Saskatchewan's Health Human Resources Action Plan Shows Strong Results at Two-Year Anniversary

Released on September 23, 2024

Innovative Saskatchewan-Based Solutions to Recruit, Train, Incentivize, and Retain Enhance Competitiveness

This month marks the two-year milestone of Saskatchewan’s historic Health Human Resources (HHR) Action Plan, which has delivered extraordinary health system progress within a short period of time.

Since the launch of the HHR Action Plan in September 2022, over $300 million has now been invested in initiatives guided by the plan’s four pillars. These initiatives have expanded the current professional workforce to keep pace with provincial growth and supported stronger, more resilient future health care teams by opening doors to more educational seats and programs.

The HHR Action Plan has advanced critical areas of the provincial health system in the past 24 months through targeted initiatives that have attracted top specialists, family physicians, registered nurses, and other in-demand health professionals to the province.

"When our government unveiled the HHR Action Plan, we recognized it was ambitious but necessary to stabilize and reinforce our valued healthcare professionals,” Health Minister Everett Hindley said. “Each pillar has had major positive impacts by recruiting hundreds of high priority health care workers, adding hundreds of post-secondary training seats and new programs for students, delivering incentives to benefit health service delivery in rural and northern Saskatchewan communities, attracting specialists, and investing in supportive programs to retain our valued health care workforce.”

The HHR Action Plan is the result of ongoing support, collaboration and partnerships between multiple ministries, health employers, health partner agencies and post-secondary institutions, as well as professional regulators. A key step was establishing the Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency (SHRA) to accelerate and broaden efforts to recruit physicians, nurses, and other high priority professionals.

"The establishment of SHRA brings the recruitment of health professionals to Saskatchewan under one umbrella,” SHRA CEO Terri Strunk said. “Our sole mandate is to implement strategies and best in practice activities to facilitate the regional, national and international recruitment, retention, transition and placement of health professionals in Saskatchewan. In collaboration with provincial and local stakeholders such as our health employers, provincial regulators, local health committees, and municipalities, we have made significant progress. There is still more work to do, but with the focused strategy of the Health Human Resources Action Plan, we are attracting top talent and addressing healthcare needs across the province.”

Recruit

Saskatchewan has seen impressive recruitment results since September 2022, with 218 physicians being recruited to Saskatchewan from outside of the province and 35 physicians from outside the country. These efforts resulted in 87 family physicians and 131 specialists establishing their practice in the province.

Highly sought specialized health care providers recently hired include a pediatric gastroenterologist, four new psychiatrists, two perfusionists and a new physician assistant.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has hired more than 1,400 recent nursing graduates from in-and out-of-province, and nearly 400 internationally educated nurses (IENs) have arrived from the Philippines. Approximately 280 IENs have successfully completed a transition to nursing in Canada programming and been placed in over 70 communities around the province. The remaining IENs are in the clinical portion of their training to obtain licensure.

Twenty-seven new permanent Nurse Practitioner positions are posted in rural communities, and eight have already been filled.

Train

Advanced Education is centered on the “Train” pillar of the HHR Plan and targeted investments into health-related training programs have been achieved over the last two years, with over $100 million already invested to create approximately 870 new training seats in 33 health care programs at post-secondary institutions across the province.

“The Ministry of Advanced Education has been playing a significant role in supporting the Health Human Resources Action Plan since its inception, and I am very proud of the work done in partnership with our institutions to operationalize this ambitious initiative,” Advanced Education Minister Colleen Young said. “Saskatchewan students now have more opportunities than ever before to train for a career in health care, which is pivotal for the sector and the people it serves.”

The expanded seats will produce more graduates in critical health care fields such as nursing, mental health and addictions, medical diagnostic imaging, physicians, and many other professions. Saskatchewan is also introducing four new programs not previously offered in the province: occupational therapy, speech language pathology, respiratory therapy and physician assistants.

Expanded seats and new programs are being made available at university and polytech campuses in Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert, as well as some programs offered at various regional colleges across province including psychiatric nursing at North West College in North Battleford, sonography at Suncrest College in Yorkton, Mental Health and Wellness at Northlands College in La Ronge and Continuing Care Assistants at Southeast College in Weyburn.

Incentivize

A range of attractive incentive programs, such as the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive (RRRI) that includes a return-of-service agreement with recipients, has directly benefited over 50 communities across the province with more than 350 hard-to-recruit positions successfully filled.

The Rural Physician Incentive Program was enhanced in 2024, and new incentives were introduced to support recruitment and retention of specialists in high demand, such as anesthesia, psychiatry, breast and interventional radiology in approved sites and certain pediatric subspecialities.

The province has also disbursed over $1.3 million in bursaries, such as nearly 150 Final Clinical Bursaries, nearly 150 paramedic bursaries and other scholarships and available grants to encourage students to pursue a health care career. In addition, many graduates are eligible for the Graduate Retention Tax Credits and student loan forgiveness programs.

“Our competitive HHR Action Plan has attracted a diverse group of new health care professionals to our vibrant and welcoming communities across rural and northern Saskatchewan,” Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors and Rural and Remote Health Minister Tim McLeod said. “These smaller centres provide unique opportunities to use a full range of skillsets and expertise within the workplace. It is exciting to see our young people receive rewarding employment opportunities upon graduation right here in Saskatchewan.”

Retain

Retention of health care staff has been a key area of focus by promoting the rewarding benefits of a career in health care, such as hiring 245 new and enhanced full-time permanent positions in high-priority occupations, including registered nurses, to stabilize staffing in rural and northern areas. Another 65 registered nurse positions have been increased from part time to full time in rural and remote locations with 36 positions filled.

Scope of practice for pharmacists, nurse practitioners and advanced care paramedics has expanded to benefit patients and increase access to services for people living in rural communities, shorten wait times for primary care and give more options for obtaining certain health services.

The SHA has implemented a variety of programs to enhance work environments and staff engagement opportunities including a mentorship program with over 200 participants, and actively engaging with First Nations and Métis communities and educational institutions to develop a First Nations and Métis recruitment and retention strategy.

The SHA has also introduced multiple volunteer and career learning opportunities that are available to Saskatchewan high school students.

“Our health care teams are the backbone of our health system,” SHA CEO Andrew Will said. “They are essential for delivering on our commitment to provide high-quality, culturally responsive and patient-centred care as close to home as possible. Our Health Human Resource strategies not only involve Saskatchewan Health Authority staff and physicians, but also leverage the strength of our volunteers, patient and family advisors, traditional knowledge keepers, and our network of community and health system partners.”

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