Day 7 of Travel

The issue that I have heard about the most is the drug/alcohol addiction issue that is prevalent in the community. Not only do staff members deal with drug and alcohol addiction in the emergency room, it is also something they need to learn how to deal with in the inpatient setting. I have heard that if you want to work on the inpatient floor you also need to know how to handle someone who is going through withdrawal. This issue is something that is tearing the community apart. They value family and the drug/alcohol problem that is going on is breaking up families and making it so that parents are not seeing their children for years. Another prevalent condition I noticed was the diabetes problem. This culture is more prone to be a diabetic due to their genetics. The food that has been introduced to their culture is making it so that diabetes is becoming a bigger part of their community. When I was in the ER, the team lead was explaining to us that people would come in with blood sugars in the 700s and for some they would not be showing the symptoms you would typically see in someone who has a blood sugar that is that high. I know that there is a lot of education that needs to happen in this community. There was one patient that I was speaking with that did not understand why he needed to eat wheat bread instead of white bread to help to maintain the sugars that he is consuming. This also leads to the nurses doing a lot of wound care, because those who are diabetic have poor circulation and wound healing. The nurse’s role is by making sure that the people that they are seeing are educated. When it comes to diabetes it is important that the patient understands what a proper diet is. They also need to make sure when educating these patients that they are teaching them about the importance of foot care. With these patients once they get a sore on their foot it can be difficult to heal and a lot of the time it does end up in that person requiring an amputation. One of the nurses I spoke with told me that once they have a below the knee amputation on one leg that they are at higher risk of amputation of the other leg in the next two years. The center of this healthcare system is completely centered around the patient. I had stated in an earlier post that it is all about the patient and not the pocketbook. This is a statement I have never heard someone say before. I know that places do want patient satisfaction, but I feel that the way that it is implemented here is truly about the patient and community. They believe that with happier staff, they have happier patients, which in the end leads to a healthier community. They speak with the community and patients to find out what they can do better, and they truly implement the recommendations.