Hospital Recruitment Solutions
Permanent nursing recruitment for Australian private hospitals
Theatre, perioperative, critical care, emergency, medical, surgical and midwifery. A fixed fee per hire, not a percentage of salary — so agreeing a competitive wage no longer increases your recruitment bill.
Supplying permanent registered nurses to Australian private hospital groups since 2013. Our standard fees are $12,500 for a registered nurse, $7,500 for an enrolled nurse and $3,500 for care staff; subscription clients pay about a third less. Management and senior clinical appointments are charged as a percentage of first-year salary.
Specialist nursing is where private hospital capacity is lost
An unfilled theatre roster is not a vacancy problem. It is a capacity problem with a daily dollar cost attached to it.
Among hospitals reporting to the Commonwealth’s Private Hospital Sector Financial Health Check, the weighted average EBITDA margin fell from 8.7% in 2018–19 to 4.4% in 2022–23, although the Department estimated the true sector-wide figure was likely between 7% and 8%.1 Discussing private maternity services, the Health Check identified “the challenges operators face in attracting and retaining the required specialised workforce, including specialist nurses, mid-wives, paediatricians, and anaesthetists”.1
Registered Nurse (Perioperative) is assessed as being in shortage in every state and territory on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List, as is Registered Nurse (Aged Care). Registered Nurse (Medical) and Registered Nurse (Surgical) are rated as regional shortages rather than national ones.2 Theatre, recovery and critical care are among the hardest permanent roles to fill, and they are the ones that decide how many lists you can run.
Hospital roles we recruit
Permanent appointments across private hospitals, day surgeries and private maternity units, nationally — with the strongest candidate coverage in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
- Theatre / Scrub Scout
- Anaesthetics & Recovery (PACU)
- Perioperative
- Critical Care / ICU
- Emergency
- Medical
- Surgical
- Cardiac & Cath Lab
- Oncology
- Midwifery
- Neonatal / NICU
- Paediatrics / PICU
- Mental Health
- Clinical Nurse Specialist
- Clinical Nurse Consultant
- Nurse Unit Manager
- Nurse Educator
- Director of Nursing
What we deliver
Screened, not forwarded
Candidates are interviewed by us, reference checked, AHPRA verified and right-to-work verified before you see them, with a written summary a hiring manager can read in two minutes.
Specialty depth
Theatre and perioperative, critical care, emergency, medical and surgical, cardiac, oncology, midwifery and neonatal — sourced by discipline rather than by job board keyword.
Onshore first
Australian-based, AHPRA-registered nurses with full working rights presented before any sponsored candidate. International sourcing is the depth behind the pipeline, not the front of it.
Your people team keeps every hiring decision, salary authority, the employer brand and the relationship with each unit manager. What we add is market reach, screening throughput, and someone whose whole week is the pipeline.
See our full six-step recruitment process and the commercial model →
We would rather send you three nurses than thirty CVs
Quality is easy to claim and hard to prove, so here is what it means in practice — and why our fee structure is built to enforce it rather than to reward the opposite.
Nobody reaches you unscreened
Every candidate we present has been interviewed by us, had their AHPRA registration verified, their right to work verified and their references checked — before you see them, not after you have shortlisted them. Each comes with a written summary a hiring manager can read in two minutes.
Short shortlists, on purpose
Three or four candidates we would stand behind, not everyone who answered the advert. If only two genuinely fit the brief, you get two and an honest explanation, rather than a longer list padded out to look like effort.
We turn work down
If a role cannot be filled well at the salary, the roster or the location on offer, we will say so and tell you what would need to change. Taking a brief we cannot deliver wastes a quarter of your hiring year and costs us the relationship.
Our fee structure removes the incentives that damage quality
A flat fee means we do not earn more when you pay more. A recruiter on a percentage of salary is paid more for talking you into a higher offer. Our registered nurse fee is the same on a $95,000 nurse as on an $80,000 one, so the salary conversation is about what the market requires rather than about our invoice.
The guarantee puts our fee at risk on a bad placement. If a nurse we place leaves in their first 90 days we replace them at no further placement fee, and if we cannot deliver that replacement inside 90 days we refund the fee. Pushing a marginal candidate through to trigger an invoice is a good way for us to lose the invoice.
And the subscription pays us to build a pipeline, not to close a vacancy this week. When the monthly fee covers the work between vacancies, there is no reason to rush a shortlist so a placement lands inside the month.
