ACE Nursing Student Information Steph Harris Senior Recruitment Consultant, ACE
Introduction What is ACE? Why ACE? Objectives and Outcomes Information Sources Eligibility Criteria Overview Application Process Application process Registering What documents you need Preferencing your Employer and Practice Setting Specialties Requesting References What happens after applications close Interviews Selection Criteria References ACE Match algorithm End of Year 2015 Timeline Q&A
What is ACE? Advanced Choice of Employment ACE is the ONLY way to apply for a Nurse Entry to Practice (NETP) or Nurse Entry to Specialist Practice (NESP Mental Health & Addictions) graduate training programme in NZ ACE is a single application tool that allows graduate nurses throughout the country to submit 1 application which is then disseminated to up to 3 employers that you have indicated you would most prefer to work with. Note that you can apply to both NETP and/or NESP through the ACE process ACE is tried and tested. The ACE system has been in place for RMOs for the last 13 years and has now been operating for nursing graduates since November 2012, successfully running through six intakes so far. NB: This is NOT the only way to apply for a Registered Nursing Job!
ACE Achievements to date Eliminated wasted work whereby applicants were applying to multiple employers. You now submit 1 application that is disseminated to up to 3 employers. Eliminated wasted work whereby employers were sending multiple offers. Now employers send 1 offer and can be confident that the applicant is likely to accept because it is always going to be an employer the applicant has expressed an interest in working at, and it is the only offer the applicant will receive. Because ACE uses a set of nationally agreed criteria against which all nursing applicants can be compared, ACE provides a nationally consistent and fair process for all applicants. ACE fills all NETP and NESP vacancies in a single round. ACE provides useful data regarding the movements of our graduates, which can be used for future workforce planning and development.
Information Sources Kiwi Health Jobs Website (http://www.kiwihealthjobs.com/ace/graduate-nurses) Applicant Guide this is your ACE Bible! Nursing ACE Facebook Page Contact the ACE Centre: 0800 223 236 nursingace@kiwihealthjobs.com
ACE Application Process: Eligibility Criteria To be eligible applicants must meet the following basic criteria before applying through the ACE system: Be a New Zealand Citizen or have Formal New Zealand residency. AND Be in the final year of a Bachelor of Nursing degree approved by the Nursing Council of New Zealand as leading to registration as a registered nurse OR Be awarded a Bachelor of Nursing degree approved by the Nursing Council of New Zealand as leading to registration as a registered nurse, no longer than 24 months before starting on the NETP/NESP programme AND have not practised as a registered nurse for longer than six months before starting on the NETP/NESP programme
Overview Application Stage You have 4 weeks to submit your application from the day the application portal opens. This includes submitting your; CV, cover letter (s), residency documents, transcript, and references etc. Be Prepared, 4 weeks is not a long time. Start preparing your CV and cover letters now in preparation for when the application portal opens. Remember to ensure ACE has your up to date contact details AND postal address at all times. If you need to update this outside of the 4 week application process, email me at nursingace@kiwihealthjobs.com You will rank up to 3 employers in order of preference. You must rank a minimum of 1 Employer, maximum of 3. You will also rank up to 3 preferences of practice setting. The ACE Consultant will review your application documents and references to create a ranking score for each applicant. Once we ve scored your application, we send a list of all your completed applications ONLY to the employers you have ranked. So all applicants are sent to employers simultaneously.
Overview - Screening & Interview Stage Employers have 6 weeks to review your applications, interview and shortlist. They create a list of ranked applicants, ranking you in preference order. Employers then send us their lists of ranked applicants and their number of available positions and ACE performs the Match. Once the Match is complete and an audit has been completed we send match results to employers. Employers then allocate the matched candidates to their vacancies. This is when they will determine what practice setting you are allocated to. All successful and unsuccessful applicants will be informed at the same time and this will be AFTER the state finals on Wednesday 18 th November. Offers are sent out the day after your State Final Exam.
