Health and community officials are working together to build positive work environments and communities in an effort to attract new health-care workers to Alberta.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Health Minister Jason Copping, and other officials, stress the importance both financial and community incentives play in attracting and retaining health-care workers across the province, especially in rural areas like Medicine Hat.
In a March 30 media roundtable, Copping said incentives play an important role in the government’s plan to increase Alberta’s health-care workforce, which is estimated to have suffered significant loss of personnel in recent years.
While regions across the province, as well as the nation, are struggling with worker shortages, Copping said rural areas are especially effected – calling staff shortages the ‘single biggest challenge in providing services in rural Alberta.’ And so, rural-focused incentives are necessary.
While several rural-focused incentives already exist within Alberta, Copping says work is being done to analyze the effectiveness of such, as well as to develop new incentives which focus on offering, not just finances, but also positive workplace environments within welcoming, livable communities.
“It’s not necessarily the money per se; it’s the work-life balance and the support (which attracts new workers),” said Copping. “It’s a combination of both.
“If you’re the only one providing the service in a rural area, you’re gonna be on call 24/7. That’s not sustainable, you know? If we’ve only got 60 per cent of our line filled out and that means you’re doing overtime all the time, then this is not going to be a good place (for workers to settle).”
While Copping acknowledges many health-care workers are drawn to larger centres, which often have better-staffed health facilities and thus better chance at a work-live balance, he feels rural areas have several unique benefits, including lowered costs of living, shorter commute times and often more tight-knit communities.
Local physicians working to attract new doctors to the area share Copping’s belief, and say when speaking with prospective doctors, they highlight these and other unique features.
Often when a prospective doctor visits the city, those working to recruit will act as community guides, touring the prospective doctor to various sites in and around Medicine Hat, like the Esplanade, Echo Dale, Big Marble Go Centre and elsewhere, so the prospective doctor can assess if the community would be a good fit for them.
(Just as importantly, the time spent touring allows recruiters to see if the prospective doctor would be a good fit for the community.)
Understanding the role community incentives play in worker attraction and retention, Medicine Hat city council announced last year it is actively working with Alberta Health Services to make the city an appealing place for health-care workers, specifically physicians, to settle.
“We need to be looking after the quality of the community and a big part of that is health-care access,” Van Dyke told the News. “We want to make sure that (residents) can have timely health-care access (but) as city council, we recognize that providing health-care services is outside of our purview – we can’t do any of that kind of work.
“But what we can do … is create a desirable community so we can attract people who want to live here, like health-care professionals and doctors.”
Van Dyke feels collaboration in creating incentives to attract and retain health-care workers is especially important in Medicine Hat as the city faces unique challenges due to its position as a rural municipality.
“We’re a ‘regional health hub,'” said Van Dyke. “Which means we’re not considered ‘rural’ by Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services. So we have the same challenges as rural areas, but not access to the same kind of programs to meet those needs.”‘
