In response to nursing vacancies becoming increasingly harder to fill as the number of available positions across Canada far exceeds the amount of nurses needed to provide quality care, Southlake Regional Health Centre recently announced its commitment to invest an additional $2 million into recruiting and retaining a strong nursing workforce.


“If we are to be successful as a centre of health care excellence, we need a reliable and talented workforce,” says Dan Carriere, president and CEO. “This investment reaffirms our commitment to the nursing profession and our desire to keep the great nurses we currently have and to hire new nurses that are committed to being the best within their chosen profession.”


Despite a current nursing workforce of more than 1,000, Southlake requires 161 nurses to fill current vacancies. The situation is expected to be further exacerbated with the opening of the Regional Cancer Centre at Southlake in 2009.
According to Annette Jones, chief nursing officer, a detailed strategic nursing plan was recently developed in order to keep pace with existing and future growth.
“During the past several months, we have spent time analyzing our needs and speaking with front-line nurses to develop a plan that is focused on making Southlake a great place to be a nurse,” remarks Ms Jones. “The investment of $2 million will ensure we move beyond the discussion phase to implementing changes that will make a significant difference.”
The strategic nursing plan identifies eight key themes that are centered on making Southlake even better for its nurses. Initiatives include reducing nurse to patient ratios, increased education opportunities to foster individual success, retaining and valuing employees through recognition and reward programs, and customized scheduling to meet unit and personal needs. A large commitment will also be made to attracting new nursing graduates to Southlake through the New Graduate Program with the provincial government, which ensures that every new nursing graduate who wishes to work full time will have the opportunity.


“The $2 million will go a long way in relieving the workload on existing nurses,” said Sharon Constable, who has worked as a nurse at Southlake for nine years. “This announcement is significant, and it’s definitely going to improve the level of care that patients receive at Southlake.”
The ability to allocate dollars in support of this important initiative was made possible through Southlake’s ongoing commitment to operate efficiently and to seek creative, new ways to delivery quality care.

“For the past three years, Southlake has experienced a nine per cent increase in patient volumes per year,” explains Dan Carriere. “This has forced us to be efficient in everything we do, and, to our credit, we’ve saved money along the way. To reinvest these savings into nursing care, which directly translates into better patient care, is a reward that benefits everyone who relies on Southlake to meet their healthcare needs.”