SWH nurse practitioner internationally recognised
One of four health professionals to be recognised in 2010 for outstanding and significant service to the wound management sector and the general community within Australia and the Asia/Pacific, 800 delegates at this year’s National AWMA Conference got to hear about Terry’s contribution.
Endorsed in 2004 as one of Australia’s first nurse practitioners in her chosen speciality of wound management, Terry currently manages South West Healthcare’s innovative, nurse-led outpatient wound management clinic. There, she provides inpatient consultations and is a resource for the rest of the region. She also holds a number of positions on, state, national and international organisations; keynotes at national and international events; has published articles in professional journals; has authored a chapter in a book regarding wound management and is currently co-editor of a book to be published next year.
Terry started as an operating theatre nurse at SWH in 1993 before becoming a part-time wound management consultant in 1997. Thirteen years on, she’s assessed, dressed and treated thousands of wounds (burns, mostly, when it comes to children and mostly venous leg ulcers when it comes to adults), keynoted from Budapest to Johannesburg and been involved in ground–breaking treatment.
In Toronto in 2008 she became the second Australian to be elected to the International Wound Infection Institute. Now she is one of 13 AWMA Fellows. The other three awarded the same honor this year are former Australian of The Year, Professor Fiona Wood, known worldwide for her work with burns patients; Professor Michael Woodward, head of Austin Health’s Aged & Residential Care Centre, whose wound clinic is involved in research trials of new therapies for wound healing, and University of Western Australia’s Department of Podiatric Medicine Associate Professor Laurie Foley, responsible for research and numerous authored articles on The High Risk Foot and wound management.
photo 2010 Fellow of the Australian Wound Management Association, SWH's Terry Swanson.