Asheville adventures on 7-13

Today when visiting Asheville, we got a tour of Mission Children’s hospital. Mission is the only children’s hospital in Western North Carolina. I feel that Mission Children’s hospital is very comparable to the health care system back home. Though Methodist Medical Center does not have but a five-bed pediatric unit it is very comparable to the Children’s Hospital of Illinois. When working in pediatrics you are not only caring for the child you must understand and care for the family as well. Mission Hospital does a great job of incorporating the parents/guardians in the care. They allow and encourage parents to write information and questions on the board in the room. The medical team also rounds daily and asks the families/child if there are any questions, comments, or concerns with care. In the NICU specifically every day the medical team meets with parents in a separate room to give them an update as well as plan for their baby. The parents can ask questions and make comments to the team during the meetings. I feel having the rounding and team meetings is the best way to family and the child involved throughout their stay and is exactly what I feel hospitals should do. Today there were obvious similarities and differences in the environment from Cherokee to Asheville. Things that were similar include the southern hospitality, as well as the laid-back attitude towards time and efficiency. The major differences were the cleaner environment as in not as many run-down buildings, garbage around housing communities and way more resources for the public. Today I feel the hospital facility at the Reuter Mission Children’s clinic was something extraordinary that stood out to me. The clinic houses all medical specialty offices for Children in one place. It also houses a child safety office which helps with neglect and abuse. I feel it stuck out to me because it is like nothing I have seen before. They clinics all work together to schedule patient’s appointments consecutively if multiple specialties are involved to allow one trip for families instead of different appointments on different days.  Overall Asheville as well as Mission hospital is a great place and potentially somewhere I would and could be in the future. 

" Just because your past may not have been perfect, doesn't mean that your future can't be amazing" -- Robin Sharma