Final blog

This week at we did experience much generosity and felt very welcomed by the staff of Cherokee Hospital, and Ashville Mission Hospital as well as everywhere we stopped. Kayla went out of her way to accommodate us into the hospital and made us feel like we were right at home. Even at the hospital during clinical our nurses would introduce us to every patient throughout the day and the patients would even give a welcoming atmosphere. It wasn’t our purpose to improve the health of others but I do have some insight onto what would most likely help the community. The most important I feel would be mandatory drug screening prior to receiving the per capita checks every 6 months. The most prevalent problem that all of the hospital staff are aware of is that most of the drug overdoses occur after the members of Cherokee receive this guaranteed income. Many of these people go the entire year living off this $10,000 and choose to spend most of it on drugs. I feel as if a mandatory drug screen every 3 months or so would rapidly decrease the incidence of overdoses after the checks arrive. If these participants who are required to live off this income realize they can lose this with a positive drug screen then the high incidence rate should decrease. This should benefit the future generations because typically these habits start due to prior exposure, which should dim down. I didn’t really feel out of my comfort zone during this trip. I can be professional and respectful when I need to be and if felt as if there wasn’t an issue. At the beginning of the week I wanted to avoid offending someone. Throughout the week I realized that these people are very friendly and welcoming and were happy to answer questions even if they seemed like they may be derogatory. I had a great time here and would totally do it again. I entered this new environment and am now much more open minded towards a culture that I had no prior knowledge about.