The government of Prince Edward Island shared insights Monday into its recruitment and hiring process for health-care workers.
The province’s overall health-care job vacancy rate is around 20 per cent, and even higher for some positions. Officials say they are working to get that down to seven per cent, close in line with the overall workforce unemployment rate.
In 2022, 13 doctors on P.E.I. retired and 17 resigned, though seven of those moved to other positions within the health authority.
There are currently 37 active postings on P.E.I.’s doctor recruitment site. Thirteen of those are for locums, also known as temporary fill-in doctors.
Hiring for health-care jobs on P.E.I. is handled by three different organizations, not including any oversight or direction from the Department of Health and Wellness. Those are the Recruitment and Retention Secretariat, the Public Service Commission, and Health PEI itself.
The Recruitment and Retention Secretariat is responsible for targeted recruitment campaigns for high priority jobs identified by Health PEI, particularly in doctor recruitment. The office also works with the health authority to organize and conduct interviews, and deal with other details of hiring to make the process as easy as possible for incoming doctors.
All other health-care jobs are handled from the Public Service Commission’s hiring website. The commission also works with Health PEI to draft job descriptions and support the hiring process generally.
The most recent data from PSC shows the average time from posting to hiring for health-care positions is 43 days, an improvement of four-and-a-half days from last count. However, this does not include doctors and a new open listing category, where instead of being posted for two weeks, the jobs are left open until they are filled.
Officials also detailed a recruitment trip to Dubai in March where 31 internationally trained nurses were recruited. The nurses have signed job offers, but are still going through what’s expected to be a 42-week immigration process.
These registered nurses were hired as residential care workers. Officials say the intention is to have the nurses work as RCWs on the island while they complete the necessary certifications to have their RN qualifications recognized by the province.
