Women of the Year: Sally Johnson uses her 50-plus years as nurse to care for Spokane’s underserved

At age 75, Sally Johnson has no plans to retire. A nurse for 53 years, she cares for Spokane patients being treated for opioid use disorder.

Johnson, also a certified mental health professional, works at the Spokane Regional Stabilization Center. Coordinated by Pioneer Human Services, the site offers immediate support and intervention for people experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis.

“I like to help people who haven’t had a good chance in life, some who have come from being abused, bad families,” said Johnson.

She said many patients live on the streets, so she will offer footbaths and basic care. She provides Suboxone treatments, a drug for blocking opioid cravings. If that is tolerated, she administers Sublocade, a once-monthly shot with a similar effect.

“Every once in a while, I’ll see somebody on the street and they’ll come up, give me a hug and say, ‘Sally, you saved my life.’ That’s why I’m still working, because I get so much out of it.”

Allison Tykocki, friend and coworker, described Johnson as a servant leader whose impact will be felt for generations.

“Her life-long commitment to nursing, mentorships and community care makes her not only a role model, but a true pillar of compassion and integrity,” Tykocki said. “She embodies the spirit of women of the year.”

Each Christmas, Johnson goes downtown to give out “goodie bags” she has made. For women, she will pack feminine hygiene products, a comb, mittens, a sandwich and Christmas cookies. Her men’s gifts can have socks, soap, mittens and food snacks.

As she delivers the gifts, “People will say, ‘Sally, how are you doing?’ They’re good people. They just have tough lives.”

Johnson faced a tough path herself early in life, when she became pregnant at age 17 and finished her high school degree by correspondence.

“Somehow I got into nursing school, and my son and I got through it,” she said. “I took him to school in a wagon, because I had no car.”

She attributes people’s kindness to her in those days for why she loves being a nurse.

“I’ve always felt compassionate to help others,” she said. “I think that comes from having my son and being on my own for so long, and people would help me. I’ve always wanted to give back.

“I remember having to ask people for a quarter to ride the bus. I was embarrassed, but people were kind.”

She and her son, who went to a campus day care, were on their own. She completed a two-year nursing degree at the University of Nebraska in 1972.

There, she met and then married a medical student. They later had a daughter and another son.

The couple first came to Spokane for his internship at Deaconess in 1973, and Johnson also worked there as a nurse. After he finished, they moved to work at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

She volunteered at the Womack Army Medical Center. “It’s where I got my American Red Cross pin, because I worked for free for two years in an ear, nose, and throat clinic.”

Next, the couple moved to Cincinnati. That is where Johnson in 1976 entered what became decades-long nursing work for dialysis patients, when the procedure and machinery were relatively new.

“There was no outpatient dialysis then; it was all in the hospital with one-to-one patient care,” she said. “It was just the beginning of dialysis.

“At first, I’d spend eight hours with a patient. The treatments were long and the machines were big. We got to know patients very well.”

She worked one shift with kids who came in after school. “It was hard, but I liked it. The kids all formed their own group.”

Recently, one of her Spokane patients told her his daughter was on dialysis. Johnson in turn told her niece, Traci Paige Johnson, a producer for Blue’s Clues and co-creator of Gabby’s Dollhouse.

“Traci sent this little girl a Gabby’s Dollhouse,” Johnson said.

As her dialysis expertise grew, Johnson did some procedures during surgeries. As the machines got smaller and more efficient, dialysis centers opened all over.

After seven years in Cincinnati, Johnson returned to Spokane with her family, where her youngest son was born in 1981. She completed a finance degree from Eastern Washington University while working part time as a nurse.

Johnson spent a couple of years in commercial real estate, becoming the second woman to join the Spokane Real Estate Traders Club.

After she divorced in 1986, she returned full time to nursing. Johnson moved to San Diego, working as a quality manager overseeing more than 50 dialysis units in five states.

“I’m good at math,” she said. “After I got the finance degree, I went around teaching the math for the new dialysis formulations. I lived in San Diego for a while, but I was traveling a lot. I was in all the clinics.

“I always wanted the patient interaction; I’ve always liked that.”

Over the years, Johnson taught Sunday school at Presbyterian churches and enjoyed working with children. Today, attending Hamblin Park Presbyterian, she volunteers to do blood pressure checks for seniors.

“A lot of them will come over and say, ‘Will you take my blood pressure?’ They know I have my stuff with me. They’re on a lot of blood pressure medications, so any kind of nursing I can do, I’ll do.”

She returned to Spokane about 10 years ago, at first working with a doctor involved with a study using Suboxone. She joined Spokane Regional Stabilization Center more than three years ago.

She also helps mentor Spokane-area nursing students who follow her in work at the center.

Today, two of Johnson’s adult children live in the Spokane area, and her youngest son is in Bellingham. She has 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Among her three surviving siblings, one is a sister four years older who also is a nurse and works as a lactation specialist from her home.

Johnson plans to keep going, as well.

“I have a lot of friends here, and my faith,” Johnson said. “Our dad raised us all to be hard workers, and to have inner strength and compassion for others.”