infirmier

infirmier auxiliaire autorisé

préposé au service de soutien personnel

assistant de soins en gérontologie

agent instructeur

VON Canada

In visiting nursing expect to run, especially on evenings! You have a start time, but never know when you will end. The nice thing is your day can be varied and you really can learn a lot in a short amount of time. The older nurses or those that had been there a year or so really would do their best to help everyone out, especially the new staff. That was really nice when you were being sent to new clients all the time or you ran into something you couldn’t figure out. It was a nice team to work with that team of nurses for the first few years, then the staff changed so much, we had to work such long hours and with so many clients that no one had time to help anyone else. The managers I had initially were amazing and super supportive. They appreciated the work you did and would take time out to thank you for your hard work or how great you did on a client’s care. If a client or their family took the time to call in to share positive feedback, they would share it with you and celebrate it with the other staff by email….they even had an appreciation program that just made you love coming to work. It made you want to do more for them.

Then the management changed to two older managers with very unrealistic expectations and a younger less experienced manager. When more then half the staff quit, that was telling!! There never was any work life balance, but it got worse. The “8” hour days that I worked 12 to 13 hours became “12” hour days where I got so burnout and had so much pain that it was hard to continue, which I didn’t understand at the time. Those days became “16+” hours by the time I was home. ….for those that got home early, they weren’t finishing their work at the visit, they waited until they got home for free, so their visit times weren’t accurate at all. Their reports, and ordering supplies….or there were some that just left everything for the other nurses that would do the reports and ordering to complete them…..super appreciated and nice for them that their visits were short when they were doing less then half the work….for me and the others that were seen as slow to complete….when you hear comments like send this nurse here because he/she will fix that billing issue and send in those reports from the office staff it’s nice they appreciate you, but now you have double the work to do, then get in trouble because you were slow ….something that would normally take 15 minutes max became 2 reports and one to two long phone calls to beg the care coordinator to pay the company for the visits that were made when the block was expired or there were no more visits left, because the information was not up to date and there were 4 different nurses that saw that person in the last week that didn’t know the client at all…plus a call to the doctor. The appreciation program was no more, replaced with abusive emails about metrics and how bad we were doing as a whole. Talk about demotivating!! Most of the managers had hearts when the nurses were dealing with personal tragedies in their lives and through it all still coming to work. There was always that one that would take the time out of her day to berate you for whatever reason she had that day. Yes, because that will make me move faster, being overworked and under appreciated. The upside was that she must have been talked to at some point because the abusive emails eventually stopped to everyone, she would only send private emails after that. 

Then I moved to shift nursing. Management in that area is quite good and appreciated their staff. There was lots of learning if you want it, not as much as visiting, but the skills you used were much less. The shifts were long because there wasn’t much to do and mostly nights. The day shifts often got cancelled and nothing was put in place of them, so your other cheques were rarely what I figured on from my original schedule. That made it hard to pay my bills. Eventually I left for that exact reason, after warning them I would have to look for other work if my hours didn’t increase.

When I first started working with VON, I loved it, but as the years went on the long hours in visiting nursing, constant changes to my schedule and very little consistency caused me to burnout. My initial managers were wonderful, but as they changed so did the moral. It was extremely difficult to get days off, some of the schedules had me working long hours a day for 6 to 7 day stretches as a part time employee with few days. Work life balance was none existent. This is not a 8 hour a day job, no matter what is told to you in visiting nursing. You know your start time, but the end time varies, as nurses quit the hours per day and clients to see rose with that. Not every nurse wants to race through care and that unfortunately caused my days to be extremely long, with no breaks except the time to drive from client to client. It was nice that you could schedule your day, but that day could be changed many times throughout the day, sometimes even before you started. Calling the night before to make client visits sounded great in theory, but in reality it wasted hours of my time the night before to plan my day for it to be changed the next morning, sometimes with completely different people if there was shortages in an area due to call ins, which were many by the end of my time working in that department. Shift nursing or Advanced Care Program nursing was better. Management was better, you knew how many hours you would be working in a day, but if your client was in respite or cancelled for whatever reason then you may not have any scheduled hours for that day and would have to wait because a client could be scheduled to you at the last minute. That’s fine if you have a schedule of all days, but the reality is that when you first start out you will likely be all nights. This means you have to sleep during the day in case you are called into work at 9 to 11pm at night. If you aren’t, you slept all day for nothing and get no pay. This happens more often then I was initially told, and then I would be asked to work my days off constantly. It can also be difficult to sit in someone’s house for 7 to 9 hours a day providing care, often being videotaped. In some homes not much care is provided on the night shifts, days is better.  The clients are wonderful in every area and it was very nice to have benefits even for part time employees as long as you chose a line with enough days worked.  The education that I got from this company was phenomenal when I started in visiting nursing and was good in acp/shift nursing, which I really liked!

