A Regina consultant is calling attention to the significant drain that constant nursing turnover has on Saskatchewan's healthcare system, describing it as a billion-dollar problem that demands immediate action.
Forum to Address Nursing Retention
Raelynn Douglas, CEO of Raesoleil Inc., has helped organize the Saskatchewan Nursing Retention Forum, scheduled for Thursday at the Conexus Cultivator in Regina. The event aims to bring together policymakers and front-line nurses to brainstorm solutions for retaining nurses in the province.
"The goal is really to take action, not just keep talking about it," Douglas said. "We've got everyone looking at the workforce issue, we've got agencies going off on recruitment missions, but there really doesn't seem to be anyone who owns the retention problem."
The Cost of Turnover
Douglas, a former staffer with Saskatchewan's ministries of finance and health, as well as Ontario's health system, emphasizes that retention is equally important as recruitment. She recently authored a book titled The Billion Dollar Blindspot, based on a white paper that highlights how policy leaders often overlook retention in staffing solutions.
"I call it a billion-dollar problem," Douglas said. "A funding problem — a funding leak." Replacing a clinical staff role can cost up to twice the job's annual salary, including expenses for advertising, hiring, and training, as well as hidden costs like operational disruption, burnout impacts, and reputational risk.
Her analysis uses Ontario's home-care sector as an example, where a 30-per-cent turnover rate translates to as much as $26 billion in additional expenses, based on an estimated $75,000 cost to replace a nurse.
Expert Panel and Next Steps
The forum will feature a panel including national chief nursing officer Leigh Chapman, Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency CEO Terri Strunk, and Alberta Association of Nurses CEO Annjanette Ridsdale-Weddell. The goal is to produce a report on retention realities in Saskatchewan's nursing sector, including pilot project suggestions, to present to the Ministry of Health.
Douglas hopes this will be the first of several forums, extending the call to other parts of the health system facing similar issues, such as paramedics.
