With all the talk about the difficulty hiring skilled labour in Saskatchewan, it’s a welcome change for once to hear that the province is making progress keeping locally trained physicians at home.
According to a government news release, “the retention rate of family medicine graduates trained at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) has jumped by 11 per cent over the past year.” That brings the retention rate to almost 70 per cent.
“I think there are a couple of reasons: increased class sizes, so obviously there are more students and medical residents coming through and graduating, and increased opportunities for them to stay,” said Ingrid Kirby, a director at the Medical Services Branch. “Part of that increased class size is distributed education outside of Saskatoon and Regina to (places like) Moose Jaw, North Battleford, La Ronge, and Prince Albert.”
Distributing education outside of the major city centres serves a few key benefits. It gives students a chance to experience working in medical centres in rural areas and so they’re exposed to small town life in mid-sized communities. It also gives them the opportunity to work one-on-one with physician preceptors as opposed to having to vie for instruction against two or three other students. By working in the smaller regional centres, physicians will obtain an enhanced level of skill so that they can perform more complex surgeries or provide more anaesthetic. That way they won’t have to refer patients to a specialist every time.
On the flip side, rural areas won’t struggle as much for physicians since some of those student might choose to settle down in the same locations or be more comfortable with moving to a rural area.
The government has also added incentives for medical students by offering them direct linkage to immediate jobs following graduation. In 2010, the province created the physician recruitment agency, Saskdocs, to connect graduates with jobs. They’ve also offered competitive compensation, especially when working in rural areas.
“I think too – and there’s no science to this – there’s a positive atmosphere in Saskatchewan. The economy is going fairly well and there’s a lot of innovation,” said Kirby. “The College of Medicine is making some huge improvements … we want to see more medical education across the province, continuing to go into smaller communities and train residents.”
According to the news release, the University of Saskatchewan has increased in medical training seats and medical residency positions. There are many post-graduate medical education training opportunities outside of the major city centres and plans are being made to involve additional communities.
“Physicians that are newly-trained in Saskatchewan play a key role in the health care system,” said Rural and Remote Health Minister Greg Ottenbreit in the release. “We want patients right here in Saskatchewan to benefit from their expert training and homegrown leadership. Our government will continue to look for new ways to make sure that Saskatchewan is where these valued health providers want to practice.”
