UA training Native American nurses to improve reservation health care

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Native American land and culture form a lot of the foundation of life in Arizona. But tribal members may have trouble finding all the medical care they need on tribal land. University of Arizona has a program to encourage more Native Americans to become nurses and to work on reservations.

There’s a shortage of healthcare professionals throughout the entire country but that shortage is especially acute in Native American areas. Now the University of Arizona has a special program to encourage more nursing students to go to work in those reservation areas.

Jolynn Robbins is freshly certified as a Registered Nurse. She says when she works at a clinic or hospital on a reservation, patients find an extra comfort when she walks in.

“They're like, are you Navajo? And so within that there's kind of that connection where, like, they know that I kind of have a similar background, but it's not necessarily the same. So just knowing that we're able to connect on that that level.”

A University of Arizona program called INCATS helped her become a nurse. It has a one-point-six million dollar grant to recruit Native American nursing students and help cover the cost of their training. Once they graduate they are required to spend at least two years working with a tribal health organization.

That commitment to a community is important. Program Coordinator Emily Si’al has an Alaskan tribal background. She says her family often gets treatment from traveling medical professionals who may stay six months or a year, and move on.

“They're not able to build a relationship with a provider and work on things step by step. Every single time they go see a primary care provider, primary care health professional, they start from the very beginning, and that can be really stressful and challenging.”

UA nursing professor Timian Godfrey has a doctorate in nursing practice. She says nurses from INCATS can help close gaps in how good, and how available, health care can be on tribal lands–and add a special understanding.

She says, “It's the understanding of historical trauma, intergenerational trauma, and the oppressive acts against Native Americans in our country that really permeate into modern day health disparities, healthcare systems.”