Fort Belknap college and community awarded for innovative nursing program

Havre Daily News staff

The college at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, members of its staff as well as the Fort Belknap community itself have been recognized for a program designed to grow their own nurses right in the tribal college.

Montana Center to Advance Health Through Nursing presented the 2016 Outstanding Nurse Champion award to Aaniiih Nakoda College President Carol Falcon-Chandler, the Fort Belknap Indian Community and the faculty of the college’s “Grow Our Own Nurses” program.

Casey Blumenthal, vice president of the Montana Hospital Association, handed the plaque to LaVerne Parker, director of nursing for ANC’s Grow Our Own program and Billie Jo Brown, the nurse educator.

The focus of the education summit was diversity and inclusion. The program at ANC has a cultural emphasis where “Life Ways” and Aaniin and Nakoda language are imbedded in the Medicine Wheel paradigm as a way of teaching and learning. It was the members of the Fort Belknap Indian Community that voiced their desire for this indigenous program in public forums and through surveys as they felt very strongly that such a program would uplift their health by having their own people educated as nurses.

Falcon-Chandler immersed herself in the development of the program and attended Board of Nursing meetings in Helena when documents for approval were reviewed and acted upon before approval was granted.

The nursing faculty itself is diverse, mainly American Indian and others sharing a commitment to excellence in teaching for the students.

Aaniiih Nakoda College Nursing Program and Phillips County Hospital teamed up to train registered nurses locally, saying earlier this year the program would be a great model to help address the nursing shortages locally and regionally but, more importantly, to help care for the people of the communities now and into the future by developing a collaborative partnership for registered nursing education.

Students from the newly developed nursing program at Aaniiih Nakoda College do a portion of their nursing clinical rotations at Phillips County Hospital as well as at Fort Belknap IHS in medical, surgical, ER and clinic nursing, the groups said in February.

The college sent out a call in May for more people to enroll in the program as its first cohort finished up the first year.

The program offers state-of-the-art technology in the form of a complete nursing simulation lab for hands on clinical experience, a release about the program said. The program also has incorporated a preparation program to help students pass the licensing exam; testing modules to benchmark and track student performance and progression.