Day 7

What are the challenges that individuals you met today face? There are many challenges that individuals face from this community. I believe the biggest challenges faced in this community is mental health and low income/poverty. How does The Open-Door help with some of the needs of the community? The open-door soup kitchen helps the community by feeding them hot meals every day, allowing individuals to shower, wash their clothes, and receive nonperishable foods to take home with them. This resource helps the low-income individuals and the homeless population. Are there other connections in the community to help improve health for those facing health disparities? In Waynesville North Carolina they have many assistance resources, they are all listed here https://www.ncworks.gov/admin/gsipub/htmlarea/uploads/CRAG/Haywood_County.pdf

Day 6

How did mission Hospital compare to the Swain County Hospital? Mission hospital was alot larger and it had many more resources than that of Swain County. What is the distance that people come to receive care here? I believe that Mission Hospital serves more than 25 counties so people travel from a very far distance to receive health care here. What stood out to you the most today? The thing that stood out to me the most at Mission Hospital was the lifts that went into the bathrooms. This is amazing. I work on an ICU and we have lifts in every room but if we want to get them up our choice is either a chair or a commode. I think its amazing that they can get their patients into the restroom because its the small things that make people feel like human beings.

Wow, what a day. Today is the 6^th day in our Rural Health Class, and man it was a long one. We woke up and were ready to head to Mission Hospital at 7am. I was a zombie this morning, so I stuck my headphones in instead of looking up our destination on google maps, that’s my mistake because an hour later we figured out we were heading the wrong way on the interstate. We arrived at Mission hospital around 9am and we toured their ER which had 50 rooms and their ortho floors. This hospital is not what I expected, I honestly expected it to be like the hospital I work at (OSF Saint Joseph), but this hospital was AMAZING. They had all of the latest technology and they seem to continually troubleshoot ways to make the patient experience better while triaging them quicker in the ER.

When leaving Mission Hospital, we had to take a shuttle ride to where our van was parked. While we were in the hospital the parking lot filled up fast with families of construction workers who came to feed them. I can not believe that Amy got us out of that parking spot without hitting anything. We had a huge crowd staring at us, but Brenda lead us in the back and a nice man helped us with the front. It was a long hour drive home, and everyone was exhausted. When we made it back to the cabin, myself and 3 other students changed into hiking clothes so we could climb Clingmans dome.

The drive to Clingmans dome was absolutely beautiful. Once we got to the parking lot, we were all off, and hiking to the top. It took me a while, and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. There was a point where I felt like telling everyone to go ahead without me, but I told myself to just keep going, and it was well worth it. The top was amazing. I could feel the cool, misty air touching my cheeks, and even though it was foggy, and we couldn’t really see anything, I felt so good because I made it up there. The hike down was pretty easy, I realized that if I ended up falling, I would just tumble down to the bottom so either way I was getting back to the van somehow but thankfully I didn’t stumble over my own two feet. We stopped at a little shop near the parking lot at I bought a shirt that said I conquered Clingmans dome, and I bought my grandmother raw honey.

Once we left our hiking trip, we made our way to the strip to do some shopping, unfortunately there were multiple shops closed so we will go back tomorrow. After the strip we split up into 2 groups and Hannah, Brittany, and I hit up dollar general so we could spend 350 dollars on toothbrushes, toothpaste, canned food, soap, socks, and shirts.

It is now almost 10pm and I am so ready for bed. Tomorrow we are going to the food pantry and then we are going to go shopping and eat pizza. See you guys tomorrow!

Day Five

How does the lack of health care access affect population health and patient wellbeing in a community? The lack of access in a rural community can put individual’s life’s in danger. The nearest Cath Lab at the Smokey Mountains is Memorial Hospital which can be a far drive for an ambulance. If a patient has a STEMI they can have more damage done within the hour because they don’t have access to a close hospital that can take care of them. What is the biggest take away from today’s Wilderness First Aid course? Critical thinking! This course has really opened my eyes to how things can change in one second and how I may be in a position where I have to use critical thinking to take care of my patients if I do not have the resources that I think I need or any extra hands to help me. How can you incorporate some of the lessons you learned today into your care of patients back home? I believe that I can take the critical thinking skills and knowledge about wildlife and use this when taking care of patients back home because I will be quicker to think and I will be able to educate.

Today is Day Five of my Rural Health Travel Course. I did not post yesterday, so here’s a little run down:

                Yesterday, June 4^th, my travel class attended a Wilderness First Aid course at Nantahala Outdoor Center. Some of the information that we went over on this day we knew from previous nursing courses, but it is in a totally different context. As nurses in a hospital we have all of these resources at our finger tips, yet in the wilderness your left with what you packed in your bag and what is near you. We ran through many scenarios where we treated patients with spinal injuries, and other contusions. I thought my critical thinking skills were being used to the maximum potential in the hospital and in school, but I realized that trying to take care of a patient when you have slim resources and no back up for several minutes or even hours, now that takes some serious critical thinking skills. We ended our class at 4pm. We then headed back to the cabin and ate stuffed pasta shells with a salad. At 7:30 pm we headed back out to watch “Unto these Hills” at the Cherokee Mountainside Theatre. This play centered around the Cherokee and what they went through that lead up to the Trail of Tears, and what happened after this historical event. It was a great play that had a lot of meaning behind it and all of the actors did such an amazing job.

