Aboriginal Careers

Interior Health (IH) is dedicated to working with Aboriginal populations (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) within its boundaries and is focused on improving the health of Aboriginal people we care for. As we look to the future, IH is shifting toward a more culturally-competent focus both in our hospitals and out in the community, to better serve Aboriginal Peoples within the Southern Interior region. Interior Health remains committed to the work of increasing our Aboriginal workforce, and ensuring that we hire and retain Aboriginal people at all levels of the organization – from front line to leadership.  

Interior Health offers support by an Aboriginal Recruiter and Aboriginal Employment Advisor (AEA)

Support offered by the Aboriginal Recruiter:

• Marketing employment opportunities to “job ready” Aboriginal Peoples
• Supporting all members of the recruitment team to engage in practices that support IH goal of a representative workforce

Support offered by the Aboriginal Employment Advisor:

• Resume/cover letter writing and review
• Interview/pre-screen readiness
• Application process
• Onboarding and career exploration

Combined support by the Aboriginal Career Specialists includes the following:

Community Engagement:

• Attending Aboriginal employment & career events
• Engaging youth in considering careers in healthcare
• Fostering relationships with community and members
• Creating recruitment linkages with Aboriginal communities, educational partners and Aboriginal employment organizations

Organization Awareness:

• Guiding more effective Aboriginal-focused hiring practise at Interior Health
• Developing culturally sensitive employment materials
• Promoting diversity and inclusion at Interior Health

For more information please go to our website at https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca/creating-a-culture-of-collaboration

Health Care Assistants

Health Care Assistants (HCAs) are frontline care providers that are an integral and valued part of a multi-disciplinary team. They work in a variety of practice settings including: home support, assisted living, long-term care, special care units, acute care and other home and community settings. While the educational requirements are the same, the work environments are very different. The most common positions for a HCA at Interior Health are as a Care Aide or a Community Health Worker. A Care Aide works in a team environment or acute facility, while a Community Health Worker works independently travelling to client’s homes. The demographic cared for are generally medically fragile, cognitively complex and diverse in age.

TYPICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF A CARE AIDE OR COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER MAY INCLUDE:

• Personal care and activities of daily living including; bathing, taking temperature, personal grooming, skin care, medication reminders, pulse and respiration, and oral hygiene
• Non-sterile dressing applications
• Mobility and transfer assistance with related lifts
• Observing and reporting changes in client behaviour and condition

Qualifications for both Care Aide and Community Health Worker positions at Interior Health include a Health Care Assistant certificate (typically a 6 month certificate program) and registration with the BC Care Aid and Community Health Worker Registry. Community Health Worker positions require a valid BC driver’s license as well.

These professions are in very high demand at this time (especially in the Interior and Northern BC among other locations) and IH provides multiple career opportunities at many of our locations! HCA roles at Interior Health range from $21.24 to $24.83 depending on the position and the length of service.

For more information please go to our website at https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca/health-care-assistant. 

Support Services Careers

Enjoy a fast-paced, diverse career with any one of Interior Health's Support Services opportunities. As a Cleaner, Food Service Worker, Food Service Supervisor or Cooks you will experience working closely with Clinical Staff to improve and enrich the healthcare experience for our clients, patients, and their families. Join our team and make a difference!

Cleaners:

• Maintains clean and sanitary conditions in all facilities
• Plays a key role in infection control

Food Service Workers:

• Serve nutritious and delicious meals and snacks
• Clean dining and service areas

Cooks:

• Prepare meals for all of the patients and long term care residents
• Plans and schedules cooking

Whether your interest lies in the area of food services or housekeeping we have front line work in our Hospitals and our Long Term Care centres for cooks, food service workers and cleaners. Support Services can offer a flexible schedule and flexible work week.

Mental Health

Mental health services are listed as one of the five key strategies to be a top priority for IH. This renewed focus aims to improve primary and community care outcomes and delivery for mental health and substance use clients.

As part of our commitment to providing a responsive and inclusive system, mental health and substance use services include short-term assessment and treatment, long-term programs for those with a serious and persistent mental illness, seniors' mental health services as well as substance use prevention and treatment services. Services are available in a variety of settings including community clinics, hospitals, specialized setting for intensive treatment, long-term care settings, family doctors' offices, urban health centres and on an outreach basis.

