The Government of Saskatchewan continues to make progress on its plan to fill vacant hard-to-recruit positions within the provinces health care system. Announcing the hiring of over 1,000 nursing graduates within Saskatchewan.
“Nurses and nurse practitioners are critical to the health of our communities and the future of the health care sector,” Health Minister Everett Hindley said. “We will continue to make significant investments in programs to recruit, train, incentivize and retain more nurses as we build a stronger, more resilient health care system for the people of Saskatchewan.”
Since the inception of the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive nearly 300 crucial positions have been filled across nine high-priority occupations. The up to $50,000 incentive is offered of to health care workers who seek employment in 54 rural and remote communities, nurses make up over 75 per cent of the recipients of the incentive program.
There have been several updates to the Nurse Training, Recruitment and Retention program, including expanding the Saskatchewan Loan Forgiveness for Nurses and Nurse Practitioners to include five additional communities. Incentivizing those who start employment in communities with high recruitment needs with up to $20,000 in loan debt forgiveness.
Since 2013 the program more than 550 nurses have had nearly $1.7 million in student loan forgiveness.
1,002 nursing graduates from out-of-province and within Saskatchewan have been hired since December 2022. A total of 235 Internationally Educated Nurses from the Philippines are in various stages of their transitioning pathway, 178 are in Saskatchewan with 73 already employed across the province.