The number of graduate nurses joining South Australia's hospitals will double next year under a $25 million plan announced by the state government.
SA Health Minister Chris Picton said the number of graduate nurses that enter a three-year traineeship with SA Health will jump from 600 to 1,200.
Mr Picton said the initiative would reduce burn-out experienced by nurses under significant pressure.
"That's why having additional nurses coming in means we can appropriately fill those shifts, reduce our use of casual and agency nurses, reduce the number of people who are having to do double shifts and reduce the pressure on our nurses, which means they're more likely to stay and want to be part of SA Health in the long term," he said.
SA Health's Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, Professor Jenny Hurley, said a key component of the initiative was support and supervision for nurses entering the profession.
"This is about us providing a sustainable workforce for the future and it is critical that we do this investment and nurture and keep our nurses and midwives," she said.
Graduate nurse Ashleigh Lee, who is working in Port Augusta, said the announcement was "encouraging".
"You need a lot of support when you're a grad nurse," she said.
"It's very confronting at times, particularly when you're working in those high acuity areas like ED or ICU.
"So having someone to mentor you and help you through while you're still developing and consolidating your clinical skills [is] definitely encouraging."
Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said attracting and retaining nurses was "one of the most significant challenges" in healthcare.
She said the state needed to "do everything we possibly can to keep South Australia in the race", with states such as Victoria and New South Wales offering financial incentives for nursing students.
"It is enormously competitive at the national level," she said.
Liberals criticise government over ramping figures
Meanwhile, the South Australian opposition has released a so-called report card into the Labor government's first six months in office.
Opposition leader David Speirs said the government promised to "solve ramping in a heartbeat" but the state now had "historic levels of ramping".
Ramping statistics for August have not yet been released, but in July a total of 3,647 hours were lost to ramping, down slightly from the record high of 3,854 hours in June.
Opposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said South Australians were spending "hours upon hours stuck on the ramps".
"For a government that spent months and months leading into the election waxing lyrical about their silver bullet to fix ramping and fix health in South Australia, they are certainly falling well below the pace," she said.
But Health Minister Chris Picton said the state's ramping issue was exacerbated by COVID and flu cases as well as deferred care and a lack of primary care.
"And we haven't put in place all of the additional measures yet that we're putting in place of additional nurses, additional beds, hospital upgrades, additional paramedics, to address the fact that very clearly people aren't getting the care that they need and our hospitals are under significant pressure," he said.
"But we were very clear that this is going to take years to address."
