North Carolina: Final Thoughts

What's crazy is there are things that I am still processing from this trip. Having a first-person perspective on the way of living down in the Appalachia area makes me think a lot about how I will use what I've learned in my future. One of the things I at least did while I was down there was simply talk to some of the people at Open Door Ministries. Like I said in my previous post, a lot of visitors there were struggling with issues in mental health, and just having someone there that will listen made them feel so much better about everything they had going on.

Looking at this trip through a different lens reveals a different perspective of what my personal impact on those communities was while on the trip. I highly believe that immersing myself in the Cherokee culture, meeting new people in the Appalachia communities, and continuously learning about the Northwestern Carolina areas will positively change how I treat patients from other cultures from now on, therefore hopefully improving the health of those patients. Currently, I feel that what needs to change in that area is the amount of psychological health available because of the high number of individuals that struggle with a mental illness and just need that basic psychological help on top of the physiological help. To help make this change in rural communities, I will continue to take the opportunity to learn more about rural cultures and find ways that I can contribute my nursing knowledge to these areas that have lack of access to healthcare.