Government of Yukon addresses Health Human Resources challenges

While the health human resources challenges in the Yukon are similar to those seen in other jurisdictions across Canada, the Yukon’s Health Human Resources Strategy – released in December 2023 and accompanied by an investment of up to $2.8 million – is helping to ensure that Yukoners have better access to health care services across the territory.

At a news conference held on December 11, the Health Human Resources Steering Committee released their first annual report, highlighting accomplishments in growing and strengthening the Yukon’s health and social services workforce over the past year.

One significant accomplishment in 2024 was the recruitment and retention of nurses, increasing Yukoners’ access to health and wellness services.

Specifically, the Yukon has seen: 

• A decrease in the vacancy rate at the Health and Social Services’ Community Nursing Branch, from 32.5 per cent in July 2023 to 19 per cent in September 2024.
• An average vacancy rate of four per cent this year within the Care and Community Branch.
• All regulated nursing positions within the Home Care Branch filled, with the branch maintaining an average vacancy rate of six per cent this year.
• A fully staffed Whitehorse walk-in clinic.
• No community health centre closures due to staffing shortages in 2024.
• A reduction in permanent nursing vacancy rate at the Yukon Hospital Corporation from 20.4 per cent in 2023 to 8.1 per cent in 2024.

Additionally, the Yukon Hospital Corporation’s turnover rate – the number of employees who leave the organization – is at 0.5 per cent to date, well below the target of 2.5 per cent.

In 2024, the Government of Yukon cut red tape and refocused efforts to recruit health care professionals, leading to the hiring of:

• 24 internationally educated health care professionals who were already living in the Yukon now working in nursing home attendant positions;
• 11 new internationally educated nurses at the Yukon Hospital Corporation; and
• 153 locums covered, accomplished in partnership with the Yukon Medical Association’s expanded physician recruitment efforts, which now include more support for acute hospital care, ensuring continuity of critical services, such as emergency and inpatient care.

Over the past year, the Government of Yukon has made progress on several of the initiatives in the Health Human Resources Strategy, including: 

• expanding recruitment efforts and marketing positions and opportunities locally, nationally and internationally;
• partnering with the University of New Brunswick on a remote learning program where licensed practical nurses in the Yukon can obtain their baccalaureate nursing degree (BN) to become a Registered Nurse while they continue to work and live in the Yukon;
• hosting non-deployed medical professionals from the Department of National Defense to augment medical staff at the Yukon Hospital Corporation, as part of an innovative training partnership with the Canadian Armed Forces;
• amending the Registered Nurses Professions Act and associated regulations so nurses can register to work directly in the Yukon instead of another jurisdiction first.
• conducting a health workforce survey to better understand the perspectives of health care workers across the territory; and
• signing a Letter of Intent with the Government of Nova Scotia to share information on best practices for recruitment and retention and beginning to explore pathways for Yukon-intentioned foreign trained physicians to follow a streamlined licensure process through Nova Scotia. 

Planning is underway for the coming year’s priorities, which will see continuation of many current projects and the addition of new actions to address ongoing needs identified in the strategy.

Some of the projects that began in 2024 and will continue into 2025 include:

• building a health and social services specific recruitment website, to be launched soon;
• releasing the What We Heard report from the health workforce survey, which will inform retention programs with employers;
• the development of a Medical Office Assistant program at Yukon University, which will ease the administrative burden on health professionals;
• navigator services to assist internationally educated health professionals already living in the Yukon to obtain credentials;
• work is also underway to explore the possibility of establishing a family medicine residency program in the Yukon; and
• development of a Yukon-based Social Work degree and a four-year Nursing degree at Yukon University. 

The steering committee recognizes there is still much to do in the next year and beyond. The steering committee looks forward to continuing to work with partners across the health care system to improve health care services for Yukoners and to continue to make the Yukon a top jurisdiction for health care workers across Canada and around the world.