This month, Jessi Jones of the NSWOCC Membership Core Program interviewed Vida Johnston, Lead Academic Advisor, Skin Wellness Associate Nurse (SWAN) Program about her role with the Program, and about her outlook on the future of the SWAN Program. Read the interview below!
Vida Johnston, HBSc, BScN, RN, NSWOC, WOCC(C), has been a nurse since 1990. While working on a medicine ward in the early 2000s she participated in a pressure injury prevalence study. This experience encouraged her to do her wound, ostomy and continence training that she completed in 2005. She then went on to work as a wound, ostomy and continence consultant for long term and community care.
“Interacting with practical nurses (LPN/RPNs) in long term care, I saw the benefits of providing them knowledge, it empowers them to feel like they are making a difference for their patients”
Vida has been a part of the SWAN Program from the beginning. She participated in the development of the SWAN Program and was an academic advisor for the first cohort in January of 2020.
“I’m a big proponent of ‘give me a teachable moment’. I’ll teach anybody that will listen.”
She took over as leader of the Program in December of 2021. The Program has continued to expand since with 65 new students starting this January 2025 and an additional 90 students to start in February 2025 as part of the cohort supported by the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care's Skin and Wound Professional Growth Fund.
“Having the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care provide funding, acknowledging that we are providing speciality education that provides a lot of value...I am hoping this will spread across the country to other provinces too”.
She believes this influx of SWANs into long-term care in Ontario will have a huge impact. SWANs can help train & educate their co-workers. Long-term care homes with SWANs have wound prevention programs in place and are able to address issues before they become complex. They allow for more appropriate and efficient use of NSWOCs, allowing them to cover more area. She believes though that a big impact will also be in seen in continence care:
“We are seeing some stats from some long-term care homes and there is a reduction in body worn absorption products used because the staff have some knowledge, which is better for the staff, better for the patient and better for the facility...better for everybody.”
“I have had the distinct privilege of working with SWANs in my LTC homes and I see the huge difference that they make”
Future of SWANs
Vida is optimistic about the future of SWANs:
“We need the role to be recognized across the country by all employers, we are making baby steps with that. Long-term care homes need to see the value of having SWANs on their teams”.
Once the SWAN role is even more widely recognized across Canada, Vida would love to see SWAN research conducted to demonstrate the real impact that SWANs have in long-term, acute and community care.
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