Health workforce retention and support

Whether they’re working in a rural or remote setting, in community and primary care, in a long-term care home, in a regional health authority or in a provincial, territorial, or federal health department, members of Canada’s health workforce should feel safe, secure and empowered to do their best work every single day.

However, challenges facing healthcare workers have intensified in recent years, driven in part by the demands of the pandemic. Those responsible for delivering safe, high-quality care are experiencing stress and burnout, leading to increased turnover and critical staffing shortages. This in turn impacts the safety and quality of care received by patients, residents and clients across the care continuum in Canada.

Solutions centred on enhancing sustainable staffing levels, fostering safe and inclusive workplaces, developing flexible workplace structures and providing equitable compensation and career advancement opportunities can improve conditions for Canada’s health workforce and ensure that access to safe and high-quality healthcare is a reality for all. 

How is Healthcare Excellence Canada supporting the retention of health workers? 

Those working in Canada’s healthcare sector have proven to be creative and resourceful in the face of unprecedented challenges. Many dedicated teams, organizations and individuals are using innovative approaches to support and retain health workers. At HEC, we are committed to helping healthcare teams across Canada improve the retention of their health workers so that everyone in Canada can have full access to safe and high-quality healthcare,  including by:

• Launching the Health Workforce Innovation Challenge (HWIC) to help support and scale the impactful solutions emerging in healthcare organizations across the country.
• Developing the Digging for Dinosaurs mini challenge to help participants of the HWIC identify and eradicate practices that no longer promote safety in their workplace.
• Collaborating with the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) to design a promising practice summary to better understand workforce retention best practices in northern, rural and remote communities.
• Hosting a 2023 roundtable on workforce retention across the healthcare sector.
• Leading a policy lab on the retention of internationally educated healthcare workers (IEHW) in Canada.
• Collaborating with the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) to support grant recipients of the Healthcare Unburdened Grant.
• Producing a webinar on improving the well-being of the health workforce in Canada via our Spotlight Series.