June 4, 2019

June 4, 2019

       Today, we had a clinical observation experience at the Cherokee Indian Hospital.  During our clinical experience, we had learned that the health care system of the Cherokee Indian Hospital is ran by their people.  I found this very interesting because it shows that the Native Americans really care about their people and their opinions of how they would like to be cared for.  We went to three different areas within the Cherokee Indian Hospital, the emergency room, primary care, and inpatient care.  In the emergency room, myself, Mackenzie, and Alex noticed that there was a team leader, who worked the same as a charge nurse, two providers, a nurse for each section, and two CNA's.  Before leaving the emergency room, we were able to see a patient get triaged.  We then proceeded to primary care, which I found very interesting.   I found that patients were canceling their appointments because of the PerCap coming in this week.  There is a casino on the Cherokee reservation that funds the Cherokee Indian Hospital and their PerCap to help the Native Americans.  PerCap is something that is given to the Cherokee individuals two times a year, which is June 1st and December 1st.  These individuals sometimes use their PerCap to buy drugs and alcohol, which can cause a problems during these weeks with the Cherokee Indian Hospital admission.  Once after eating, we were able to go to the inpatient unit.  While at the inpatient unit, we were able to interact with a Cherokee individual.  While speaking with this individual, I found that they were very open and wanted to tell us their life story.  I found talking to this individual they were very interesting.  He had such an interesting life and I wish I could have continued to talk to him.  As someone comes into the hospital, they triage and find out what is happening with them.  While talking to them, they distinguish their risks on a five step chart.  Once the are done with the triage process, they are sent to a room and the physician is able to come and see them based on the risk assessment score.  I found this to be very helpful because this could help to distinguish who should be seen first and who could wait.  While observing the Cherokee Indian Hospital, I found differences in their organization compared to ours.  One of the differences that I noticed were that they have respiratory therapy that is only on Monday through Friday's from eight to four.  Their hospital also does not ventilate their patients.  The Cherokee Indian Hospital also has everything medical within one building that you could need.  It's like a medical mall.  Within the Cherokee Indian Hospital, they have an inpatient, primary care, emergency room, eye care, MRI, CT scan, physical therapy, wound care, and pharmacy.  I found this awesome to have for these individuals and they don't have to pay for these services that are offered to them.  These individuals use what is called a bullnettle that is tied around an infants neck until they are the age of two.  this is placed on their neck because the bullnettle helps to reduce the swelling, pain, and drooling of the infants.  The Cherokee individuals also have other alternative medicines that are commonly used, but they do not tell others that are not in their culture about their alternative medicines.  When telling their culture, they would tell the youngest in their culture that they trust the most about the alternative medicines about the recipes and how to use the alternative medicines.