First Clinical Day ER, Primary Care and In Patient

In this health system, the people run it. I learned that a lot of their funding comes from their casino and that is also where their per capita check comes from as well. The members of their health care system are members like the physicians, case managers, nurses etc. but we were taught how involved the family is within their care. In their hospital rooms, they had a separate section for the family to be in and when the family comes, they normally don’t leave. Kayla said that her job has taught her to be more present with her family. She said that she normally would just let someone else watch her kids if they were sick, but she said that there might be a day when she isn’t able to rock her baby anymore and that hit me. When someone comes in the hospital with a need, it is handled based on their level of Cherokee. That is the only way that they are able to be admitted to the hospital. However, by law the emergency department has to see anyone who comes through the door. The similarities are their protocols that they follow. For example, they had the same measure system that we do for pediatric emergencies and similar protocols for treating patients. Something that was different that I noticed in the emergency department was that they don’t have computers in the rooms and their charting system was completely different. Their in-patient floor was so quiet, and it was weird to be on a hospital floor where everything wasn’t beeping, and call lights weren’t going off all of the time. For the primary care, they had a lot of no shows which is similar to what we have but back home, either you get charged for that or the physician can refuse to see you after so many no-show appointments. With this system, you can no show as much as you want, and you will always get into a provider. I personally didn’t see any complementary or alternative medicines used in practice but I did have a patient who had a necklace on, and he said that the medicine man gave it to him and he said that it has healing powers so I thought that was neat. They said that they keep their herbal recipes private, but I would love to learn more about it. Overall, I had a really good experience today. In the ER, we had one asthma patient, but we discussed overdoses a lot and the nurse shared ways that he handles coping with that. In primary care, I was able to shadow the nurse with a well child visit and her mom was filling in the paperwork to be able to fill out the paperwork to start foster care and I thought that was amazing. She has such a passion for that. In in patient, I spoke with a patient who had been through so much. From diabetes to multiple wounds, to traumatic accidents etc, he had been though so much. However, he still had so much passion for life and to keep pushing forward. Besides the patient care aspect of today, lunch was my favorite part. Kayla’s story was absolutely amazing. I just have so much respect for her. Her story is amazing. I could listen to her talk all day because every time she talks, I feel like I am learning so much from her and I am truly thankful for this experience and for everything that she has done for the group.