Constance Alexa Swinton

From Tofield to the Top of the World Constance Alexa Swinton

Connie's career in public health nursing spans more than four decades and circumnavigates the globe. She has worked with the Victorian Order of Nurses, taught at the University of Toronto, been a consultant to Health Canada, and, with CIDA and other organizations, shared her public health expertise and leadership in countries around the world. She has served in rural Alberta, in the mountain regions of Nepal, in the deserts of Sudan, in Vietnam in the 1970s during the war, in Pakistan during the assassination of a president, and on less dramatic projects in Indonesia, and Thailand. Her story is in many ways a history of the delivery of health services here in Canada and of Canada's international role in raising standards of health care in the developing world. As a young nurse she delivered health care in northern Alberta on horseback or motorized train push-pull cart. She was a VON supervisor for the prairie provinces during the heated debates around Medicare. As a seasoned nurse in the early days of birth control, her grey hair made her the School of Nursing's choice to ensure that essential course material got through customs without being labelled pornographic. And shortly before retirement, she made days-long hikes to remote health posts in Nepal, carrying Canadian expertise in public health to desperately needy populations.