Enrolled nurse recruitment for regional employers

Enrolled nurses deliver nursing care, give medications and treatments, and help registered nurses coordinate and evaluate care.⁴ The current qualification is HLT54121 Diploma of Nursing, which replaced HLT54115; experienced enrolled nurses may hold the earlier diploma.⁵

To practise, an enrolled nurse needs registration in the enrolled nurse division of the national register for nurses, which Ahpra keeps for the Nursing and Midwifery Board. There are no endorsements for enrolled nurses.⁶ An enrolled nurse who does not hold an approved qualification in medication administration carries a notation on their registration, which shows on the register.⁷

Where the Nurses Award 2020 covers the role, an enrolled nurse at pay point 1 earns at least $1,139.90 a week, or $30.00 an hour, from 1 July 2026, rising to $1,199.20 at pay point 5. Aged care employees have their own, higher rates: an aged care enrolled nurse who supervises other direct care employees earns at least $1,542.00 a week from 1 August 2026.¹⁸ That gap matters when an aged care home and a hospital in the same town are hiring the same people.

Public hospitals pay under their state's own instrument. In New South Wales, enrolled nurses' rates rose 12% from 1 July 2025 and a further 3% from 1 July 2026.¹⁹

Enrolled and mothercraft nurses had median full-time earnings of $1,777 a week, or $46 an hour, in May 2025, nationally.⁴ No regional pay series exists for the occupation, so we talk with you about the rate, allowances and housing that will compete for your location.

The answer turns on supervision and medicines. An enrolled nurse works with a registered nurse who coordinates and evaluates care,⁴ so tell us who that registered nurse will be on each shift, especially at night. If the role gives medications, ask for an enrolled nurse without the medication notation.⁷

In residential aged care, the home must have a registered nurse on site and on duty 24 hours a day unless it has an approved exemption, and care-minute obligations, which include registered nurse time, still apply.²⁰ Enrolled nurses add to that cover; they do not replace it. The award minimum for an enrolled nurse is $1,139.90 a week, against $1,219.50 for a registered nurse at level 1.¹⁸

Tell us the setting first: aged care, an acute or rehabilitation ward, a medical practice or community care. Then the level, from a recent diploma graduate to an experienced enrolled nurse who leads care workers on a shift.

The practical details shape who will apply: whether the person must give medications, the supervising registered nurse arrangements, the roster and night duty, part-time or full-time hours, and travel between sites.

Half of enrolled nurses work part-time hours,⁴ so a roster with set shifts, or the option of full-time hours, can widen the field. We start with enrolled nurses who already live in or have ties to your region, then widen the search to people planning a move.

Tell us early about housing, relocation costs and travel between sites, and about study support for an enrolled nurse who wants to become a registered nurse. We raise them in the first conversation.

If the right person needs a visa or sponsorship, our sister business Australian Immigration Agency can advise.

Register with Hire Australia and tell us your registration, the settings you have worked in and where you would like to work. Recent diploma graduates and experienced enrolled nurses are welcome, and we will talk with you about roles that fit.