Sask. NDP flag reduction in registered rural and remote nurse numbers from 2018-2023

The Saskatchewan NDP is criticizing the provincial government on rural and remote registered nurse retention, with the nurses' union president adding that there's still no sign of a nursing task force.

Data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information shows a drop of 526 rural and remote registered nurses from 2018 to 2023.

Over that same time period, the number of registered nurses in Saskatchewan workforce has increased overall by 642.

The NDP pointed to other specific areas of loss from 2018 to 2023, like a 10 per cent drop in registered nurses working in long term care and an eight per cent drop in registered psychiatric nurses.

"We need to massively overhaul our recruitment strategy and build retention solutions with our health-care workers that are currently shouldering the burden of this government's failures," said NDP shadow health minister Vicki Mowat on Wednesday.

Mowat said the government needs to listen to health-care workers, and that issues like housing and quality of life are affecting rural retention.

A statement from the Ministry of Health said recruitment and retention of health-care workers is a priority and mentioned its Health Human Resource Action Plan.

"The Government of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Health Authority and Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency are taking action to stabilize and strengthen health care services in rural Saskatchewan, through targeted recruitment and retention strategies," said the statement from the ministry.

The statement highlighted the increase in overall registered nurses in the province and also said the number of regulated nurses per capita was higher than the national average in 2023.

No nurse task force yet: SUN president

The Sask. Party floated the idea of having a nurse task force before the 2024 election was called, after years of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) asking for one. Union president Tracey Zambory said SUN is still waiting up for any kind of follow-through.

"We need to get a framework built. We need to get some meat on the bones. We need to get some commitments, because a nursing task force without teeth is just a make-work project and registered nurses are done being ignored," said Zambory on Wednesday.

Zambory said she's been having conversations over the last few weeks with rural nurses about retention issues and how it has a ripple effect across the whole province.

When there aren't enough nurses in rural areas or health centres are closed, people go to the cities for care and overwhelm the infrastructure there, according to Zambory.

She said the biggest gap the rural and remote nurses face is a lack of mentorship and support, which would aid new graduates or international recruits.

Housing is another area she said needs to be looked at, especially in the North.

"We want people to go and work in La Ronge. Ile-a-la-Crosse, Buffalo Narrows, but it's next to impossible to get a place, and when you do get a place, the rent is absolutely outrageous," she said.

Zambory said the province has a mentorship program, but that it's insufficient, akin to getting a cup of coffee with someone more experienced.

"We actually need a robust mentorship program that has human and financial resources attached to it," she said.

"We've done it before in the early 2000s in this province."