Around 80% of the nurses we place are already onshore in Australia with current AHPRA registration and full working rights. That is a quality point as much as a speed one: Australian clinical experience, verifiable Australian references, and no visa condition that can change six weeks before a start date.
Opening a new site? Volume recruitment against a fixed date
A new theatre suite, an additional ward, a day surgery or a maternity unit reopening: each needs a full complement of specialty nurses credentialed and rostered before the first list runs, and theatre and recovery are the hardest of those to recruit.
Commissioning is a different job from filling a vacancy. You are not recruiting one nurse, you are building a roster that has to be complete, credentialed and inducted on a date already sitting in a board paper — and every week of slippage carries full overheads.
We work backwards from the opening date
A cohort plan by discipline and shift, with offer dates set against your credentialing and induction lead times rather than ours. You see the whole roster as one plan, not as a queue of separate vacancies.
Cohorts run in parallel, start dates staggered
Clinical leadership first, because they interview and induct the rest. Then the nursing cohort in overlapping waves, so onboarding is not swamped in one week and there are experienced hands on the floor before the last group arrives.
We plan for the withdrawals
On any cohort of thirty, some accept and then do not resign from their current job. We build that into the plan from the start rather than discovering it a fortnight out — which is the difference between opening on time and opening short.
A four-theatre suite opening with 30 registered nurses, 10 enrolled nurses and four leadership appointments: about $545,000 at our standard fees, or about $432,000 on a Group 12-month subscription — a difference of around $113,000 in the year your hiring volume peaks
Volume is also where recruitment quality usually collapses: the pressure of a date is exactly what produces a stack of unscreened CVs. Everything above about screening and short shortlists applies harder at thirty appointments than at one, and the 90-day guarantee applies to every nurse in the cohort.
If you have a commissioning date, tell us the date first and the numbers second. The date determines whether the plan is achievable, and we would rather say so early than take the brief and miss it.
What it costs
Our standard fees are $12,500 for a registered nurse, $7,500 for an enrolled nurse, $3,500 for care staff and 18.3% of first-year salary on management appointments. With a subscription they are $8,500, $5,000, $2,500 and 14% — about a third less across the board.
| No subscription | With a subscription | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | None | From $1,950 |
| Registered nurse | $12,500 per appointment | $8,500 per appointment |
| Enrolled nurse | $7,500 per appointment | $5,000 per appointment |
| Management and senior clinical | 18.3% of first-year salary | 14% of first-year salary |
| Assistant in nursing, personal care worker | $3,500 per appointment | $2,500 per appointment |
| Do the fees rise with the salary? | No — flat, except management | No — flat, except management |
About a third off every fee
$4,000 on every registered nurse, $2,500 on every enrolled nurse, $1,000 on every care staff appointment, and 4.3 percentage points on management — $6,020 on a $140,000 Nurse Unit Manager and $6,880 on a $160,000 Director of Nursing.3
6 hires a year, at the entry tier
Each tier publishes its own break-even, and we hold ourselves to it: 6 nursing appointments a year at Single Site, 14 at Group, 36 at National. If your volume sits under the figure for your tier, our standard fee is cheaper and we will tell you so rather than sell you a subscription.
Without a subscription you pay our standard fee per placement — no monthly commitment and nothing owed unless a nurse starts. With a subscription you pay a fixed monthly fee and the reduced fees above. The reduced fees are the same on all three tiers — which tier you need is set by how many sites you want covered, not by the fee.
Australian recruiters commonly charge 15% to 20% of first-year salary for permanent nursing placements.3 Our fees are flat rather than a percentage, and priced by discipline rather than by salary — which is why an enrolled nurse costs less to recruit than a registered nurse, and a care staff appointment less again. We will show you the comparison against your own salary bands before you commit.
The monthly fee builds and holds a pipeline of nurses for your sites — screened and in contact before a vacancy exists — instead of starting a fresh campaign every time a role opens. A campaign begins the day someone resigns. A pipeline is already there.
Subscriptions run on a 3, 6 or 12-month term. The 12-month rate is 29% lower on every tier, but three months is a real option and it is the one we suggest if you have not worked with us before.
See the term options → · See the three subscription tiers → · See the full arithmetic → · Questions your CFO will ask →
Subscriptions are available on a 3, 6 or 12-month term; the 12-month rate is the lowest. At the end of a term the subscription continues month to month. Subscription fees are payable monthly and are not refundable. Placement fees can be refunded under the 90-day guarantee. All figures in Australian dollars.