Our teams of mental health professionals are highly skilled and collaborate with other agencies, programs and experts to provide the best quality service and support to our clients. Our mental health programs are designed to support clients in their recovery while ensuring health care is provided in a culturally safe and sensitive way. Some of the skilled mental health professionals include:

• Registered Nurses: Community, Acute & Tertiary
• Life Skills Outreach Workers
• Registered Psychiatric Nurses: Community, Acute & Tertiary
• Social Workers
• Mental Health and Substance Use Workers (Bachelor’s level)
• Mental Health and Substance Use Clinicians/Counsellors (Master’s Level)
• Mental Health Care Aide and Community Mental Health Workers

For more information please go to our website at https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca/why-mental-health-professionals-should-consider-a-career-at-interior-health

Administrative Professionals

Administrative Professionals at Interior Health work in a team environment to provide confidential administrative support functions to Managers, Directors, and Executive Directors in the assigned unit. 

Administrative Professionals (Administrative Assistants, Medical Administrative Assistants, Program Assistants, Executive Assistants, etc.) serve as a vital linkage and communication source to keep the unit informed and aligned to the various priorities. The Administrative Professionals are key members to the ongoing development of workflow and many health care initiatives.

Administrative roles are ‘hands-on’, so along with excellent organization, attention to detail, knowledge and skills, we look for candidates that can make a difference in a fast paced environment.  You will perform within an innovative culture that’s focused on transformational change in the health care system. Understanding the complexities of our healthcare system is an asset for these professionals.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Coordinating and organizing workflow; determining priorities; composing confidential correspondence for signature; designing and creating correspondence, documents, presentations, orientation packages, and spreadsheets (including data entry) for authorization by the management team 
• Maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of all information which flows through, and is processed for management as it pertains to client care, operations
• Coordinates all administrative logistics for meetings including meeting minutes, events, education sessions, workshops, video conferences, and teleconferences including appropriate space, equipment, and materials.
• Arranges travel and accommodation by booking and confirming flights, vehicles, and hotel reservations

If you are an administrative professional or you are thinking about becoming an administrative assistant or executive assistant, then visit our website at https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca/category/administrative-jobs/602/21273/1

Pharmacy Technicians

Pharmacy Technicians are highly in demand at Interior Health and across the province in both the private sector (community pharmacies) and public sector (hospital pharmacies).

SOME TYPICAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Processes clinically reviewed and approved medication orders for distribution to a patient, client, or resident.
• Receives prescriptions (verbal and non-verbal) from practitioners and ensures that prescriptions are complete and authentic by performing duties such as verifying allergy status and/or demographics.
• Prepares and processes prescriptions by performing duties such as entering orders, counting, measuring, packaging or re-packaging medications and compounding various sterile pharmaceutical products according to established procedures.  Pre-packages oral, liquid and topical medications into unit-of-use format.
• Ensures the accuracy and completeness of dispensed prescriptions prepared by self or others by verifying order entries, and/or performing the final check of dispensed prescriptions.
• Processes prescriptions for temporary inpatient leave of absence by methods such as reviewing, translating and converting existing inpatient medication orders previously reviewed and approved by a pharmacist.
• Enters and ensures the accuracy and completeness of drug and personal health information in the pharmacy information system.
• Maintains department work areas by ensuring tidiness and order. Stocks pharmaceuticals, labels, containers and glassware in accordance with established procedures and standards.
• Other duties as required.

Pharmacy Technician is a well-paying job with flexible work hours and minimal educational requirements (ranging from four months to two years) – see requirements: 

• Completion of Grade 12.
• Graduation from an accredited Pharmacy Technician program.
• Current practicing registration as a Pharmacy Technician with the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia.

Pharmacy Technician is a great choice for a career change later in life or a starting point for ambitious students. To learn more about Pharmacy Technician careers at IH visit our website at: https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca

Rehabilitation Careers

Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Rehabilitation Assistants

Physiotherapy, occupational therapy and rehabilitation assistant careers are all about enabling those people who are temporarily or permanently disabled to be as independent as possible in their everyday lives. If you choose to pursue a career in this area, you will be helping people to regain their independence and mobility by using purposeful activity.  

Why is Rehabilitation work so important?

Everyday people find themselves in an unenviable position, where they can no longer do everything they used to do. This may be a result of ageing, an accident or prolonged illness.  Clearly, most people would like to return to how they were before. Although this is not always possible, it’s the job of physiotherapists and occupational therapists to help them get to a position where their independence and mobility is as good as it possibly can be.

Rehabilitation Services are provided in virtually every Interior Health site and community. Rehabilitation staff is widely dispersed across the healthcare continuum – from Prevention / Promotion and Home Health to Acute Care, Long-Term Care Services, and beyond.  Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy staff are also deeply embedded in numerous IH wide programs too numerous to mention. 

