Labor has pledged to pay for 290 university degrees and clinical placements for nurses, midwives, nurse practitioners, paramedics and allied health graduates over three years if elected to government.
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Under the plan:
- free degrees and paid clinical placements will be offered to 200 nursing and midwifery graduates;
- free degrees will be offered to 50 allied health graduates;
- free degrees will be offered to 40 paramedic graduates.
The degrees are expected to cost $5.8 million in the initiative's first year and placements are expected to cost $1 million a year.
If the program is proven to be successful, the party has said it would extend it over its term in government to recruit a total of 800 nursing and midwifery graduates, 200 allied health graduates and 160 paramedic graduates.
The party has also announced that in government, it would make short-term contracts for 500 doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and support staff permanent.
It has pledged to introduce safe staffing models in consultation with nurses and midwives.
Labor leader Rebecca White said health workers had carried the burden of problems within the state's health system for too long.
"Workforce challenges within the Tasmanian health sector have reached crisis point, with stories of high turnover, worker burnout and stress all too common," she said.
Labor's health spokeswoman Anita Dow said Tasmania needed to be an attractive place for health professionals to study and work.
"That is why we have launched this incentive package to deliver job security, pay university fees and develop safe staffing models to ensure we continue attracting health workers to the state," she said.
Meanwhile, the Liberals have announced its own policy to attract and retain nurses to Tasmania.
Liberal health spokesman Guy Barnett said if the party held onto government after March 23, it would offer a relocation allowance of up to $15,000 for nurses and midwives who moved to Tasmania and remained employed full-time with the Tasmanian Health Service for three years or more,
"We will also offer a $10,000 scholarship for new Tasmanian graduate nurses who start with the Tasmanian Health Service and remain employed full-time for a period of three years or more," he said.
The Greens recently announced its plan to employ 120 more nurses and midwives at the state's three major public hospitals each year until 2030 if they hold the balance of power in the next parliament.
The party wants to also establish a program to attract university graduates to areas of the public service with skills shortages, like health, which will accept 200 applicants a year over four years and pay off $5000 of their university debt each year they are employed in the sector.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
