The first 1,300 nursing graduates and students have received offers under the Tertiary Health Study Subsidy Program. 

In the Penrith electorate, this includes 17 new nursing students being offered the $4,000 per year scholarship and 54 graduating nursing students who have commenced employment with NSW Health being offered the $8,000 one-off payment. 

It comes as the NSW Health nursing workforce grows to a record 52,400 – up 2,100 from the same time last year. 

The State Government says health worker study subsidies and rural health incentives are just part of a range of measures to rebuild the healthcare workforce, including: 

• Beginning to implement safe staffing levels of nurses and midwives beginning in our emergency departments. 

• Saving 1,112 temporary nurses by making them permanent. 

• Abolishing the wages cap and delivering record pay increases for nurses, paramedics, and other health workers, as well as salary packaging. 

“After 12 years of neglect of our healthcare system, we are fulfilling our election commitment to recruit the next generation of health care workers for the people of NSW,” said Karen McKeown OAM, Member for Penrith.

“It is great to see so many Penrith nursing graduates and students have their lives changed by the Tertiary Health Study Subsidy Program.  

“Having just celebrated International Nurses Day and International Day of the Midwife, I want to acknowledge the compassion, professionalism, and round-the-clock commitment of our nurses in Nepean Hospital, and around Australia, as they care for patients in our public health system.”