Released on February 7, 2008
Health Minister Don McMorris today demonstrated the Saskatchewan Party government's commitment to recruiting and retaining future health professionals in Saskatchewan by personally greeting future health care workers at a SIAST career fair in Regina and encouraging them to remain in the province after graduating.
"A top priority for our government is providing quality care to our citizens," McMorris said. "And meeting with these students today makes me optimistic for the future of health care in Saskatchewan. We have some of the best and brightest, and our booming economy is making the province an attractive place for them to start a career."
The provincial government is committed to work with nursing stakeholders to fill an existing 600 registered nurse vacancies and to hire an additional 200 registered nurses within its first term of office.
"We know that finding health professionals is becoming highly competitive," McMorris said. "We want these students to realize that Saskatchewan is offering vibrant job opportunities and our province is an especially attractive place to call home."
At the career fair, McMorris directed students to the province's health care recruitment agency, HealthCareersinSask.ca, which connects health professionals with career opportunities in regional health authorities and the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency.
"Filling our employee needs with home-grown talent is a preferred solution," McMorris said. "But we also recognize that while we are already addressing the need for more training spaces for nurses, doctors and other health professionals, we still have to recruit outside the province."
The recruitment agency is one of a number of programs aimed at recruiting valuable health providers, including the Saskatchewan Relocation Program and the Saskatchewan Rural, Northern and Hard-to-Recruit Program. Since these grant programs were introduced in October 2006, 585 health care workers (383 nurses and 202 other health professionals) have received recruitment grants and will be providing care to Saskatchewan residents. Sixty-one per cent of grant recipients come from outside Saskatchewan; of these health care workers, 33 per cent come from Alberta.
Since the agency launch in the fall of 2007, more than 4,300 students and health workers in Saskatchewan and across the country have made inquiries. Since spring 2007, the number of job applications to the website has more than tripled, totalling almost 2,800.
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For more information, contact:
Andrew Dinsmore
Health
Regina
Phone: 306-787-4083
Email: adinsmore@health.gov.sk.ca