Allied health professionals

Video title: BC Health Careers – Practicing as a social worker in British Columbia

[Describer] An aerial view moving forward over a community in BC’s interior, surrounded by mountains, during winter. 

[Narrator] Internationally trained healthcare professionals are coming to British Columbia, including those working in Allied Health. Katie is a social worker from Oklahoma. 

[Text] 2,578 km to BC. Katie appears on-screen. 

[Text] Katie, Social Worker MSW, RSW 

[Katie] Safety was very important for us just because being part of the LGBT+ community and having a young child, it was very important for us to always feel like we were safe, but to make sure he was safe as our priority. And that is exactly what we felt like here.  

[Describer] Katie spending time walking with her family of three through a small town with character. They look up together at a clock tower with an animatronic man peering out of a window above the clock. 

[Katie] It’s almost hard to describe Kimberly, except for a place that does feel like home if you’re away from home. And it was almost this feeling of relief and calm that kind of came over us. 

[Narrator] She sees the benefit of working within a patient-first, universal healthcare system. 

[Describer] Clips of Katie working one-on-one with a client, talking on-screen, driving in a rural area, and looking up while standing facing her city in the distance. 

[Katie] I am usually used to working with people who, in the last few years of their life, they have lost all their money trying to pay for whatever illness or diagnosis or disease that they have. A lot of my patients, they don’t have to struggle as much about how their bills are going to be paid. It’s a wonderful thing through universal health care. 

[Text] Patients don’t have to struggle 

[Narrator] Some allied health professionals in British Columbia, who are unionized and work in the public sector, benefit from competitive pay, pensions, extended health coverage, and paid parental leave. 

[Describer] Katie sitting at her desk while talking to a couple of colleagues. 

[Text] Competitive pay, pensions, extended health coverage, paid parental leave. 

[Katie] I would say, especially with working in the hospitals, they care about the social work opinion here. Even the managers, they want to see how holistically can we help this patient.  

[Describer] Visuals alternate of hospital building exterior and interior areas including signage and ambulance parking. Then Katie appears talking on-screen. 

[Katie] I think working with other allied health professionals is really just a holistic approach to how we’re helping patients. I know who they are. We all are in personal contact with each other. It’s not this huge system where I don’t know everyone. We’re all connected. 

[Describer] Aerial view of Kimberley, BC. 

[Text] 70+ disciplines in allied health. 

[Describer] Different visuals of Kimberley BC, including Katie walking along a hiking trail, bowling with her family, working with colleagues, talking on-screen. 

[Narrator] With more than 70 disciplines, allied health professionals offer a range of diagnostic, preventative, and hands-on therapies and clinical support. As a vital part of healthcare teams, they improve lives across the province every day. For Katie and many others, the decision to move and the reception within British Columbia has been positive. 

[Katie] There are some very big differences with being a social worker. We are more involved in certain things, like with a guardianship case. We would be the ones investigating, and that’s not usually the case. So we get to see first on what’s happening with our patient. I feel like my work finally means something. I feel like I’m the one that’s making, you know, a bigger impact, and they’remaking a bigger impact on me. 

[Describer] Connect with a Health Recruitment Specialist.