A Day in Asheville - July 13, 2017

The Children’s Hospital in Asheville was an incredible experience for me. I have a major interest in the pediatric field of nursing and since my clinical experience at Methodist was slim it was interesting to see how a hospital that has a focus on newborn and pediatric care runs. If a child is hospitalized it can effect an entire family or even a whole community, one amazing thing about Mission is that the do their best to accommodate for that. They have numerous tricks up their sleeves in order to make the children and their families feel more comfortable at home. For example, we learned while we were there on tour, that the nursing staff actually encourages the family and siblings to stay in the hospital room overnight with the child who is being treated. Not only do I have an interest in working with children but I love emergency type situations, so I loved seeing and hearing about their PICU also. The biggest difference between Mission and Asheville is that it runs just like a major city hospital back home. The biggest similarity is the amount of effort they put into caring for the entire family of a sick child and the importance of the family in the communities at a tough time. After some research, something I learned that was really cool was the story of how Mission Hospital was started. According to Mission Health (2017), “The story goes like this: A small group of women--Anna Woodfin, Fanny Patton, Rose Chapman and Lily Carmichael--had opened a hospital in a five-room house. The space was rented; the furniture and materials, donated; the staff was hired on a shoestring budget” (Mission Health, 2017). The thing that stood out to me the most today was the amount of equipment that they have prepared in order to take care of patients in need. They are ready at all times to take patients in and can care for sick babies and children. The hospital units we toured, especially the NICU, ran like a well-oiled machine. It was a great eye-opener!

Mission Health. (2017). Our Story: A legacy of service. Retrieve from: https://www.mission-health.org/about-us.php