Local healthcare worker receives BC Quality Award

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A local woman has been recognized for her work in healthcare.

Viva Swanson, a leadership development advisor in Northeast B.C. for Northern Health, won the Everyday Champion award from the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council for her work.

Swanson has taken on roles over the years that are outside her purview as a registered nurse and certified perinatal nurse specialist, including practical project management and leadership development.

“Viva’s work, and really her soul, are rooted in Fort St. John, and she looks for opportunities to benefit others and their communities,” said Peter Martin, project leader, Workforce Sustainability, Housing and Childcare Initiatives for Northern Health. 

“Viva has demonstrated dogged persistence in addressing the needs of others. She combines a love of others with a creative approach that consistently searches for opportunities to forward the initiative that she is working on.”

During her decades-long career, Swanson has led many key care initiatives in the northeast, such as providing clinical support for designing and constructing the Peace Villa long-term care home.

According to the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council, she worked on initiatives that brought better care for parents and families. Swanson also took an innovative approach to increase vaccination rates for rural, remote and vulnerable people during the pandemic.

“I try every day to be the best version of myself,” said Swanson, “I’m an early adopter with a significant case of FOMO (fear of missing out)!”

The council said she was the executive lead for Northern Health’s Perinatal program and helped improve quality in Northern Health’s rural and northern communities.

In 2013, Fort St. John lost 13 family physicians. In collaboration with the North Peace Division of Family Practice, Swanson led the implementation of a new prenatal clinic, and in months, she had the clinic operational, opening in January 2014.

Because of the success of that clinic, she was asked to be the project lead for a similar clinic for unattached patients. Again in collaboration with the North Peace Division of Family Practice, Swanson and her team opened the unattached patient clinic in July 2014.

To learn more about Swanson’s many accomplishments, visit her page on the council’s website.

The BC Quality Awards celebrate the work that has improved healthcare quality across the province. It includes five excellence-in-quality categories for projects and four categories that recognize inspiring individuals.

The council lists the award winners and runners-up on its website.