New South Wales Health is recruiting experienced nurses from overseas in a bid to bolster the state’s workforce with an extra 2475 nurses within the next four years.

NSW Health has begun casting its recruitment net internationally, focusing on the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States, as well as launching a nation-wide campaign to boost its nursing numbers.

Recruitment of about 200 Irish nurses and midwives has begun with ICE Group in Galway interviewing potential candidates in Dublin, London, Manchester and Edinburgh over the past few weeks for positions at hospitals in Sydney and regional New South Wales.

The company’s website states positions are available in general nursing, medical/surgical, mental health, palliative care, acute rehab, emergency, operating theatres and in midwifery.

A NSW Health spokesperson said the authority regularly sources and employs trained nurses recruited from overseas “when they have the appropriate skill set for the role”.

“Hospitals throughout NSW will benefit from new nurses, who will work in hospitals depending on their particular expertise and where staff vacancies exist,” she said.

Almost an extra 600 nurses have been recruited to NSW public hospitals this year alone, the spokesperson said.

“The NSW health system has strategies in place to attract more nurses to rural and regional NSW and speciality areas such as mental health, emergency department and medical/surgical nursing,” she said.

“These strategies include recruitment activities locally by local health districts as well as state-wide and national advertising.

“NSW Health is also undertaking an overseas recruitment campaign across the United Kingdom, Ireland and the U.S.A., targeting experienced nurses who will be eligible for Australian registration.”