We’re wrapping up our National Nursing Week celebration by highlighting Viva Swanson, Executive Director, Nursing – Minimum Nurse to Patient Ratio (mNPR) Implementation.
Describe your own personal/professional transformation throughout your educational journey?
It’s been an incredible journey! I was born and raised in Prince George and have spent the entirety of my nursing career in Northern BC. After completing my two-year nursing diploma at College of New Caledonia in 1989, I started my nursing career at the Houston Health Centre as a new grad. I worked as a casual nurse, partnered with one of the family practice physicians, to cover weekends on-call.
Shortly thereafter, I moved to Smithers and started working as a casual nurse at the Bulkley Valley District Hospital. It was there that I fell head over heels in love with perinatal nursing. We had around 350 deliveries a year in those days, and a beautiful labour and delivery room that positioned the birthing bed so moms could look through that huge picture window at Hudson’s Bay Mountain. It was the perfect setting to grow and develop as a novice maternity nurse. That experience truly set the trajectory for the rest of my nursing career.
Inspired by all things rooted in maternal child health, I pursued my BCIT Advanced Specialty Nursing Certificate in Perinatal Nursing and applied those credits towards my Bachelor of Science in Nursing via distance education. All of this while moving to Fort St. John, getting married, and starting a family of my very own!
Though my first love has always been perinatal health, I have a keen interest in continuous quality improvement and projects dedicated to improving the lived experience of the patients we serve. I have worked on organizational initiatives such as nursing recruitment, building clinical information systems, supporting nursing computer literacy in preparation for the onboarding of an electronic health charting system, and I served as the Clinical Lead for the design and construction of the Fort St. John Hospital & Peace Villa development project. That was truly the biggest baby I ever helped deliver!
On this last leg of my nursing career, I started working as the NH Executive Director, Nursing Minimum Nurse to Patient Ratio (mNPR) Implementation. This initiative is truly taking me back to my roots in professional practice and allowing me to apply a lifetime accumulation of nursing knowledge, leadership skills, and advocacy for safe, quality patient care. This initiative will be transformational as a commitment to a quality practice learning environment that will improve the patient’s experience, empower nurses to find joy in their work life, and serve to both retain and recruit nurses in our province. I am so excited to participate in an initiative of this magnitude, the first of its kind in all of Canada, and influence the evolution of nursing across our province and country.
Can you share a specific example of how you have witnessed or contributed to the transformation of health in your community?
An example that comes to mind is the launch of the prenatal clinic that is co-located with the Fort St. John Hospital Birthing Centre. I worked with a very creative, collaborative, and committed team of professionals that knew that an innovative solution was required to meet the needs of pregnant mothers in Fort St. John.
During the summer of 2013, our city experienced a significant loss of family practice physicians in the community which resulted in a growing volume of unattached pregnant patients in need of care. The clinic was set up with a new model of care where a pool of family practice physicians covered the clinic, outpatient assessments, deliveries, and postpartum care in a rotation. This new model served to standardize care in the single clinic setting, incorporating registered nurses, public health nursing, and a multidisciplinary allied health team.
Though it took some time for the community to adjust from their previous experience of having their own family doctor provide oversight and delivery of pregnancies, the clinic continues to grow with the addition of nurse practitioners and obstetricians. The greatest impact, aside from ensuring all pregnant women in Fort St. John had access to prenatal care, was a substantial decrease in the cesarean section rate, which caught the attention of other communities across Northern BC and the rest of the province.
What motivates you to continue in the nursing profession, especially during challenging times?
I simply love nursing! I didn’t know it was where I would spend my life, as I had always pictured myself as a kindergarten teacher or a linguistic interpreter for the United Nations, but nursing found me! In May 1985, my dad was admitted to Prince George Regional Hospital (now UHNBC) with a heart attack, which really scared me. While at the hospital, a young ICU nurse saw my fear and took care of me while she simultaneously took incredible care of my dad. Thankfully he recovered, and I walked away thinking that I would love to be a nurse just like her. Generations have experienced challenges before us and will do so long after we are gone. I want to be a part of making it better.
How do you see the role of nurses evolving in the next decade, particularly in the context of transforming health care?
Nurses represent the largest profession of health care providers within health care. They will continue to expand their scope of practice as health care evolves, technology grows, and the complexity of patient care needs shift. I believe nursing will continue to be one of the strongest voices in patient advocacy, to innovate, to test theories and apply our unique lens to the progress, growth, and development of health care in our region, province, and country. The minimum nurse to patient ratio initiative is a prime example of how nursing will transform health care in BC over the next 10 years.
Can you describe a moment when you felt that your work as a nurse made a significant impact on a patient's life?
One never truly knows the impact they have on another, but sometimes we are gifted with the kind words of others who bravely share their experience under your care. A few years ago, I was approached by a lovely woman at a local golf tournament who said she didn’t think I would remember her from her hospital visit in the late 1990s, but she clearly remembered me. She shared what she remembered of her admission to the hospital as she experienced the loss of her first pregnancy, the night she spent in my care, and the conversations we shared. She became tearful when she said that she had always hoped she would see me again one day to say thank you, and she wanted me to know that she had since safely delivered three healthy babies, and was thankful that she was not alone when she lost her first.
Thank you nurses!
Thanks so much to Viva for sharing her story! Happy National Nursing Week to all NH nurses. We thank you for your transformative work in our Northern communities every day!
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