Now, back to today (June 5^th), today we all crawled out of bed and made our way back for our second and last day of Wilderness First Aid class. We learned about many topics ranging from species of snakes and which types are poisoness to lightening and where it is best to be during this. Our class ended at 4:30pm today. We all passed our course and received our certification in Wilderness First Aid. I am now back at the cabin relaxing while Hannah and Kyle prepare breakfast for dinner. I see a big plate of food and a nap in my future.

Day three

Day three of our Rural Health Adventure. Today was an early morning for me, I woke up at 6am to ready myself and sip on some coffee before we visited Swain County Hospital. While there I learned about the services this hospital offers which is a pain clinic, acute care, physicians offices, imaging, and they offered swing beds for individuals who needed extra care but did not want to go to a nursing home to get this care. I heard multiple times from different staff that the main problem they have at this hospital is resources, individuals in the community can’t receive specialized care at this facility. Individuals who need specialized care have to be diverted to bigger hospitals in the area. There is a workforce shortage at this hospital. One of the staff members spoke about how if one member of the team calls off it can cripple the staffing for the night.  Overall, I had fun touring the hospital, I was surprised at how much room this facility has and how well it operates with the little resources they are given.

After our hospital tour we stopped at the Cherokee museum to learn all about the Cherokee history. When I think of Indians, I think of tee pee. Honestly, I’m surprised that these individuals lived in log cabins. I was so surprised to learn about the history of Andrew Jackson with the Cherokee Indians. They fought together in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and it was an Indian named Junaluska who saved Andrew Jackson life, only for Andrew Jackson to drive these individuals away from their homes.

The icing on the cake today was tubing. It was a relaxing time with a few bumpy spots but it made it even more interesting. Most of the group swung on the rope and I completely failed when I did, but at least I tried. I ended the day with a juicy hamburger, chips, and a salad. I then face timed my grandma and she was sure to remind me to try to stay away from the mosquitoes because that’s an easy task to do here.

Day Two - June 2nd

Day two of our Rural Health course has been quiet the adventure. We started the day with breakfast at our hotel, and then we snuck our way to Starbucks for an early morning pick-me-up, without Lisa’s group noticing.

It was a quick drive over to the Museum of Appalachia. While we were there, we toured multiple cabins and buildings filled with memorabilia. My favorite part of the museum (besides the amazing food) was the section that showed different medical equipment and had information about doctors and midwives. Did you know that garlic was used to treat sore throat, ulcers, intestinal infections, and tuberculosis? Also, tea made from the leaves of strawberry plants was used to treat diarrhea and anemia. Oh, and I found the most handsome man at the museum and my heart was crushed because I couldn’t take him home with me. 

  

After we left the Museum of Appalachia, we made our way to the cabin. Along the way we stopped at Soco Craft & Tower Inc. There was a small building which sold souvenirs and attached to the building was a 9 story look out tower. I was so excited to see the mountain view I forgot about my fear of heights, that is until I saw the ratchet straps holding pieces of metal together. I got great pictures, a post card for scrapbooking, and a sticker for my computer.

  

After leaving the giftshop / look out tower it was a nice relaxing ride to the cabin. Sike. We were lost, but only for about 10 minutes. It’s nerve wracking getting lost on the side of a mountain with only a one lane road to get us where we needed to go. It would’ve helped to if we had better signal to use our GPS.  Props to Amy while she was driving because if I had 9 screaming adults in the backseat of my car while I was trying to concentrate and drive, I would’ve kicked them out.  When we finally arrived at our cabin we had to call everyone and their mother to try to figure out how to get inside our cabin. I finally ended up calling the emergency number for the cabin company and the nice lady over the phone sent me the codes. 😊

When thinking about the Appalachian communities it seems that what they find most important is family, friends, their community, and their land. I never really thought about how good we have it these days and how back then people really had to work hard to eat and have things that we consider necessities. Health care has drastically changed compared to what I saw at the Appalachia Museum and now. 

Day One - June 1st

What are you most excited about in the days to come? What are your apprehensions? Do you think you may have any cultural biases/ prejudices/ pride/stereotyping that you may need to set aside to have better understanding about this culture? Why or why not?

As the first day of our Rural Health trip comes to an end, I grow more excited for the days to come. The thing I am most excited about is the Wilderness First Aid Course. I believe there are so many opportunities for growth and education in this First Aid Course. I honestly believe that I do not have any apprehensions coming into this course. I am eager to learn and soak in all of the knowledge that is given to me these next eight days. I believe that I am coming into this course and into Swain County free of cultural bias, prejudices, pride, and stereotyping. I know that every individual should be treated in a holistic fashion.