The Day that Cherokee Indian Hospital Stole My Heart

Captains Blog:  Day 3
Today was such a great day, full of new experiences and lots of learning.  We started our day out by going to the Cherokee Indian Hospital (Link) for orientation with Kayla, who is the nurse educator for the hospital.  I was blown away not only by how beautiful the hospital is, but also by the way that they practice medicine.  The values and beliefs that they live by is everything that healthcare should be, and to see that a HOSPITAL is practicing based on patient centered care, rather than focusing on money, that makes me so happy.  In the photo below Ariel and I are posing in front of the new part of the hospital that is being added on to address the needs of mental health and drug addictions in their community.

Ariel is the Ying to my Yang!

Their plan includes a medical detox facility. That is huge!  They are going above and beyond for their community by addressing the root of the problem rather than putting a bandaid on issues.  They address mental health needs prior to physical because a person is not able to care for themselves the way they should until their mental health is in check. I feel like this speaks volumes about the quality of healthcare that they recieve and to be quite honest, I feel a bit cheated.



When we were driving through town it reminded me a lot of the area around the Ozarks.  There are a lot of similarities in the local enviornment and the tourist areas.
We had the opportunity to go through the Museum of The Cherokee Indian (Link) to learn a bit about their history.  Something that really stood out to me was the role of the Cherokee woman and that they follow a matriarch.  It was quite refreshing to here that somewhere in history women were not looked down on, and people viewed them as leaders.  I think that the values and beliefs that they follow are very similar to my own, in a way that is comforting.  They are so very family oriented and everything that they do is based on how much they value family.  Something that has been brought up a few times is that it is not uncommon to see a grandparent or great grandparent as a primary caregiver for a young child.  They do this because they do not want to break up the family.  I think that this is very similar to our own culture.  I have personally seen this a lot and it seems like it happens more and more all the time.

The Cherokee are very proud of who they are and I respect that.  Their willingness to open up to people outside of the tribes and teach people about their culture is something that I really respect.  I think that this passes down from generation to generation and you can see it in the youth and how willing they are to learn the Cherokee langue and the history of their people.  

I will leave you with that for tonight...can not wait to see what is in store for tomorrow!