The Australian Nursing Federation says a commitment by the Federal Government to fund one-thousand new nursing places in higher education is not enough to end current shortages.
The new places are part of a 250-million dollar plan announced by Prime Minister John Howard to reduce shortages in the health system.
But Federal Secretary of the Nursing Federation, Jill Illiffe says around 3-thousand additional places are needed to meet greater demands.
Ms Illiffe says the nursing federation will continue to lobby for more university nursing places.
"We would be hoping to build on that over the coming years, the next ten years, so we have an adequate workforce. We're only graduating half the number of nurses that we need for the future."