REGINA - The provincial government is reporting that Saskatchewan's second recruitment mission to the Philippines for registered nurses resulted in more job offers.
The mission in mid-March saw 236 conditional job offers to Registered Nurses.
That brings the total number of Filipino RNs offers to nearly 400 according to the government’s news release. That follows on 162 conditional job offers extended to Filipino RNs back during their first recruiting mission in Dec. 2022
Health Minister Paul Merriman said there is a process where the recruits go through the immigration process, and once that is done they enter through the bridging program and then come over to Saskatchewan.
“I don’t want to say it’s a long process but it’s an important process that we go through, making sure the credentials are all verified. If they need some support in coming over we have up to $10,000 for them to be able to come over, that pays for some of their licensing, some of their travel. Moving from the Philippines to Saskatchewan, I’ve done that trip and it's a long haul I just did it for a week, but going and moving halfway around the world does take a little bit of time. But we do have some on the ground and we have more in that bridging program so it’s coming along really well.”
On the job as nurses are about a handful right now - less than 10 according to Merriman. Most are “in that bridging program that we’re trying to streamline that process with the regulatory bodies,” Merriman said to reporters.
“And we have a good process that we’re going to be looking at if there’s options to issue temporary licences, and then have them micro-credential up to an RN, just because we want to have as many people in the health care system versus in the classroom as soon as possible.”
Merriman explained most of the nurses who have come in are coming as continuing care aides and are being microcredentialed up to RNs.
“We have to remember that our RNs in Saskatchewan are highly trained. This is a highly skilled position so we want to make sure that they’re orientated into our system as soon as possible and being done in a safe but efficient time.”
The second recruiting mission in March saw officials from the Government of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Health Authority head to Manila and Cebu, Philippines, where they conducted job interviews over the course of a week with potential recruits. Also there, according to the province, were Health Recruitment and Retention Navigators from the government, and nursing experts from post-secondary training institutions and nursing partners.
Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat reacted to the latest health care recruiting news by telling reporters it was “encouraging to see that offers went out, but offers do not equal boots on the ground.”
“We definitely need folks here today who can help with a crisis that exists in our healthcare system. The government has failed to plan for this healthcare staffing shortage and we have been calling for a real strategy around human resources for years now.”
Mowat also once again noted the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses had called for the creation of a task force that would tackle some of these challenges, and pointed to the need to address the issue of retention of workers.
