Burns Lake council meets with NIRD about recruitment strategies

Following up on a request from Northern Interior Rural Division of Family Practice (NIRD), Village of Burns Lake council met with NIRD representatives to discuss long-term opportunities for recruitment and retention of healthcare practitioners in Burns Lake.

Present for the meeting was Dr. James Card, NIRD recruitment lead, along with NIRD program coordinator Joy Davy. Also at the meeting were two nurse practitioners currently working in Burns Lake.

The NIRD, led by Card, represents communities within the northern interior region and works to improve patient access to local primary care.

READ MORE: Burns Lake looking for healthcare recruitment help

“One of our main focuses is on providing what we call a red carpet treatment to all medical students who have interest in coming to work in the community. This involves making sure that every learner that comes through has that fabulous experience so they have a positive outlook about the community, and talks about the community to other students,” said Davy to Council.

This approach is supposed to set the ground work to be able to access a larger pool of candidates that have a positive recall of the community.

Burns Lake Mayor Dolores Funk claimed that council is very interested in working with NIRD, though questioned if there was clear and specific ask by NIRD from the village of things they could do at this juncture, as well as who would take the lead on the project.

“If we went forward, I would be a point of contact and I could also do the leg work to connect with Northern Health as well,” said Davy.

“In my mind at this point it would be setting up to help provide that red carpet service. That would include regular meetings between council and myself, and contacting Northern Health as well to see which learners are coming at which dates to coordinate properly with the nurse practitioners who are leading the visits,” Davy continued.

Another key aspect of the partnership would be the connections received from working with Card.

“I work for UBC as the site program director in Prince George for the residency program, so i’m always talking to my residents about opportunities in the north, and we’re really trying to attract applicants to that program that want to work in rural communities,” said Card.

“If you look at Fraser Lake as an example, three of the doctors currently there were graduates in my program in 2020. “I can certainly help facilitate those connections if desired,” he continued

Card did state however that he wants his role in the partnership to be more supportive as opposed to leading the way.

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