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Recruiting will remain a top priority for the Cypress Health Region in the coming months.

After dealing with temporary service disruptions at several of it's facilities the last couple of years, the Health Region is looking at various ways to bring in new skilled professionals.

One of those ways is with a plan released by the provincial government according to Executive Director of Human Resources, Brenda Schwan. "Saskatchewan Health released their 10 year Health Human Resource Plan ... this will be a forecasting tool we can use within the region and develop ways of delivering service that will meet the needs of the population," Schwan says.

When it comes to recruiting from out of province and internationally, Schwan says there are some difficulties in attracting skilled professionals to rural Saskatchewan as compared to cities, but it will all come down to changing some of the perceptions held about the region. "I think when they're training in places like Regina or Saskatoon they see the Cypress Health Region as more rural, and don't really know what the opportunities are. So part of our strategy is getting these students into the region and letting them see what the Cypress Health Region has to offer," she adds.

"We're starting out looking to see if we can get the Special Care Aid program and the LPN program outside of Swift Current, so people do not have to relocate for a period of time. We're working with the (Great Plains) college on that," Schwan says regarding the possibility of more localized training and schooling to generate more staff in rural communities.

Schwan remains optomistic they will be able to fill a number of the vacant positions over 2012.

Donovan Fehr spoke with Brenda Schwan about the Health Region's recruitment plan...