Day 7: Last day at the Hospital

The first most critical issue this culture encounters daily is drug and alcohol abuse. It was eye opening to me to actually learn that they have this problem due to previous broken generations. When this happens, it is very hard to break the cycle. Another critical issue that they encounter is that great grandparents are raising their grandchildren as they have been taken away from the parents. This is hard on the children and on the grandparents as it is a lot of responsibility and hard work that they might not have the resources for. The prevalent conditions that I have noted are that they are not using their dental facility. I learned this today when they told us how they previously treated them with their dental care and now they have a fear of getting teeth pulled or getting cleanings. This is something that through education, they will eventually learn to use and work on. The nurse’s role in health promotion and health maintenance is by education and treatment. For example, when the patients are coming in time after time for addiction, I think that after detoxing, a seriously conversation needs to happen. They have resources to help them overcome that, so it is important to be educating about those things. When the children are taken away from the parents, they need to make out plans regarding care and that parenting classes should be taught. I also think that they should teach the importance of maintaining medications and follow up appointments as I noticed that many were skipping their appointments due to per-cap. Money management would be an effective teaching point as well as most of them spend it all and with proper investments and savings, that could really help them out with their resources. In my opinion and observation, their healthcare system was driven on what they wanted as well as systems that provide patient centered care. They also have trainings for all of their employees, and everyone is on the same page. When the employees want to be there, they also provide better care for the patients verses systems that are driven around money. This is different that my previous experiences in healthcare outside of Cherokee because where I work, it is a large corporation and it is not as close nit as Cherokee. However, I think that Unity Point does care about their patients and their care. I just think that there are things that could be improved. I like how the employees get to know each other at Cherokee and how they try their best to work well together. These are things that we can take back with us though and by meeting with our nurse educators and having meetings, things can change, and we can advocate for our patients.