Physiotherapists:

Physiotherapists focus primarily on the musculoskeletal, neurological and cardio-respiratory systems to help patients walk and move freely after injury, recover mobility after illness or surgery, and manage chronic disease.   Most Physiotherapists work directly with patients in a wide variety of private and public settings, including private clinics, public out-patient clinics, hospitals, rehabilitation centres, sports facilities, home care programs, schools, long-term care facilities, community health centres, industry, government, universities and research facilities.

Occupational Therapists:

Occupational Therapy (OT) is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting health and well-being through occupation.  The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable participation in activities of daily living such as self-care, work, study, volunteerism, and leisure.  Occupational Therapists are generally employed in community agencies, health care organizations such as hospitals, chronic care facilities, rehabilitation centres and clinics, schools, social agencies, industry or are self-employed.  Some OTs specialize in working with a specific age group of disability such as arthritis, development coordination disorder, mental illness, or spinal cord injury. 

Rehabilitation Assistants:

Rehabilitation Assistants help Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Recreation Therapist, and/or Speech-Language Pathologists to promote, restore, maintain, and/or enhance a client’s level of functioning in the areas of mobility, self-care, productivity, leisure, and day-to-day activities. 

Nursing

Nurses are a valued and integral part of our organization; whether that's in the adrenaline charged environment of trauma or critical care, in acute in-patient units or working with clients in their homes, communities or long-term care settings.

Professionals in Registered Nurse careers come from a variety of backgrounds and bring vast knowledge, clinical and relational skill-sets to every area of practice. Our team of specialized acute and community nurses are caring, compassionate, friendly and highly committed to their profession.

What could be better than to work in an environment where you are able to:

• Be a health care ambassador
• Be a community leader
• Renew and develop new skills
• Be a mentor
• Be authentic and innovative
• Find your niche
• Make a difference in someone's life every day 

Nurses at all levels provide leadership and are involved in the decision-making in patient care. At Interior Health, Nursing skills, competencies and talents are supported in safe, collaborative and interdisciplinary environments that equip our Nurses to do what they do best – deliver safe and high quality patient care with compassion.

If you are interested in being part of the future of health care, Interior Health is the place for you.

To learn more about our nursing careers visit https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca/nursing

Medical Laboratory

We offer diverse and rewarding opportunities in our Laboratory sites across the Region. The Laboratory departments strive to provide safe, convenient, respectful and accessible laboratory services. Lab services include Cytology, Anatomical Pathology, Client Services, Microbiology, Chemistry, Hematology, Transfusion Medicine and Point of Care testing, STAT and on-call services. Our Laboratory professionals use their specialized skills to find answers that help diagnose and guide patient treatment and care.

Laboratory Technologists work in a team based environment, behind the scenes and perform a variety of duties within the laboratory such as:

• Routine and/or complex tests utilizing manual procedures and automated instruments
• Collecting and/or receiving specimens
• Entering data into the Laboratory Information System (LIS)
• Validating/reporting test results
• Set-up, cleaning and maintaining instruments
• Preparing solutions and control agents

Laboratory Assistants have more interaction with patients and perform a variety of duties within the Laboratory such as:

• Taking blood samples from patients
• Preparing blood and other specimens for analysis
• Performing routine lab tests
• Distributing specimens
• Operating related equipment
• Entering data into the Laboratory Information System (LIS)
• Performing Electrocardiogram (ECG) testing as required
• Performing related clerical duties.

Information Technology

Interior Health is recognized as an information management and technology leader within the province of B.C., has achieved many notable accomplishments and is well positioned to fully leverage its capabilities and fulfill its vision “To set new standards of excellence in the delivery of health services in the Province of British Columbia”.

Interior Health offers diverse and rewarding opportunities in our Information Management Information Technology (IMIT) department. The IMIT department is a dynamic team that provides information and support tools for those using clinical focused technology. 

IMIT professionals work in a team based environment, behind the scenes and perform a variety of duties within the IMIT department such as:

• Installing, planning, implementing and maintaining computerized business systems.
• Determining ongoing information needs, implementing system changes and providing support related to applicable computer applications.
• Designs, develops, implements and evaluates computerized business dictionaries, databases and reports using vendor software applications.

Qualifications: IMIT positions at Interior Health vary depending on the position. Please make sure to review the qualifications for each position carefully.

These professions are in very high demand at this time (especially in the Interior and Northern BC among other locations) and IH provides multiple career opportunities at many of our locations!

For more information please go to our website at https://jobs.interiorhealth.ca.