After recently holding a health human resource planning conference on Feb. 27, the Saskatchewan Health continued to follow through on its commitment to ensure the province has the right number of health care workers to meet the needs of the province's residents.

Saskatchewan Health consulted extensively with its partners in the health system to help develop the Saskatchewan's Health Workforce Action Plan. The plan reflects the government's commitment to recognizing and retaining the health professionals that Saskatchewan has and support them in the work they are doing, improving self-sufficiency in education and training of the health professionals.

The plan also supports recruiting from outside Saskatchewan to supplement supply and finding innovative ways to keep Saskatchewan youth in the province by providing them with training and employment opportunities in the health care field.

Since the plan was released, many new projects have been implemented, such as the provincial recruitment agency and website launched to help the province attract hard-to-recruit professionals and locate professionals in hard-to-recruit areas.

Don Ehman, vice president of human resources for the Sun Country Health Region, said that for the regions "the programs are quite innovative and new, and so far it has worked."

A $25 million fund was also announced to retain and recruit health professionals over the next three years. This commitment is in addition to the $75 million annually that the government commits to the recruitment, retention and training of health care workers.

Initiatives under this fund include a $6 million grant program, a $6 million retention grant program from employees, employers and provincial organizations to develop and implement programs focused on keeping health providers and $500,000 to enhance clinical training opportunities.

In recruitment, there has been a nurse and a physician hired to the Sun Country Health Region under the grant program, "not as many as we would have liked," said Ehman, "but we have the momentum to keep going."

The retention program will have more impact for the Sun Country Health Region in April of this year, "as it will allow us to request money over a period of time for programs like the quality workplace initiatives," stated Ehman.

Saskatchewan's Health Workforce Action plan will continue to set the course for future retention and recruitment initiatives in the province.