On Tuesday, the province announced supportive funding for the Mid Valley Region Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee and the Annapolis Valley Chamber of Commerce. The funding will go towards initiatives that include digital physician recruitment toolkits, family physician appreciation programs and other welcoming programs.
The two groups in the Annapolis Valley will be able to support recruiting doctors and other healthcare professionals and retain those who already live and work in their communities.
The Annapolis Valley Chamber of Commerce will receive $77,105 and the Mid Valley Region Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee will receive $73,760.
"We just received funding from the office of healthcare professionals recruitment, and we received the full amount that we applied which was just over $77,000. We have a few different exciting projects up our sleeve for this year, and we've received more funding than we ever have," said Breanna Sangster, Annapolis Valley Physician Community Navigator.
Breanna Sangster is the Annapolis Valley Physician Community Navigator. Photo contributed.
Some of the projects Sangster is looking forward to for this year are physician retention outreach programs and community cultural events. And she's excited to receiving funding to expand virtual tools available for healthcare professionals in addition to creating some videos.
"We applied for funding where we can do smaller videos, which are storytelling based, highlighting some of the community, some health care professionals stories. And we can do that at every clinic and hospital throughout our Valley region. So this is a toolkit virtual toolkit that we can continue enhancing and expanding as well," said Sangster.
Sangster said she encourages students to be aware of current opportunities from their website. Photo contributed.
Don Hyslop, community navigator/Chair of the Mid Valley Region Physician Recruitment & Retention Committee, said their committee was created as a way to help out more in the community.
"We received from the office of healthcare professional recruitment almost $74,000 and we are going to use them in a variety of ways to help with recruitment and retention," said Hyslop.
One of the ways the funding will be spent is towards extending a site visit so that health practinores are able to stay a few days at the centre's expense.
"And then as far as retention goes, we've been so fortunate in our area to be recipients of physicians from the Practice Ready Assessment Program. These are international physicians who come from various countries and get an opportunity to practice medicine in Nova Scotia," said Hyslop.
The funding is from the government’s new Office of Healthcare Professionals Recruitment (OHPR) Community Fund. A total of 28 groups across Nova Scotia applied by the December 19 deadline, and more successful applicants will be notified in the coming week.
The $2-million community fund is among the recruitment and retention initiatives outlined in Action for Health, the province’s strategic plan to improve healthcare.