Our 90-day replacement guarantee
Two separate clocks. If a nurse we place resigns or is terminated for performance within their first 90 days, and the original invoice has been paid, we recruit a replacement at no further placement fee. From the day we receive your replacement brief we have 90 days to present at least three candidates who meet the written brief, or the original placement fee is refunded in full.
A free replacement that never arrives is not a guarantee, so the second clock runs on us. Replacement periods of three to six months are common in the market. Ours is 90 days, with a delivery deadline attached to it.3
The guarantee applies to registered nurse, enrolled nurse and management appointments. It does not apply where the position is made redundant, withdrawn or materially changed, or where candidates meeting the written brief are not interviewed within 10 working days of presentation. Refunds apply to placement fees only, never to subscription fees. Full terms are in your agreement.
Placing permanent nurses into Australian healthcare since 2013
IHR Group has been supplying permanent registered nurses to Australian healthcare employers since 2013, under long-standing agreements that run year after year rather than placement by placement.
Over the 12 months to 30 June 2026, around 80% of the nurses we placed were already onshore in Australia with AHPRA registration and full working rights — no sponsorship, no visa wait, and typical start dates in weeks rather than quarters, subject to the nurse’s notice period and your onboarding.4 We source internationally as well, but it sits behind the onshore pipeline rather than in front of it, and there is no reason to start a sponsorship process for a nurse who is already living in the next suburb.
Private hospital recruitment: common questions
Do we pay anything upfront?
Not without a subscription — no upfront cost, no monthly fee, and you are invoiced only when a nurse starts, at our standard rate of $12,500 for a registered nurse and $7,500 for an enrolled nurse. A subscription carries a fixed monthly fee and reduces those to $8,500, $5,000 and 14%. The entry tier pays for itself from six registered nurse appointments a year. The arithmetic is set out here.
Do you recruit theatre and perioperative nurses?
Yes, and it is where the shortage is sharpest. Registered Nurse (Perioperative) is assessed as being in shortage in every state and territory on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List,2 which is why we hold a standing pipeline for theatre, anaesthetics and recovery rather than starting from scratch each time a list goes unstaffed.
What does it cost to recruit a permanent nurse for a private hospital?
Permanent nursing placements are commonly charged at 15% to 20% of first-year salary, and senior clinical roles at 20% to 30%.3 Our standard fee is a flat $12,500 per nursing appointment — it stays flat whatever salary you agree — plus 18.3% of first-year salary on management appointments. Subscription clients pay $8,500 and 14%. The reduced fees are available to subscription clients only.
How quickly can a nurse start?
Around 80% of the nurses we placed in the 12 months to 30 June 2026 were already onshore with AHPRA registration and full working rights, so typical start dates are in weeks rather than quarters — subject to the nurse’s notice period, your credentialing process and your onboarding.
Can you help with midwifery and neonatal?
Yes. Private maternity is one of the areas the Commonwealth’s own Health Check singled out for workforce difficulty,1 and midwifery, neonatal and NICU are disciplines we recruit permanently.
Do you also recruit for aged care?
Yes — that sits on a separate page, because the drivers are different. Aged care nursing recruitment.
Book a call
Send Chris Bailey a short email and he will call you back. Tell us your hardest discipline to fill and roughly how many permanent nursing hires you make a year, and we will model both options against what you pay today.
Email Chris Bailey to book a call
Or write to chris.bailey@ihrgroup.com.au directly, or call +61 (0)2 9231 8481.
Sources
1. Department of Health and Aged Care, Private Hospital Sector Financial Health Check, October 2024. EBITDA figures relate to the 243 of 647 private hospitals that submitted data; the Department estimated the sector-wide figure was likely between 7% and 8% in 2022–23.
2. Jobs and Skills Australia, Occupation Shortage List, 2025 assessment, ANZSCO 254423 (Perioperative) and 254412 (Aged Care) rated Shortage in all states and territories; 254418 (Medical) and 254424 (Surgical) rated Regional Shortage. Ratings are a point-in-time assessment.
3. Australian recruitment fee benchmarks, 2025–26: Manpower Australia and Experis Australia; salary figures from Healthcare Australia, 2026, national average base salary excluding superannuation, penalties and allowances. Management salary figures are illustrative.
4. IHR Group placement records, 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Available on request.
Figures on this page are indicative and were current at the date of publication. Nothing here is legal, financial, tax or procurement advice.
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