When i first started wirh the von i thought it was amazing. I love working on my own and i love the one on one care i share with clients. Now the downfall. Once you are in the von life and see how things go you wont be happy. You are targeted by the csas from the ones who dont like you. They need to feel a sense of power giving you a undesirable schedule and often being spoken down too like you are stupid. Once you are targeted for whatever reason you remain targeted. Feels like high school drama. Its not fair the people who didnt emotionally mature enough as adults so they take there vindictive attitude on us. Csas do not help ccas at all. Any question given is met with what too bad for you kid figure it out yourself.  Managment is very ignorant to what js going on in peoples lifes and could care less long as the clients are seen. They work us too much one day off a week then next week having a whopping two days off in a row doesnt help a person out. You dont see your family, its hard to maintain your house, you want to play with your kids but you are so tired and torn then before you know it your day off is gone and back at er again for another 4 days.And they wonder why people quit and are so burnt out. The only thing i love about my job is my clients. Some managment isnt bad but i think to get the place healthy as it should be would remove toxic people from that setting. Especially a few csas. It doesnt matter if you work yourself to death volunteering for callbacks, picking up extra clients, nothing. Csas will still walk all over you with there hands clean cause managment takes there side over a cca's. Also you will not just face bullying from csas but other co workers as well who are immature and imtimidated. I get along with most of the girls ive known for years but like in any bunch there is bad apples. Dont be pretty, kind, and show you geuniely love your job cause one cca will make you feel incompetent at the end of a 2 person visit. If you want this job trust no one and keep your head down and you will be okay. Or be cold and rough with patients cause ive seen that before on the job and its from the workers whos been doing it for years.

Spent a number of years working in hospital in various departments and I can confidently say VON home care nursing is a substantial improvement from the stresses of hospital-based work and high acuity environments. VON comes with it's own types of stress - high workload demands, overtime, problem solving and working alone, challenging ergonomics for protecting your back/body due to being in people's homes, and at times poor consideration for the time frame required to complete assigned visits (i.e. not being allotted enough time to properly complete what is required of you). However, that said, you aren't penalized for going "over time," it just impacts how your day is planned and creates unnecessary hiccups for everyone in managing the workload. Because of time constraints, nurses often overlook some details in client care - determining time required for care needs, keeping supplies organized in the home, creating appropriate supply orders, communicating things to the oncoming nurses via the CSAs, etc. You send a LOT of emails in the run of the day. There are minor inefficiencies in the system, such as having to look up doctor fax numbers on your own, chasing people for orders, etc. The nurses who work for VON are fantastic and everyone is so quick to help one another out with questions etc. Management is supportive as they can be, given the constraints they are also put under. Working in people's homes is amazing - people are so friendly, welcoming and appreciative of the services provided. You keep your skills up to date. I would recommend having some level of nursing experience before going into this job so you can be confident in the care you're providing. Overall, I highly recommend trying VON and seeing if it is for you.

My first VON experience was as a 3rd year Nursing student during my community placement. My preceptor was knowledgeable, patient and supportive. I gained confidence in my skills and had my eyes opened to what a community nurse does in the run of a day (I had no idea). I then graduated and took a position in acute care. After 3 years I applied for a position at VON and was successful. Training with the nurses was appropriate, I felt well prepared to be on the road independently when orientation was complete. I was told by many coworkers to call if I had any questions at all and there was a site educator I could always reach out to. I felt very supported. I was happy to make the transition from acute care to community care because providing care to people in their homes felt more personal to me than in a facility. I knew there were still many people to see and often felt the pressure of workload however I was able to be with one client at a time and felt the client could feel they were the center of care. I was also practicing more to my specific to my scope in community than I was in the hospital. A major benefit to moving to VON was not working nights. Recently I have moved to a management position with VON. I find this position challenging. When I graduated I knew a goal of mine would to work in management someday because I really like continuous improvement, customer service and supporting people to accomplish their goals. I am very new in this position. The management team at VON has been very supportive. I have really enjoyed working at VON for the work life balance and support of coworkers. VON does great work for clients and communities and it is nice to hear individual VON stories and feel pride to be part of such a wonderful organization.

VON- Middlesex Elgin, was the worst place I have ever worked.  Bullying by management, no holidays (they say you get 3 weeks at hire, but wont approve any of them).  Pressuring you to do 17 clients a day, and expect you to do each one in half hour with no travel time in between, which is impossible so you end up working a 13hr day just to see all of your clients, as they wont take any off your schedule and if you don't go to one they will write you up and report you to the CNO for "patient abandonment".
16 nurses short staffed the whole time I was employed (1.5yr).  Revolving door of staff, including management.  The visiting nurse program is so unorganized that we went through 3 managers and 3 clinical educators in 1.5 years.  CEO of the company would come to our site to talk to us about our "nursing crisis" and try and find out how to fix it, but wouldn't listen to any of the nurses concerns.     When it came to clients there was absolutely no consistency.  One day I would be in my designated area (north/east london) the next Id have a full 17 patients in St. Thomas and surrounding area, where I had never even been before, without any warning, until the morning of, and would also been given an 0800 time specific client, that I would then be late for because Id have to drive 45min to get there without warning, and it would throw your hole day off.  
Would get sent into extremely dangerous situations, buildings, with extreme criminal activity and when you try to tell your manager that you dont feel comfortable going, they continue to schedule you and if you refuse you get wrote up for "patient abandonment".
Was just literally the worst 1.5 years of my life, and the only reason I stayed was because I was straight out of school, they hired me ft and I could not get another job without the experience.  Got out of there as soon as I could.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The only thing I can say about working for Von that is good that the clients are so happy to see me so appreciative of having me there and I have to do a lot of things to give the care that I give

