Correctional healthcare professionals face unique challenges that affect recruitment, retention, and overall wellbeing, including high stress levels, mental health strain, and limited access to consistent professional development. To address these challenges, a strategic, innovative, and wellness-focused approach is essential. This presentation highlights three virtually supported initiatives implemented across ten provincial correctional centers in Alberta aimed at enhancing staff education, building workforce capacity, and fostering staff wellbeing.

 

Central to this transformation is the Virtual Orientation Program, which standardizes onboarding for new healthcare staff, promoting cross-center collaboration and ensuring informed, confident professional practice. To build staff resilience, the Duty to Respond (DTR) program offers specialized trauma response training based on the International Trauma Life Support (ITLS) curriculum, while the Simulation Training Program strengthens trauma management and team dynamics through real-time high-acuity scenarios. Delivered both in-person and virtually, these experiential programs enhance skill development, psychological readiness, and long-term staff retention.

 

Further supporting staff development, Virtual Faculty Development offers tailored mentorship to educators across all sites, ensuring equitable access to training and strengthening peer support networks. This comprehensive approach fosters workforce stability, improves operational efficiency, and enhances the quality of care within correctional facilities. The virtual strategies presented offer scalable solutions for other jurisdictions seeking to improve staff wellbeing, recruitment, and retention in correctional healthcare settings.

 

Moderated by Simon Bonk, Chair, Technology Solutions Network, ICPA, Canada