Desi Today Magazine
By Surbhi Gogia
A new step in the direction of private home care for South Asians is on the way
Born in a Sikh family Dupinder(also known as Dimple) Kaur Saran has always known the importance of Seva. Seva translates to service in English. But in Sikhism it expands to much more than just its literal translation. It means serving humanity. When Dimple was opting for a career, she decided to become a nurse — a field that gave her opportunity to do Seva in true sense. She has been serving people of all ages from a new born to an old person for more than 20 years now.
After working as a registered nurse with Burnaby Hospital& Surrey Memorial Hospital, part ofFraser Health Authority, Dimple joined HealthLinkBC. It was during her job and while volunteering her time in the community working with Akal AcademySurreyand Guru Nanaks Free Kitchen, she came in contact with people and instances, where she realized the increasing need of private home care services for the South Asian population.
After years of thinking and planning she has finally launched Nurse on the Go initiative. Under this Dimple and her team will be offering home care services to the people in need.
There are already private as well as government organizations offering home care services to Canadians. In fact Home care is the fastest growing sector of Canadian health care due to an aging population, increasing number of immigrants plus increase in the number of people with chronic diseases. According to the Canadian Home Care Association there are one million Canadians receiving publicly funded home care services. Over 500,000 individuals are accessing private home care services.
While there is no dearth of such services, Dimple says her reason to launch one more is different. “Over the last 10 years, I was looking into launching something in healthcare. As I was volunteering, I realised we are lacking a health care facilities in the South Asian community. There are private initiatives that do serve South Asians but the operators may not have healthcare experience or they hire from different backgrounds and the person offering the service may not know the culture too well. They might be unaware of some of the problems culturally or even medically. There are language barriers too. With the Nurse On the Go business model, we are expecting to grow, expand & consider franchising.
Dimple quotes her own experiences as a nurse. “When South Asian patients see a nurse that understands their culture and speaks their language, they feel more comfortable, ” she says. All this encouraged her to launch Nurse on the Go.
She also asserts that her company will offer a wide variety of home care services which will not be limited to old age care. “Initially I was thinking just a private home health care company but as I was putting the whole plan together, I started realizing the need is much wider. There are people who come from light surgeries and need support at home. There are also new mothers who have C-sections and need someone to take care of their baby. Some people just need some light cleaning and cooking after surgeries. We want to give services to all those. We want to take care of a newborn and an old age person at the same time,” she explained.
For that reason, Nurse on the Go is on a recruitment drive to hire nurses, care aids, LPNs and even people who can do light jobs. To apply for registered nurses you need to be licensed with CRNBC, as an LPN you need to be registered with CLPNBC, a Care-Aid must be registered with BC Care Aide & Community Health Worker Registryandfor home support all you need is a grade 12 certificate and some background in healthcare or a related field like nanny, housekeeping etc.
As for the cost of the services is concerned, Dimple says she is a big supporter of affordability, so the cost would vary. “Since our care levels would vary from newborns and all the way to seniors our cost would vary too. We are not going to adopt one size fits all formula. We will have case managers to assess how much and for how long you need the care. If you need someone to do light cooking and cleaning, we will not charge you the cost of a nurse,” she explains.
To begin with Nurse on the Go will operate like a nursing company where nurses would be sent home for private healthcare but eventually, we would be collaborating with other private or non-profit organizations to expand the horizons.
Nurse on the GO was formally launched on April 21 and the recruitment drive has already begun. If you want to apply you can send resume to office@nurseonthego.ca
