TRAINING, RECRUITING AND RETAINING HEALTH PROFESSIONALS A PRIORITY

Released on December 14, 2005

Working Together: Saskatchewan's Health Workforce Action Plan was released today. It is an action plan designed to improve health care in Saskatchewan by keeping and attracting health care professionals.

"This action plan sets the direction for a more integrated workforce and includes initiatives that will help improve health workplaces and enhance the education, training, recruitment and retention of health professionals," Health Minister John Nilson said. "Keeping and attracting key health providers are top priorities of this government. This plan demonstrates the value we place on the important role of health providers in Saskatchewan."

Saskatchewan Health has consulted extensively with its partners in the health system, including health regions, health practitioners, health professional associations, unions, the education and training sector and Aboriginal community to help define the issues, goals, objectives and potential solutions to strengthen health human resource planning. As a result of these consultations, the solutions reflect government's commitment to:

• recognizing and retaining the health professionals that Saskatchewan has and supporting them in the work they are doing;

• improving our self-sufficiency in educating and training our own health professionals, within available resources;

• recruiting from outside Saskatchewan to supplement our own supply; and

• finding innovative ways to keep Saskatchewan youth in our province by providing them with training and employment opportunities in the health care field.

The plan includes dozens of proposed actions to address health human resources challenges, including:

• increasing support to the College of Medicine to train future doctors;

• establishing a provincial recruitment agency to help the province attract hard-to-recruit professionals and locate professionals in hard-to-recruit-to areas;

• developing pilot projects that encourage the hiring of new graduates across the province;

• recruiting more senior and experienced nurses to act as mentors with new graduates;

• increasing our ability to provide students with clinical placements within the province;

• creating a health labour market council to better align the planning needed to match the supply and demand of health professionals;

• hosting a western symposium on best practices in Aboriginal health professional education, training and recruitment; and

• establishing a Health Workforce Steering Committee, made up of representatives from the health and learning sectors, to guide future actions and help measure the plan's progress.

The timeframe to fully implement the proposed actions will vary. Some can be undertaken immediately, while others will be considered through future budget processes.

The action plan flows from the First Ministers' Conference of 2004 when First Ministers from across Canada identified health human resource issues as a priority and agreed to create strategies to address training, recruitment and retention. It builds upon the Action Plan for Saskatchewan Healthcare, released in 2001.

A complete list of goals, objectives, and proposed actions is attached. A full copy of the plan is available at http://www.health.gov.sk.ca/

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For More Information, Contact:

Jocelyn Argue Health Regina Phone: (306) 787-4083