After a successful recruitment mission of nurses in the Philipines late last year, Saskatchewan returned to the Philippines in mid-March for a second recruitment effort of Registered Nurses (RNs) and Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs).

The 162 Filipino RNs who received conditional job offers in December 2022 are currently moving through the RN Pathway, which includes language training, bridging education, and licensing.

The second mission proved to be another success as it resulted in 236 more conditional job offers extended to RNs.

“Between the two missions, the SHA has extended nearly 400 conditional job offers to qualified Filipino RNs who are committed to working in Saskatchewan,” says Health Minister Paul Merriman.

Representatives from the SHA as well as Health Recruitment and Retention Navigators from the government, nursing experts from post-secondary training institutions, and nursing partners all participated in the in-person mission in Manila and Cebu.

On top of the job offers, the Navigator Team met with several hundred potential IENs interested in working in Saskatchewan and prepared nearly 130 career action plans detailing the next steps for the IENs.

Saskatchewan’s recruitment and training efforts are also seeing success from candidates within the province and across the country.

The SHA has hired 114 Grad Nurses from Saskatchewan and across Canada since December. A further 81 conditional job offers have been made to nursing students who will be graduating this spring.

The SHA has also hired 10 Ukrainian newcomers into the healthcare workforce.

The Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies is adding an additional 20 seats to its healthcare training program.

In addition to recruitment and training, future nurses will be seeing a boost to incentives following the launch of the Grad Nurse Expression of Interest initiative in December 2022, 114 Nursing Graduates from Saskatchewan and out of province have been hired.

There are also rural and remote recruitment incentives being offered such as $50,000 for a three-year return-of-service agreement for high-priority positions. In total there are 83 different types of incentives for qualified rural and remote healthcare workers, for a full break of the list click here.

168 different bursaries have also been approved for students.

To retain nurses, $200,000 over five years is being offered through the Rural Physician Incentive Program.