Recruit and Retain OCTOBER Recruitment and Retention of Health Care Providers and Public Service Sector Workers in Remote Rural Areas

Transcription

1 Recruit and Retain VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 OCTOBER 2012 Recruitment and Retention of Health Care Providers and Public Service Sector Workers in Remote Rural Areas Inside this issue: Welcome! Welcome! 1 Recruit and Retain now online Project launched 2 Video 2 Iceland 20th 22nd March 2012 Strategic Management Group Coordinator Canadian Summer Camp Rural Medicine Conference Helse Finnmark Doctor specialists Welcome to the first edition of the Recruit and Retain Project Newsletter The Recruitment and Retention of Healthcare Providers and Public Service Sector Workers in Remote Rural Areas project, or Recruit and Retain for short is an EU Northern Periphery Programme funded project, made up of a partnership of eight project teams in seven different countries. The project sets out to find solutions to the persistent problem of difficulties in recruiting and retaining high quality people to work in the public sector in the remote rural areas of Northern Europe. The aim of this newsletter is to tell you about our progress and our future plans. We are currently gathering information from previous, current and potential future staff to inform our future work. This information gathering is in the form of a questionnaire, which will provide important information on the motivating and demotivating factors affecting the recruitment of healthcare workers, as well as information on professional aspirations, professional relationships, and the transition from an urban to a rural setting, training, workload and expectations. The information from this questionnaire, and the upcoming interviews, will be used as the evidence base to support the development of products and services aimed at solving the increasing difficulties of recruiting and retaining staff in remote rural areas. More information about the project can be found at: Professor Andrew Sim Recruit and Retain Project Director Please forward to anyone you think would be interested in the work we are doing. If you would like to sign up to receive this biannual newsletter please contact us at: deannegilbert@nhs.net Andrew Sim Recruit and Retain now online The Recruit and Retain website is now live. You can find us at: The aim of the website is to provide information on all aspects of the project it is currently under development but will hopefully give you all of the information that you need. We would very much welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvements. Contact us at: deannegilbert@nhs.net You can also keep up to date with the latest news and information on Twitter and Facebook. We invite you to start discussions on topics, comment on posts, tag sites the site into things you are doing - get involved!! Follow these links to like or follow us

2 PAGE 2 RECRUIT AND RETAIN Recruit and Retain Project launched NHS Western Isles as the Lead Partner for Recruit and Retain hosted the first workshop of the project in Stornoway 10th to the 12th October Sandwiched between two days of project work a conference entitled Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Health Care Workers in Remote Rural Areas was held in An Lanntair on 11th October. The conference was opened by the Vice Chairman of NHS Western Isles Health Board Malcolm Smith. He welcomed the delegates from the Western Isles, other parts of Scotland and the NPP partner countries; Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden. The Project Director, Andrew Sim, described the workings of the Northern Periphery Programme and gave details of the Recruit and Retain project. Delegates at the Inaugural Meeting and conference Stornoway October Recruit and Retain Video VIEW THE RECRUIT AND RETAIN VIDEO AVAILABLE HERE. The Recruit and Retain video was launched in March The video introduces the project and documents the Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining health Care Workers in Remote Rural Areas 2011 conference held in Stornoway in October The video can be viewed here: BIANNUAL MEETING IN AKUREYRI, ICELAND - 20th to 22nd March 2012 Recruit and Retain held its second biannual meeting in Akureyri, Iceland on March 20th 22nd All Recruit and Retain project teams were invited, 35 attended. The main work of the meeting focused on development of the questionnaire. A specific session was held to launch the strategic part of the project. The new partners The Centre for Rural Health, University of Aberdeen, Scotland (Highland Scottish partner), the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Canada (Canadian partner) and Cooperation and Working Together (CAWT), Londonderry, Republic of Ireland and Ireland (Irish partner) were welcomed and the strategic additions to the core Recruit and Retain project were highlighted. Thanks to the Icelandic team for a really interesting and productive meeting. The Icelandic project team

