Global Initiatives - Kayenta

Indian Health Service Provides Public Health Nursing Clinical Experience

Purdue Nursing students can live and work in the Kayenta Navajo Nation as an alternative to completing their senior public health nursing clinical experience in Indiana.

Each year, a select group of senior nursing students and a nursing faculty person spend two weeks in May on the Navajo Reservation in the "Four Corners" region of southwest United States.

Students live on the Kayenta Health Service compound and work with Indian Health Service public health nurses and environmentalists.

Students research a health issue of concern to the Navajo Nation, and have the opportunity to gain an understanding of and an appreciation of the Navajo culture and Navajos profound respect for nature in a setting of spectacular rock formations framed by a perpetual blue sky.

Students interact with Native Americans in the Navajo Nation Chapters of Chilchinbeto, Dennehotso, Inscription House, Kayenta, Navajo Mountain, Oljato, and Shonto.

The Kayenta Service Unit of the Navajo Area Indian Health Service provides health care for 18,000 tribe members living in a 4,500 square mile region in red rock country in the north central portion of the Navajo Reservation. The Kayenta Service Unit's mission is "to promote individual and community health and well being in a culturally respectful and responsive manner."

For more information, contact Prof. Pamela Aaltonen at 765-494-4041 or aaltonen@purdue.edu.