ACE Application Process Go to http://nursingace.kiwihealthjobs.com to register. ACE serves as the application portal in exactly the same way as a standard recruitment application would be made via Seek. As the applicant, you will set up a log-in on the ACE application site and complete a series of application forms. This includes submitting the following documents: CV & Cover Letter(s) Residency documents OFFICIAL transcript Health & criminal history declarations You will then nominate up to 3 employers and up to 3 Practice Settings (specialties) in preference order. You will also nominate two referees; 1 from a Clinical Tutor and 1 from your Nurse Preceptor.
Requesting References Make sure you ve OK d it with your referees BEFORE you send the ACE electronic reference request Nominate your 2 references one at a time: Once submitted, you will see in your referees page that the status under that referees name now says Completed on / /.
Uploading Documents Certified Documents: Official Transcripts These must be requested from your education provider and remember, these can take up to 2 weeks to process, so get in early! Year 2 and 3 required, upload the same document twice if all results are combined in the same document. Residency Documents EVERYONE must upload proof of citizenship/residency. Other Documents: CV This is your chance to STAND OUT! Cover Letter(s) You must submit a minimum of 1 Cover Letter, but you have the option of writing separate cover letters for each employer you rank.
Selecting your preferences Choosing 3 employers Select minimum 1, maximum 3 You are able to change your employer preferences up until the Match date. All employers participate in the End of Year intakes, only 9-12 participate in the Mid- Year Choosing 3 Practice Settings Select minimum 1, maximum 3 After applications close you will not be able to change these preferences. Remember you can apply to both NETP and NESP programmes through ACE You can apply for Primary Care, Aged Residential Care and Community Care positions through ACE Remember: If interested in any subspecialties or if interested in a VLCA position, remember to mention this in your cover letter!
Checklist/Submitting! The aim of the ACE game is to get this checklist to show as complete.
After Applications Close Following the closure of the portal ACE creates an Excel spreadsheet listing all the applicants who ranked each employer as one of their preferred ones. Note that you will only be included in this spreadsheet if your application was Complete at application close time (5pm 8 th September 2015) ACE then generates a ranked score by assessing your application against the nationally agreed criteria and adds this score to the excel spreadsheet. ACE then sends this spreadsheet to ONLY employers you had ranked as a preference. Remember. employers do not know where you ranked them. It is a BLIND match. employers then review your application together with Primary Care, Aged Residential Care and Community Care facilities etc and create short lists based on their own local criteria and processes.
DHB Interviews Applicants who meet the locally applied criteria are interviewed and employers can then use their own interview or assessment process to determine which graduates to employ from each of these sub sets. Please note Not Everyone will be interviewed. If you are not interviewed please do not call the ACE Consultant to ask why. They do not have this information. The ACE Consultant is not privy to the shortlist of applicants. This is an employer process. employers confirm their selections & rankings of applicants back to ACE along with a confirmed number of vacancies. Remember, you have right up until November 2 nd, 9am to change the order of your employer preferences if you wish.
Current Selection Criteria Current ACE selection criteria: References (max 70 points each) Fit to practice references (max 5 points) Would you employ references (0 points) Grades (3 points) Scholarship (3 points) Overall score out of 151 points (converted into a percentage) Don t worry, it s not all about the score!
