There are already American health care workers who have moved to Canada with the help of Healthcare Infusion information and resources.
An initiative to bring American health care workers to Canada is looking to expand to the Yukon.
The Healthcare Infusion initiative is a loose-knit coalition of Canadian communities that are aiming to make it easier for American health care workers to come to Canada through community-specific resources and information.
Former Nanaimo, B.C. journalist Tod Maffin began the initiative last year, following an invitation for Americans to support the Vancouver Island economy over a single weekend. Maffin says that 300 Americans chose to visit; including some folks that were doing more than taking in the sights.
“One of the things that we learned when we were talking to a lot of (the American visitors) was that many of them were healthcare workers who were using that visit as an opportunity to see what the hospital was like; to see what the community was like; to walk around [and] see if it was a place they could envision their family in a safe place.”
As a result of that interest, Maffin and his wife, Jocelyn, provided the tools for other communities across Canada to start Healthcare Infusion chapters of their own, and very quickly. Speaking with CHON-FM, Maffin said that he had seen chapters come on stream within three hours.
As for how effective the initiative can be, Maffin says that there are already American health care workers who have moved to Canada with the help of Healthcare Infusion information and resources.
“Several dozen nurses, doctors, social workers, mental health counsellors, addiction people, are already in the Canadian health care system.”
“We’ve seen that across the country with this infusion movement. That’s the whole point of it; take what we did on Vancouver Island, learn from our mistakes. Here’s a template that you can just start up in your community, and help plug into the recruitment efforts that already exist and provide that really important piece, which is, ‘I need to talk to someone in the community before I make my decision.’”
While speaking with CHON-FM, Maffin received a notification that the first Healthcare Infusion chapter in Prince Edward Island had come on stream, marking at least one chapter in every single province. As of the end of that conversation, the only regions left without chapters are Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon.
For more information about Canada’s Healthcare Infusions, including how to start a chapter for your community, visit healthcareinfusion.org.
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