Canada West Veterinary Specialists Employee Reviews

It is listed as the responsibility of assistants to train new assistants because the turn over is extremely high. Still new people will be training slightly newer people before probation is even over. There is virtually no support from your supervisor and problems don’t get addressed. Burnout is very high, the pay is not worth the stress. It is cliquey and management picks favourites, you will not advance in your career if HR does not like you personally. This job can ruin your mental health and then they will blame you for it.

Pros

meaningful work with animals in need

Cons

management, Hr, burnout, poor staff retention

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Terrible place to work

Veterinary Technician (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 18 September 2023

If you love the veterinary profession don't come here. It's like working in a highschool with a large bully environment and management turns a blind eye. No trust, unclean, very understaffed and underappreciated. No time off am expected to stay late and harassed for overtime a lot.

Pros

Ok pay for technicians

Cons

No breaks, long shifts, bad shift patterns.

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Insights into Canada West Veterinary Specialists

Based on 10 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
Ability to learn new things
Supportive environment

Areas for improvement

Inclusive work environment
Support from manager
Ability to meet personal goals

Overworked and underpaid

Veterinary Assistant (Former Employee) - British Columbia - 13 June 2023

The animals are not getting the care they need because of lack of staff or over worked staff caring for high intensity cases. The pay is minimal, not enough for a single person to advance in life. Your mental health will deplete working there. Coworkers will talk down to you if you make mistakes. There is no accountability for people’s bad attitudes. You must advocate for yourself because you will be pushed to the absolute edge. Never have I disliked a job as much as this one and it’s sickening how much advantage this place will take of animal lovers. SO overpriced for clients.

Pros

Caring for animals who need it

Cons

Long hours, low pay and high work load

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Not enough pay for the stress

Vet assistant in emergency department (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 9 January 2023

For the emergency department, which is extremely fast paced and tough to begin with, the main problems that arise are all to do with the general attitude and catty-ness of the staff. A few people in question are very condescending towards questions and or minor mistakes, even when just starting out there. Training was lacking so there is no excuse to be rude for asking a general question. Pay could also be better for what you have to deal with, namely the stress and the attitude of the staff.

Pros

Great learning opportunity, and doctors are fantasic

Cons

12 hour shifts typically by default, pay could be better, work life balance is rough

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Awful, don’t work there

Patient Care Assistant (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 17 November 2022

Awful place to work. They don’t care about your well being or mental health. Shifts were not split fairly. If you are competent you will spend your time on overnights.

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Not the best job for a vet assistant

Patient Care Assistant (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 28 July 2022

Unfriendly staff, management doesn’t care about problems going on, hierarchy between techs and assistants, assistants are basically kennel attendants and cannot do most of the things taught at school, pay is not enough for how we are treated and you cannot even afford to live when working 40+ Hours a week

Pros

Free lunches sometimes and cute animals

Cons

Pay, staff, Hr, 30 min break on 10.5hr shift

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Short term for most staff

Technician (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 31 August 2021

The hospital, veterinarians and technicians are amazing people. The issue is leadership and HR. There is an extreme lack of professionalism and experience. The general manager operates more as a CEO and is very hands-off day to day. The day-to-day is left to a very inexperienced team. The hospital would operate better if there is a specific trained manager in place.There is a huge turnover of Staff which puts a burden on everybody else in the hospital with a constant revolving door. The hospital should be offering more than two weeks vacation and three sick days per year. This is just not acceptable this day and age. The hospital should put more effort into retaining staff than recruitment.

Pros

Training

Cons

Long hours, poor benefits

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Great Place to learn and grow

Patient Care Assistant (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 26 May 2020

If you are seeking a future in the Veterinary Industry Canada West is a great place to work. Everyday is a new learning opportunity and the company really supports growth with their Veterinary Technician Junior program. Everyone I worked with is friendly and supportive.

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Very stressful

Veterinary Technician (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 23 January 2020

Canwest is an incredible place. everyone are very compassionate and they do their best. Unfortunately, it’s a very competitive environment, and you don’t receive a feedback properly from your supervisor on time.

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Misleading management and obvious favouritism

Veterinary Technician ICU/ERCC (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 19 September 2019

I worked at CanWest for just over a year as a technician. During that time, I saw multiple technicians and assistants come and go, and at first I wasn't sure why. When hired, management draws this incredible picture of a happy work environment, great wages, a 4 day on 3 day off week and rotating schedules, which none is true. To start - Scheduling. You can be rotating from overnights (9pm-7am) to evenings (7pm-5am) and they claim you have not worked 6 months of overnights. They'll also rotate you "weekends" from Thur-Sun to Sat-Wed and claim that as rotating weekends. Evening/ Overnight and Weekend staffs do not get to attend many of the CE offered since it's always during their night and during the week, which was a huge issue for me since I was trying to grow my career. Every technician hired will go through this, and based on how much the scheduler likes you, you could potentially get a change in shift, but it's highly unlikely. Evenings and overnights are equipped with 1 (maybe 2) doctors to take care of the whole hospital, which means most of the staff are doing mass amounts of overtime and called in on their days off to help with the work load. The care lacks on overnights because there simply isn't enough staffing. Hope to work during the day or in a service (or request it early on) or you will be massively overworked. Pay is adequate. If you look at all the overtime you will do and the "premiums" you receive by working at night, you make slightly more than any other vet tech in Vancouver. Your lifestyle will however suffer and you won't necessarily advance -

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Jobs at Canada West Veterinary Specialists

Veterinary Receptionist - Internal Medicine

Veterinary Technician

Vancouver, BC

30+ days ago

Emergency Veterinary Assistant

Vancouver, BC

30+ days ago

HR doesn't care about your life outside of work, will work you raw

PCA (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 30 May 2019

I worked there for over a year and I have to say it was just awful. Most of the staff are very nice but management only cares about meeting their financial goals. They care very little about individual mental and physical health. The hospital itself is very very clique. Every department is tight knit and they don't communicate between departments well. They pay is awful and it's very difficult to make enough to support yourself alone. The hours are very long and they leave you no choice but to accept the shifts they offer. I was hired to work a Monday to Friday set shift; needless to say it didn't happen that way. They changed the shift times a month after they hired me and I either had to accept it or quit. The amount of effort and work I put into the company did not feel equal to what I was being asked to do, and what I was being paid for. Very little individual recognition or room for career growth.

Pros

Occasionally free lunches

Cons

Long hours, rude management, disorganized work environment, low pay

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Hard to have mantain a life balence

Patient Care Assistant (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 2 May 2019

-4 days on, 3 days off is nice -irregular hours -good people -lunch and supper are sometimes provided which is nice. -Caring staff -room to move up

Pros

educational

Cons

open 24 hours, low pay

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Amazing experience

Veterinary Assistant/Receptionist (Former Employee) - Burnaby, BC - 18 May 2018

My time with Canada west was short but insane! I got to be a part of so many ground breaking treatment options and talented, knowledgeable vets that really do care deeply about their patients and clients

Pros

All the cute animals

Cons

Long shifts

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Amazing medicine, terriable work/life balance/work culture

Veterinary Technician (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 29 October 2017

There are a lots of little things that come up that HR doesn't tell you about. Very different work environment from day (when services are on & full staffed) to night/evening. Support staff are not nearly well paid enough for the sweat, blood and tears they are putting in.