ACE Scoring of References We use a standardised reference check form. Questions are divided into the 4 RN competencies (professional responsibility, management of nursing care, interpersonal relationship and inter-professional) and these questions were constructed by the DON s Each question is graded on a likert scale of 1 5 across nationally agreed ratings of performance for a 3 rd year student 1 2 3 4 5 N/O Professional knowledge (knowledge of professional responsibilities, policy, legal aspects understanding of RN role) Reliability (demonstrates punctuality, reliability, honesty, fulfils obligations, meets deadlines) Professional responsibility Self-awareness (accurate assessment of own skills & knowledge and actively seeks feedback & assistance to improve) Work organisation (organises and prioritises nursing practice in an effective manner, works under pressure) Willingness to learn ( self directed learner, able to pick up new technical and nursing practice skills )
ACE Match ACE then (using an iterative algorithm ) provides a single National Match The Match algorithm operates based on the following principles: 1. The employer ranking of applicants takes highest priority. This way, the employer s highest ranked applicants have the best chance of being matched to a position. 2. The applicant s employer preference takes second priority. This way, if an employer prefers an applicant, the algorithm favours the applicants choice of employer from 1st to 2nd to 3rd. 3. The algorithm will only match applicants employers preferred for NESP positions to NESP positions and applicants employers preferred for NETP positions to NETP positions. This way only applicants that the employers preferred for NESP can be matched to NESP positions. Please note applicants who rank Mental Health and Addictions as their 1st choice practice setting have the best chance of being considered for NESP positions. 4. Each applicant can only be matched to 1 employer/position (this has not changed from the previous process). ACE subsequently informs employers which of their ranked applicants they ve been matched to, and the employers then subsequently, match those graduates to their vacancies or graduate programmes. Employers send out offers knowing that applicants will only be receiving their offer. Applicants accept the offer because the employer making the offer is always one that they have expressed their preference to work at.
ACE algorithm How it works Applicant A Applicant B Applicant C Applicant D Hospital 1 Hospital 2 Hospital 1 Hospital 2 Hospital Applicants 2 Hospital A and B 3 have been Hospital matched 3 to their The red line indicates the quota boundary. Hospital 3 Hospital 1 Applicants 3 preferred Hospital employers, ranked 1 above the Hospitals red line 2 1 and 2 who have respectively. Applicant also ranked D was the not hospital matched and as their hospital first 1 has preference Applicant will an C has unfilled be matched been matched position.. to that to hospital their 2 nd and Hospital 1 be taken preferred out of DHB, the Hospital matching 3. pool. Hospital 2 Hospital 3 (2 positions) (1 position) (1 position) Applicant B Applicant B Applicant C Applicant A Applicant A Applicant B Applicant C Applicant C Applicant A Applicant D
Post-Offer: What happens next What to do if successfully matched: Receive notification email from ACE Receive offer letter from employer Go back to employer with acceptance/decline Start work on Programme Start Date (January 2016) What to do if not initially matched: Receive notification email from ACE Go on to talent pool sent to all employers Email your expressions of interest to employers Submit updated CVs, Cover Letters or Practice Setting preferences direct to the NETP/NESP coordinator(s) If still eligible re-apply in next intake (see Kiwi Health Jobs website for information on next intake application dates)
End of Year 2015 Timeline Applications open on ACE website Wednesday 12 th August ACE to update and make live the front-end application process to allow students to start applying online Applications Close Tuesday 8 th September 4 weeks for applications to be received by the ACE centre. ACE applicants sent out to employers. Short-listing and interviewing process starts Nursing Interviews finish and number of hires and applicant rankings made via ACE administration website Match and Audit Completed Friday 18 th September Monday 21 st September Friday 30 th October From Monday 2 nd November to Friday 13 th November ACE has 1 and a half weeks to create lists for each employer of those applicants who have nominated them as one of their 4 preferred employers. employers have 6 weeks to complete interviews and make their selections to rank employers log-in to ACE and input their selections in order of preference and their final number of Graduates to be hired. Applicants have until Monday 2 November 9:00am to change their employer preferences. ACE starts Match process ACE has 2 weeks to audit employer input and conduct the electronic match. ACE then responds to employers with the graduates from their preference list have been matched to. Nursing ACE match completed and sent to employers From 6 th November Send employers matched candidate list Nursing State exams Tuesday 17th November This timeline proposes to send out offers 1 day after the state exam. Nursing Offers sent out to successful graduates Wednesday 18 th November The employers have 8 working days from Monday 9th November through to Wednesday 18 November to match their actual new-hires to current vacancies. Once that is completed all employers construct offers and dispatch directly to their new-hires on Wednesday 18 November. On the same day, ACE will also advise all applicants (both successful and unsuccessful). If you haven t received this email by 2.00pm, contact the ACE centre. Students accept offers Wednesday 25 th November Successful graduates have 1 week to accept or reject offers and respond to the employers
Q&A Any Questions?