On April 3, 2025, Facility Engagement (FE) hosted a peer-to-peer panel showcasing their Medical Staff Association (MSA) work on understanding and addressing recruitment and retention challenges faced by facilities across British Columbia.
Participants shared insights on factors affecting physician satisfaction gathered via surveys, interviews, and informed by literature reviews. These factors included workplace culture, community support, and administrative processes, and emphasized the importance of data-driven approaches and collaboration in addressing these challenges.
This session aligned with the FE goal of fostering meaningful consultation and collaboration among facility-based medical staff and health authorities on shared priorities that improve patient care and the work environment, as well as a key theme identified through the Facility Engagement Annual Review process, which highlighted recruitment and retention as a main priority across many MSAs for 2024/2025.
Presentations included:
- TB Physician Experience Project – Dr Victoria Cook from the BC Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC)
- Retention and Resilience Research – Jennifer Ellis and Dr Kundayi Chamboko Nziramasanga from Kootenay Boundary Physician Association (KBPA)
- Northern Health MSAs: Local to Regional Approach to Recruitment - Dr Luay Amer Saleem Al Nisr from Dawson Creek MSA and Dr Tracy Morton on behalf of Northern Presidents Council
Watch: Data-Informed Recruitment and Retention
Takeaways
Dr Victoria Cook discussed the challenges with recruitment and retention faced by the tuberculosis care team, which has been experiencing high turnover with 50% of physicians considering leaving the program within three years.
Through an FE project surveying and interviewing past and current physicians to identify key pain points, they identified the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, administrative processes, and remuneration as key challenges to overcome.
Dr Cook proposed solutions such as:
- Improving the EMR system.
- Optimizing physician time and scope of work.
- Enhancing collaboration between nursing and physicians.
- Addressing remuneration issues.
The facility has accomplished a lot of quick wins even while the survey was ongoing, such as a process optimization effort underway to support improved clinician scheduling, prescription entry processes, and the addition of nurse practitioners and a clinical fellow to bring new supports into the fold. The team also has plans for a multidisciplinary retreat to work with health authority operational leaders to continue to address the challenges and improve physician satisfaction as per the results found in their survey and data collection efforts.
“It’s incredibly important that we had and shared this information with nursing and administrative colleagues, as well as the executive leadership team at BC CDC," explains Dr Victoria Cook, medical head, BCCDC Provincial Tuberculosis Services. "There are a lot of important points that we can try to address, and I think the retreat is the beginning of a conversation that we will need to have…. A lot came out of the survey about how we can work together, and the operational and administrative team are vital to that.”
Resources:
Jen Ellis, who researched specialist recruitment and retention at KBPA, discussed key insights gathered from a literature review, physician survey, and interview data on the opportunities and challenges in retaining physicians at the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH).
She highlighted the importance of community, family, and natural assets in attracting physicians to the region, and noted that survey results did not indicate that financial remuneration was a key factor in physician recruitment but rather factors such as feeling appreciated by the community, opportunities for spouses, and diversity of practice.
The main reasons for physician departure, i.e., challenges with retention, were related to the clinical team and facility support, workload, and remuneration. Jen emphasized that while remuneration wasn’t a reason physicians came to KBRH, it was a factor in their decision to stay.
Mona Mattei, the project manager for KBPA, discussed the association's role in recruitment and retention, including their work with the Chief of Staff and Recruitment Lead.
Dr Kundayi Chamboko Nziramasanga, a recent immigrant and internal medicine specialist, then shared his positive experience with the recruitment and retention concierge program led by KBPA, highlighting the support he and his family received from the community and the recruitment team.
The team also discussed the challenges of measuring success in recruitment and retention, and the need for a data-driven approach.
Resources:
“The top three reasons people leave are not really not having the support from as broad a clinical or allied health and RN team, or inadequate facility space and equipment, which are often the case in rural areas… Workload was also a driver and often characteristic of smaller hospitals that do have a specialist line but have fewer specialists in each specialty, which bumps up the demand and call requirements for those that are there... What would’ve made people stay is an exact reflection of what made them leave – better clinical team and facility support, better staffing, better support from colleagues, addressing workload, and successful recruitment of colleagues to share the load, and pay equity among specialists.” – Jen Ellis, PhD.
Dr Luay Amer Saleem Al Nisr from Dawson Creek discussed the challenges faced particularly by physicians in the Northern Health region. He shared the results of a survey conducted to understand the reasons behind physicians' decisions to move in or out of the community.
The survey revealed that workplace culture, community culture, and practice scope were significant factors. Based on the survey results, several solutions were implemented, including:
- A locum vehicle program.
- Exit interviews.
- Onboarding questionnaires.
- A buddy program.
- A marketing campaign.
- Childcare solutions.
The project has expanded to the entire Northern Health region and has been adopted by other MSAs in the northeast. Dr Al Nisr emphasized the importance of collaboration with health authority operational leaders and community partnerships in addressing these challenges.
Dr Tracy Morton from the Northern President's Council also shared his insights and expressed his appreciation for the work done by Dr. Al Nisr and the Northeast, which inspired the Northern Health President's Council to launch a survey across the entire region. He shared the results of the survey at a regional level, highlighting the importance of connection and relationships in retaining healthcare providers.
Dr Morton also mentioned plans to launch a community table, which would bring together Medical Staff Associations, divisions, health authority representation, and the communities themselves to address retention issues and support the region's overall health.
“We started local, here in Dawson Creek and our surrounding areas, and then it spread throughout the Northeast, then Northern Health adopted the survey and we also had a presentation at the North Health Recruitment Think Tank where Northern Health was fully on board with the idea and hoping to expand on the survey even more. It is no longer just a simple survey for exiting physicians, or a survey for physicians who are coming, but also for presently in practice physicians… It is going to be things like what can we do now, how can we improve? There were many impacts and outcomes of this work to overcome challenges, such as the locum vehicle program.” - Dr Luay Amer Saleem Al Nisr, Dawson Creek Medical Staff Association
Resources:
For other examples of recruitment and retention work across the province, check out our activity round-up and/or other stories.
