. If you want to hire the nurse at the end, you can. Hiring is never mandatory.
Want to hear it first? Join the free info session on Thu 8 Oct.
Length
8 weeks
First cohort
23 November 2026
Cost to facilities
Free
Roster impact
Supernumerary
For facilities
Facilities across New Zealand are short of registered nurses. At the same time, NZ-registered nurses who have passed the OSCE are turned away because they have no New Zealand experience. Nobody can get experience without a first job, and nobody offers a first job without experience.
The OSCE Workforce Transition Programme closes that gap.
Two weeks of New Zealand-specific orientation with Talent Grid: legislation and the Code of Rights, Te Tiriti and cultural safety, medication systems, documentation, ISBAR escalation, infection prevention and aged care practice.
Six weeks on site with you, supernumerary, beside a named preceptor. The first week is spent with your caregivers so the nurse learns how care is delivered in your home before stepping into RN duties.
You have watched the nurse work with your residents, your team and your systems. If they are right for you, you are welcome to hire them. Hiring is not mandatory, and there is no cost or penalty if you choose not to.
An interview tells you how a nurse talks. Six weeks on your floor tells you how they work. This programme lets you see a nurse with your residents, your caregivers and your systems before you make an offer.
Every nurse has passed the OSCE and holds Nursing Council registration and a current practising certificate.
Registration, practising certificate, police vetting and right to work are checked by Talent Grid before a nurse arrives.
Tell us about your facility and we will match you with a nurse from the next cohort.
For OSCE nurses
You are registered. You are ready. But every job advert asks for New Zealand experience, and nobody will give you the first chance. This programme is that chance.
This is not a bridging or competence course. You are already a registered nurse. This programme gets you working.
Weeks 1–2: Orientation with Talent Grid.
The law, the Code of Rights, Te Tiriti and cultural safety, medication systems, documentation, escalation and aged care practice, taught by nurses who work in New Zealand care.
You work beside a named preceptor in aged residential care, a hospital or a district service. You are supernumerary, so you are there to learn and practise, not to fill a gap.
Our nurse educators teach your orientation and stay with you for the full 8 weeks: weekly check-ins, help with anything you find hard, and someone to call when you have a question or a concern.
Applications take ten minutes. Have your registration number and practising certificate ready; we will ask for your CV by email.
Treating every resident, worker, facility and learner as a person, never a transaction.
Challenging the old way of staffing and training, and backing our people to speak up and step forward.
Making work warm, simple and rewarding for the people who care for others.
Tell us about your facility and we will match you with a nurse from our next cohort.
info@talentgrid.co.nz
Two weeks of orientation covering legislation, cultural safety, medication management, documentation and escalation, so your team is not starting from zero.
Hosting a nurse is free, and there is no fee if you hire.
Hiring is not mandatory. Host a nurse, support their start in New Zealand, and decide at the end whether to make an offer.
Talent Grid educators support the nurse for the full 8 weeks, with weekly check-ins, a midpoint review and a final review, so the teaching does not fall on your team alone. If something is not working, we deal with it.
Each nurse arrives with the Talent Grid Orientation Workbook: a sign-off record covering care foundations, medication competency, documentation, direction and delegation, and clinical skills. You see exactly what has been covered and what has been signed off.
First cohort: we are taking 10 to 15 nurses in our first cohort, starting 23 November 2026. Places are limited to facilities that can provide a preceptor.
New Zealand law and the Code of Rights, Te Tiriti and cultural safety, medication systems, documentation, ISBAR escalation, infection prevention and aged care practice.
Week 3: With the caregiver team.
Your first week on site is spent working beside caregivers. You learn how care is delivered in that home and get to know every resident.
Weeks 4–8: RN practice with your preceptor.
Medication rounds, care planning, handover, escalation, wound care, directing the care team. Your preceptor signs off each skill as you show it.
End of week 8: Final review.
You leave with a signed skills record and a New Zealand reference. The facility may offer you a job.
Your Orientation Workbook records every skill your preceptor has signed off. Take it to any interview.
At the end you have a referee who has watched you work here.
Host facilities take part because they need nurses. The programme is built so they can hire the nurse they have come to know. A job is not guaranteed.
Where
Orientation is held online; weeks 3 to 8 are at your host facility
When
The first cohort starts 23 November 2026
Showing up verified, prepared and reliable, whatever the role.