Last Day

This past week has made me open my horizons and grow as a person. I have been in situations that challenged my beliefs and made me come out of my comfort zone. This week the Cherokee shared their values, beliefs, traditions, and history with us. Through their sharing, I found that they are not stuck on materialistic things like most Americans are. The Cherokee focus on making their stuff from the resources that nature provides and also the give back to people when they can. While at the Cherokee Indian Hospital, I was able to experience cares given and help accommodate families needs. While we were observing the cares provided, we also had collected donations at the college to bring to the Cherokees. The Cherokee Nation has a high level of poverty and they also have many children in foster care. When talking with the workers in the Emergency Room, they told us about how children get dropped off there in the middle of the night for foster care and they have absolutely nothing but the clothes they are wearing. With the donations we got, they told us that we are helping them more than we realize because they needed children's clothing and supplies desperately. Also, we learned some complementary alternative medicine techniques that may help our patients dealing with pain. The Cherokee culture has and increased number of behavioral health and substance abuse cases in their community. Through talking with the Natives and other health care members, they believe that they will not be able to solve the behavior health and substance abuse problems until they help the Natives forgive the past. While being in Cherokee, they talked about historical trauma and how it causes emotional issues in the Cherokee today. To sum up historical trauma without going into a bunch of detail, historical trauma is passed down generation to generation due to the American taking the land away from the Cherokee hundreds of years ago. The Natives having lived through this trauma, are brought into this world with a predisposed feeling of being a minority and not trusting Americans because of what we have done to them in the past. This feeling tends to lead Natives to have an increased chance of having a behavior health issue and/or a substance abuse problem. Therefore, in order to fix these issues the Natives first have to learn forgiveness. The Cherokees are doing everything they can to keep their culture alive and I think they are doing a fantastic job. They teach their young about their history and they their culture. They still do their Native dances and make their weapons, baskets, and jewelry but they also use some of the new technology. I believe on of the big things they could do to keep their culture alive, is educate Non-Natives about their culture, which they are doing. Their museum, the play "On to these Hills" is the story of the Trail of Tears, and they also have preserved the village and allow for tours through their village so that Non-Natives can learn about their culture and the ways they used to live. This is important because the Cherokee are very into their culture and where they came from, its important that it is not lost. Their history is so interesting and informative that it should be carried on and others should learn about it. The Cherokees have been through so many hardships and have over come them that it should be carried on. The way they support each other and how much they cherish where they came from is important. This week has taught me so much, it has opened my eyes in so many ways. From day one at the hospital, I was brought out of my comfort zone. Experiencing a different culture and hospital that is run by a Tribe and the state has no say over situations was a very hard concept for me to grasp. I have always been taught to do things that are ethically right and at the Cherokee hospital, there is not ethics comity, there is only the Tribe and the Tribe makes the final decisions. Also, I experienced situations that were difficult for me to deal with and I had to set my values and beliefs aside and think of they individuals values and the Tribe which was hard to do. This experience and the culture challenged my views and beliefs and allowed me to grow as an individual and a nurse and for that, I could not be more thankful. Before coming here I was worried, I was afraid I would not be accepted or that I would say the wrong thing, needless to say the things I were worried about did not happen. Everyone was beyond accepting to me and willing to teach me about their culture and answer any questions I had. I can not even begin to put into words the experiences I had and the way the Cherokee have changed my view of other cultures and made me grow in ways that I did not realize I needed to grow.