We Are IH: Team lead celebrates over 40 years at Interior Health

From Barb’s perspective, every position in the hospital plays a crucial role in ensuring the smooth delivery of quality health-care services. 

“When you work in the hospital and you have a uniform on, a patient doesn’t care if you’re a dietary aid or a doctor. When they want help they want help, and I really enjoy that part. I just love helping people.”

During her over four decades of working for IH, Barb says there have been many highlights to reflect on. 

“For a lot of years, I was quite involved in my union and I’m proud of the work I did there. Working to resolve issues at a local level and working with management. And the other thing I did that I’m really proud of is the work I did developing the rotation specialist team. I had a wonderful director, Lee Vanmeter, and she really let me run with it and I think we developed a lot of really good policies and procedures.”

When Barb isn’t working, she relishes in leading an active lifestyle and savouring quality time with her family. 

“I do a lot of reading, I love to walk, I love to hike and spend time with friends going wine tasting,” she said. “And, of course, going to see my kids and my grandson.”

For anyone considering a career in health care, Barb says it’s all about passion. 

“I would say that you have to have a passion for helping people 24/7. If you don’t want to work shift work it might not be the best idea,” she jokes, “and you have to be compassionate, you have to be understanding, you have to be respectful and you have to listen. You have to listen to what your patients, clients and residents are saying to you. What worked for one person does not work for the next. Everybody is different.” 

“Des has worked tirelessly to ensure the proper coverage for all areas of IH Home Support Transformation. Developing areas of service so staff have less travel and more time for clients and better expenditure of our limited health-care dollars, as directed by the [Ministry of Health]. Working with managers, directors, IT, etc. to ensure our clients have full service and the proper number of staff are in place in order to provide optimum service in every IH community. She's a great listener and a wonderful co-worker.” – Barb Burke 

Have you thought about a career in home support at IH?

Explore career opportunities

Enjoyed this story?

Sign up to receive the Stories@IH email digest twice a week to your inbox.