3 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 PAGE 3 Appointment of the Strategic Management Group Coordinator Recruit and Retain - people beyond Health Care Providers Niclas Forsling was recently appointed as the Strategic Management Group Coordinator for the Recruit and Retain project. Niclas has a background at the Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) Secretariat, and after being Head of Secretariat for 9 years, he has now started his own company, Competencor. Niclas describes the background to the approval of the Recruit and Retain project, and his appointment as SMG Coordinator: The NPP Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) viewed the Recruit and Retain project s ambitions, which is to establish products and services focusing on recruitment and retention of health care providers in rural areas, as very important. It was agreed to invite the already approved Recruit and Retain project to scale up its ambitions to translate its products and services developed for Health Care sector to also cover other public sector fields. The PMC approved the amended Recruit and Retain project as a Strategic Project at its December 2011 meeting. Niclas says Niclas Forsling Recruit and Retain Strategic Management Group coordinator The innovative construction of the Recruit and Retain Strategic Project is to set up a follow project initiative, called - the Strategic Management Group (SMG) - that will be responsible for translating solutions aimed at the Health Care sector to other public service sectors. He goes on to say that There is a huge potential in the field of recruiting and retaining people to rural, isolated and sparsely populated areas. There are great opportunities for social enterprises and also private public partnership solutions to be formed in order to secure staff with the required skills and competencies needed for the remote areas. Current solutions presented by recruitment agencies have not always proven to be viable models and suitable for the regions within the Northern Periphery Programme, and as the SMG coordinator my aim is to ensure that resources can be made available to develop the solutions, and that a wide uptake of these solutions becomes a reality Niclas gives the example of the London Mining NPP...VIEWED company, a Chinese mining company, looking to start up activities in Greenland. If the green light is given to their investment (approximately 2 Billion EUR) a mine AMBITIONS...AS employing thousands of people will be built within two VERY years, and will become an interesting choice for people with a wide range of skills, to consider. The current IMPORTANT Director for London Mining said at a public hearing recently that London Mining will be able to employ a large number of people in Greenland, and in addition to this London Mining envisage an even higher number of people coming from China to work in the mine in order to ensure the supply of competence needed. The Director of London Mining explained that this new mine will attract skilled workers from companies already established in Greenland and a competence shortfall will occur as a consequence. The main challenge will be to find a supply of competence for these companies in addition to London Mining. A new industry of this kind will also increase the demand for public sector service provision, which will require additional resources going into different public sector fields. Niclas says As you can understand, recruitment and retention of people to different regions could be of a varied nature. But the principle of developing new recruitment and retention tools will be equally important in all regions, no matter what challenges a region is facing. A strategic project such as Recruit and Retain will be important to sustain communities and to develop the regions within the Northern Periphery Programme area. I am looking forward to working with the Recruit and Retain team members on this very important and interesting project. Niclas Forsling SMG Co-ordinator THE THE RECRUIT AND RETAIN PROJECT S Different problems in different regions require tailored solutions:

