Aaniiih Nakoda College and Community Receive Award
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ANC's Billie Jo Brown, Nurse Education Instructor and Ms. Casey Blumenthal, VP of Montana Hospital Association (MHA).
The OUTSTANDING NURSE CHAMPION award for 2016 was given to the Fort Belknap Indian Community, Dr. Carole Falcon Chandler ANC's President and the 'Grow Our Own' Nursing Faculty.
The award was presented by the Montana Center to Advance Health Through Nursing (MT CAHN) at their Nursing Education and Practice Summit recently held in Helena. Casey Blumenthal, DNP, MHSA, RN, CAE, Vice President of the Montana Hospital Association handed the plaque to LaVerne Parker, MS, RN, Director of Nursing for ANC's, 'Grow Our Own' program and Billie Jo Brown, RN-BSN, BA, M.ED., the Nurse Educator.
The focus of this 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 survey's as they felt very strongly that such a program would uplift their health by having their own people educated as RN's.
The Aaniiih Nakoda College President, Dr. Carole Falcon-Chandler immersed herself in the development of the program and attended the Board of Nursing meetings in Helena when documents for approval were reviewed and acted upon before approval was granted. Such was her strong commitment to having a nursing program established at Aaniiih Nakoda College.
The nursing faculty itself is diverse, mainly American Indian and others sharing a commitment to excellence in teaching for the students. The MT CAHN committee, and Ms. Casey Blumenthal VP of the Montana Hospital Association, are thanked for recognizing this accomplishment by awarding the OUTSTANDING NURSE CHAMPION to the Fort Belknap Indian Community: Dr. Carole Falcon-Chandler, President of Aaniiih Nakoda College, a Tribal College, and the Nursing Faculty of 'Grow Our Own' nursing education program. Students have finished the first year of the program and currently working in the community.
