Focus on Establishing a Stable Health Care Workforce in Rural and Remote Communities
THUNDER BAY – HEALTH – The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is hosting the Remote Rural Workforce Stability Forum on Tuesday, January 15.
This international, multi-site forum will present the results of NOSM’s Making It Work Recruit and Retain international partnership—including work the Northern Ontario School of Medicine has been involved with in Nunavut—as well as the Northern Ontario Physician Resources Action Plan and a Sustainability Plan focused on Northern Ontario communities.
NOSM was established as a government strategy to address the health needs of Northern Ontarians, improve access to quality care and contribute to the economic development of the region. Physician recruitment and retention—and increasing the number of health-care professionals practising in Northern Ontario—is a key part of achieving that mandate.
Research shows that increased access to physicians and other health-care professionals improves the health of a community’s workforce, and ultimately has a positive effect on the economic development of that community. The forum will address the issue of physician recruitment and retention, its relationship to overall workforce health in rural and remote communities, and the role of NOSM, as well as other medical schools and health-care organizations throughout the world, in workforce stability.
Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST
Location: NOSM at Lakehead University
Medical School Building, Room 1011
Thunder Bay, ON
NOSM at Laurentian University
Health Sciences Education Resource Centre (HSERC)
Room 109 Sudbury, ON
The morning will begin with opening remarks, an introduction to the project, and background for the project from the perspective of Nunavut communities. Dignitaries speaking at the opening of the Remote Rural Workforce Stability Forum are:
- Hon. Patty Hajdu, Minster of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour and MP, Thunder Bay-Superior North (Thunder Bay)
- France Gelinas, Member of Provincial Parliament, Nickel Belt (Sudbury)
- Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean & CEO (Sudbury)
- Dr. Gwen Healey Akearok, Executive and Scientific Director, Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre (Iqaluit)
At 10:00 a.m. EST, international partners will come together and present case studies from Sweden, Scotland, Norway, Iceland, and Canada, followed by a Q&A session. The Making it Work Framework for Rural Remote Workforce Stability provides a set of key areas of activity that, when implemented as a holistic, integrated set of interventions, can provide optimum conditions to establish a stable and appropriately skilled workforce in rural and remote communities.
After lunch, the Knowledge Transfer in Action session will encourage participants to integrate key learnings from international rural health human resources work to inform the Physician Resources Action Plan for Northern Ontario (Action Plan). In this interactive workshop, participants will discuss and compare the existing Action Plan (solutions to build a flourishing physician workforce in rural and remote communities) with research findings and emerging workforce stability models from rural and remote regions in Northern Europe, in Arctic Canada, and in rural Australia.