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The Government of Saskatchewan is expanding a health-care recruitment program to 16 more communities around the province.
The Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive offers up to $50,000 to new, full-time workers in nine high-priority occupations if they agree to work for three years in areas that are experiencing service disruptions, or are at risk of disruptions due to challenges around staffing.
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The program is being expanded to include Arborfield, Balcarres, Beechy, Candle Lake, Carrot River, Central Butte, Cut Knife, Elrose, Foam Lake, Grenfell, Kerrobert, Maryfield, Pinehouse Lake, Raymore, Spiritwood and Wakaw, bringing the toal number of communities covered by the incentive up to 70.
Workers eligible for the incentive include registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, continuing care assistants, combined lab and x-ray technicians, medical lab technologists, medical lab assistants and medical radiation technologists.
According to the provincial government, more than 420 “hard-to-recruit positions” have already been filled thanks to the program.
“This incentive program has proven to be a great success in attracting highly sought after health care workers such as nurses, medical technicians and continuing care assistants, where they are most needed in our rural communities,” Lori Carr, Saskatchewan’s minister of rural and remote health, said in a statement.
Brenda Schwan, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s vice president of integrated rural health, said the program is providing some stability in areas where health-care staffing has been a challenge.
“The expansion of this incentive will help us provide long-term solutions and ensure support is available to provide appropriate and equitable care as close to home as possible,” Schwan said in a statement.
More information on the program, and a full list of communities where the incentives are offered, can be found on the provincial government’s website.
Last week, the provincial government announced a new digital advertising campaign aiming to attract American doctors to the province.
The campaign – dubbed “Saskatchewan is Calling” – will be directed towards the top recruitment priorities in the province: anesthesiologists, family doctors and doctors in emergency medicine.
Erin Brady, vice-president of operations at the SHRA, said the impetus for the campaign is the current political climate in the U.S.
“It’s been really that political and economic instability that has caused us to think about increasing our reach into the United States. We have seen some increase in traffic on our website. We’ve seen about a 20 per cent increase between January to April this year, compared to last year,” explained Brady.