4 PAGE 4 RECRUIT AND RETAIN Partner updates Recruit and Retain Canadian partner hosts Summer Health Sciences Camp Promotes Health-Care Related Careers The first medical school in Canada for the 21 st century, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) works to contribute to improving the health of the people and communities of Northern Ontario by advancing the highest quality of medical practice, learning, teaching, research, and professionalism. NOSM is founded upon the principle of social accountability and makes training p h y s icians a nd h e a l t h professionals from Aboriginal and Francophone backgrounds, and from rural environments, a priority. Each summer, NOSM hosts Summer Health Sciences Camps at the School s East and West campuses. One of the main goals of this program is to highlight to youth the exciting opportunities within the healthcare sector, and to inspire them to consider health-related careers. NOSM recognized a need to focus on Aboriginal, Francophone and rural youth in Northern Canada, in particular, as statistics demonstrate that y o u t h w i t h i n t h e s e demographics are at higher risk of not completing school. High school students between years of age in grade 10 and 11 are eligible to participate in the fully funded week-long camps. Eligibility is also based on the level of interest in participating rather than grades or test scores to better facilitate interested candidates. Students participate in a variety of activities including, but not limited to, learning how to put on and remove a cast, looking at DNA analysis, learning about traditional medicines, and gaining knowledge NOSM EAST CAMPUS about Aboriginal traditional healing. Participants are also introduced to a spectrum of health careers, and are given tips about how to prepare now for careers in health-care including medicine, nursing, and emergency care. Since 2006, 245 youth have participated in the NOSM Summer Health Sciences Camps. These youth have been offered the opportunity to become engaged in team building exercises that focus on showcasing the opportunities available to them in health-care related careers. Rural Medicine Conference in Hemavan The Swedish and Norwegian Recruit and Retain groups attended the conference Rural medicine the forefront of primary health care in Hemavan on September About sixty people attended the two-day conference, with representatives from all the northern parts of Sweden as well as The National Board of Health and Welfare. The program included both Swedish and Norwegian lectures, among them a presentation of the R&R project, describing its process and goals. There were workshops on specific questions: What should be the main emphasis when recruiting? Is a shared/joint project database a viable option for collaboration between regions? Rural medicine education for physicians how is it to be coordinated for the entire region? People studying abroad, Swedish and Norwegian students attending medical programs abroad, how do we attract them to rural areas? The discussions covering these questions produced ideas for Work package 3a. The conference also included a report and presentation of the structured interviews of general practitioners in The County Council of Västerbotten as well as The County Council of Norrbotten during the spring of The conference showed that the ideas and visions of the Recruit and Retain project are welcomed by and in demand among rural medical centres and their municipalities.

5 PAGE 5 RECRUIT AND RETAIN Helse Finnmark Health Trust produces its own doctor specialists The Doctor Recruitment and Retention Project in Helse Finnmark (RSP) has provided 23 specialists to the Health Trust in the last six years. All of them are permanent residents in Finnmark. In addition, 14 are currently in training programmes and are expected back to the Health Trust within the next four years. RSP was initiated in 2006, and has tried out new methods and measures to produce qualified specialists, within the specialties that the Health Trust needs. It is also important that the candidates are residents of Finnmark. A common saying in the Health Trust is We need to take good care of three doctors to get one specialist back. Last year, one of Hammerfest s young doctors, having completed her Ph.D. in medical ethics, was offered an Eye doctor training programme at the University Hospital in Tromsø (UNN), funded by RSP. In 2012 another doctor started out in an Anaesthetic training programme, also at UNN. Neither of these training programmes are possible to follow in Hammerfest or Kirkenes. The RSP pays for their salaries and offers scholarships to cover various expenses. In return the doctors have signed a two year obligation to the Health Trust. Both doctors are from Finnmark, they are well settled in Hammerfest and Kirkenes, and have a long term perspective in developing and conducting local hospital services in the county.over the last six years, the project has offered various financial support to a total of 72 doctors including three students). 23 of the 72 doctors currently work in the Health Trust and 21 of these have obtained their specialization. TO GET ONE 14 of the 72 doctors are now at UNN in their final part of the training programmes and have an obligation to the Health Trust for the next four years.(20 doctors who have received smaller or larger contributions from the project do not work in the Health Trust anymore, and have left Finnmark County The project is now conducting structured interviews to discover their migration motives. A COMMON SAYING IN THE HEALTH TRUST IS WE NEED TO TAKE GOOD CARE OF THREE DOCTORS SPECIALIST BACK Upcoming workshop Ilulissat, Greenland The third Recruit & Retain workshop will take place in Ilulissat, Greenland, October 26th to 28th. See the next Newsletter for a full report. Ilulissat Hospital

6 Lead Partner: NHS Western Isles Contact: Project Manager Deanne Gilbert Phone: +44(0) Agency for Health Prevention Greenland FSA Akueyri Iceland Helse Finnmark Health Trust Norway County Council of Vasterbotten Sweden Northern Ontario School of Medicine Canada University of Aberdeen Scotland Cooperation and Working Together (CAWT) Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland Further details about each of the partners will be available in Recruit and Retain project leaflets, which will be published soon. WE ARE ON THE WEB!