Aged care RN vacancies are taking 8 to 10 weeks to fill. Here’s what that means for your next move

Aged care providers are taking longer than ever to fill a registered nurse vacancy. Industry data now puts the average time to fill an aged care RN position at 8 to 10 weeks, and the national shortfall of registered nurses is forecast to reach close to 80,000 by 2035, with aged care alone accounting for over 17,000 of those full-time-equivalent positions.

For a nurse weighing up a move, that is not just background noise. It is a market signal. When a role sits open for two months, the employer on the other end has usually already worked out what it costs them to leave a shift unfilled, and that changes what they are prepared to offer to close the gap.

Why the gap keeps widening

Since October 2024, every residential aged care facility in Australia has been required to have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and to deliver a minimum of 215 minutes of care per resident per day, including 44 minutes with a registered nurse. That single regulatory change permanently lifted RN demand across the sector by roughly a third almost overnight, and supply has not caught up.

Tasmania feels this acutely. A smaller, older, more dispersed population means fewer nurses per facility to begin with, and regional and rural homes in particular have struggled to recruit against Hobart, Launceston, and interstate competition. ANMF Tasmania has flagged workforce reform as a standing priority precisely because the gap between what the standards require and what facilities can staff keeps showing up in complaints and incident reports.

What a tight market actually means for you

• Negotiate on more than base pay. Sign-on bonuses, relocation support, guaranteed hours, and rostered flexibility are increasingly on the table, especially outside the major cities.
• Ask about skill mix directly. A facility that is short-staffed on RNs may be leaning heavily on ENs and personal care workers to cover clinical gaps. Ask what your actual scope of practice will look like day to day, not just what the position description says.
• Weigh contract against permanent with the market in mind. When vacancies are hard to fill, contract rates often carry a premium, but permanent roles can come with genuine incentives to lock in a stable RN. Both are legitimate choices; the right one depends on what you are optimising for this year.
• Don’t assume the biggest provider pays the most. Smaller, well-run facilities are often the ones most motivated to make a strong offer stick, because losing you costs them more relative to their size.

A vacancy that sits open for two months is not a failure on your part to be recruited. It is a market telling you exactly how much leverage you’re holding.

The honest caveat

A tight market does not mean every facility is offering more, and it does not mean every role is worth taking. Some providers are absorbing the shortage by stretching existing staff thinner rather than competing harder for new ones, and a high vacancy rate can be a symptom of a genuinely difficult workplace rather than simple bad luck. Ask current staff, not just the recruiter, what the roster looks like week to week.

If you are an aged care nurse in Tasmania weighing up your next role, this is a good year to be deliberate about it rather than taking the first offer that lands. Our aged care nursing roles page has more on what to look for.