Standing committee on Health plan Skills Weekend
The Drumheller Standing Committee on Health (DSCH) is being proactive in supporting AHS in attraction of healthcare professionals and is planning to host a skills event this fall.
The committee is working on hosting a Skills Weekend, with support from the Rural Health Professionals Action Plan. They are looking at inviting student nurses from Alberta post secondary institutions, as well as local Hope College Licensed Practical Nursing and Nursing Attendant students to the valley for a weekend of education on September 28 and 29.
“We have a consultant that started this conversation when we struck this standing committee,” said committee chairperson David Schinnour. “I invited her to a meeting and she suggested we run a Skills Weekend. We thought this would be a prime opportunity to see if we can attract some soonto-be graduated nurses to Drumheller.”
He explains that often rural communities like Drumheller are faced with the challenge of attracting and retaining health professionals.
“It is a challenge not only to get them here but to re- tain them. A young gradu- ated nurse is a professional,” he said. “If you are a recently graduated RN, LPN or nurses assistant it is a pretty easy thing to get a job anywhere in Alberta. Unfortunately, we always have people in transition at our Drumheller hospital, and that is often true of any rural community.”
He said the goal of having a skills day is to expose the students to rural medicine and the community.
He says the event goes beyond just the skills day, they will meet people at the hospital and take a tour, as well as see the valley. They are looking at inviting a guest speaker and hosting a mixer. “We want to make it unique and fun and something they would want to talk about when they leave here,” said Schinnour. “I think it will be a great thing for Drumheller and something we will turn into an annual event.”
If anyone from the community has an interest in helping out at the Skills day, they can contact David Schinnour at 1 (403) 820-0622 or Bob Sheddy at 403.323.2222