Q:

A: Dr. Bourget said community engagement and having a positive community experience will play a large role in her decision to stay in Digby – or not.

“More important than the contract, it will depend on how things are going and how well I feel I’m transitioning into Digby,” she said.

Melanie Mooney said while all of the health team are basically permanent positions, the community needs to remember that anyone can leave at any time.

“Staying or leaving at any time is really about job satisfaction and work-life balance and all of those pieces that go along with anybody in their jobs,” Mooney said.

Dr. Bourget said moving the health-care conversation into a solution-based area with more positive dialogue would help.

“If things are going well, you choose to renew your contract… One of the take-home messages is also the need to focus on what this town has to offer people – what the people in the community are like and what type of town people are moving into – will it be welcoming? It needs to be a positive experience so hopefully we can keep making changes and recruit more people,” Dr. Bourget said.

Crystal Harris added her thoughts: “I just feel like all of us are always trying to figure out new ways to make positive changes and I feel it’s a very positive team going forward right now. It’s a good feeling coming to work and you feel positive and supported and you’re making big changes – slowly – but aiming in the right direction. We have a really good team here – we have fun at work and we enjoy each other’s company.” What about recruitment? Melanie Mooney said recruitment is an ongoing piece. “People move, people retire, recruitment is always changing.”

Both doctors Bourget and LaPierre said their team does have some influence on local recruiting.

“NSHA has a strong infrastructure to support recruitment, but that works best when you have NSHA partnering with the local health-care team – people who can speak with enthusiasm about what it’s like to live and work in the community,” Dr. LaPierre said.

They also agreed that there are no further limits on where people can work in the province. Fraser Mooney explained that there was an endeavour by the health authority to focus on areas with the most need for family physicians in the past. “That didn’t really work well so they revisited that idea,” Mooney said.

Dr. LaPierre said the Digby team is actively reaching out to students.

“We keep reaching out to people who are graduating and who are independently licensed and at the same time we talk to students who are becoming doctors and nurse practitioners – especially people with local roots.”

Melanie Mooney said they need the community’s help in recruitment.

“It’s a community initiative,” she said, pointing to Clare as a model, where the municipality owns the medical centre, where they send out care baskets to medical students at Christmas and where they take them out to dinner when they’re back home. “They’re not high-cost things, but they create a sense of community and connection and the people appreciate it and it endears them to the community so much they want to come back and be a part of it. It would be nice to see something similar here.”