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful is that you have to call your clients the night before on your day off figure out your own schedule. Your own time management doesn’t sound like a big deal when it’s your day off. It’s a big deal. The work phone is quite annoying having to put the passwords in While you’re constantly in the phone password is always needed working for a month now I was promised full-time hours my fourth week. I’ve got no hours looking for a new job. Pay is well. Seems like the union protects those again who don’t really wanna work. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Well I’ve not been invited to anything. I’ve only met a couple of people in the office and what other worker I was told I had to get on the good side of the ladies in the office who sent out the work get on their good side, and you won’t have any problems For weeks and I don’t have much work this week. I did something there’s a problem. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
my day starts night before obnoxiously. I have to get my work phone out figure out a schedule time management and call the people that I have to visit the next day my time. It’s the invasion of my free time. I don’t get paid for the day off. I go out and I visit everybody, listen to their complaints of Von In employees all day long

I came to VON because I was tiring of stale air, florescent lights, long shifts, night shifts and hospital life in general.  I still look back fondly on my days in acute care; the experience gained, positive impact on client's and their families and the amazing friendships that I made but I have made the best imaginable choice by joining the VON family.

I literally cried tears of joy when I made the change.  Ugly, happy tears while I told my husband about my joyful new work days.  Things like watching a client tend her garden pots prior to helping her administer insulin, providing wound care in one of the most beautiful homes that I've ever stepped foot in, having a picnic lunch in the sun, watching wildlife, sunsets, the tide come in, and cranking my tunes to clear my head between clients.

During my orientation, I was greeted by the most friendly staff, managers and volunteers.  I was given a cool new device to work on, a beautiful nursing bag, and all of the resources that I needed to learn my new community nursing role.  My mentors were so chill and lovely.  Their client's were like family and they accepted me too!  I learned to hang IV on a plant hook and I just absolutely loved the McIver elements of the job.

This company is always changing and trying to improve what they do because that's what you need to do to survive in Healthcare...change keeps you young, and as far as I am concerned, so does working at VON!!

I have worked as an LPN for VON for almost 2 years. This is a fantastic place to work! Yes there is lots of hours but I would rather have lots of hours then having no hours and wondering how my bills are being paid .. if there is mandated overtime it is usually an hour or less.. I can count on one hand how many times I was mandated to stay passed my shift. If you follow the correct processes and reach out to management than you don’t need to work as much as some let on. I have small kids and VON helps me with my work life balance. My shift starts at 8 and most nursing jobs start at 7 so I am always able to send my kids off to school. If I need to go to an appt or pick up a sick kid from scho I have the ability to do that on my break, etc. If I want to run to Tim’s and grab a coffee I can do that anyway.. it’s the small things with this job that give the most freedom. As for the work of this job it is a very rewarding to be able to care for people in their home. You always have one on one with them and you do a lot of advocating for them. You use plenty of skills and there is tons of educational opportunities. They have a dedicated nurse educator which helps lots. Even though you work independently there’s is always a conworker or manager you can call for help or a question. The CSAs in the office are very nice and they as well have a different kind of stressful job. If you give people respect you will get it in return. The nurse managers are very great and are usually available anytime. If they aren’t available they will get back to you in a reasonable time. I feel very fortunate to work for VON and client care is always a priority for them.

I will start this with, community nursing isn't everyones cup of tea, and that is okay. However community nursing is amazing if you do enjoy it and it is a place to thrive.

I am thankful for my job and the flexibility of not having to do 12 hour shifts. Typically our shifts is 8-4 and 3-11, we have roughly 4-6 evening shifts every four weeks and the rest are days (however if you want evenings, there is usually someone wanting to switch). You typically have your assignments the night before your shift (or by 12pm for evenings) which gives you lots of time to review. Our clients can range from pediatric to seniors, lots of variety and opportunities for respites. 

Management does their best to support you, however the best support is your coworkers. Always a call away and amazing people.

The workplace can be stressful however this is common for nursing unfortunately. There is overtime and often mandated however it is managable compared to working at the hospital or LTC and being mandated to stay past a 12 hour shift.

The hardest part of the job is the stress, however if you can deal with it and manage the same well. Then you are golden.

The best part of the job is the opportunities, being able to train new hires, our clients are amazing. I enjoy the 1:1 time with clients and families. I feel grateful and satisified at the end of the day more often than not. It is rewarding to be in the community. It is exciting. Co workers are amazing, lots of opportunity for education. We also get paid the same as the hospitals do which is an added bonus.

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