We cannot have a great Cherokee Century unless we build a world-class system of Cherokee wellness. We cannot build that system without investing in our healthcare workforce.

That is why Deputy Chief Bryan Warner and I proposed the largest healthcare workforce investment in our tribe’s history. Every part of our healthcare workforce matters. But you would be hard pressed to find a profession more vital to any health system than nurses.

Oklahoma alone needs over 2,200 registered nurses annually just to keep up with demand over the next decade. That is why nursing is central to our proposed “21^st Century Cherokee Healthcare Workforce Initiative.”

Our new plan starts with a historic partnership with the University of Oklahoma. Our proposed Cherokee Nation Nursing and Allied Health Education Center will be the home of a new branch campus of OU’s College of Nursing. When we complete the new W.W. Hastings Hospital later this year, we will invest $30 million to transform the old Hastings into a new state-of-the-art center for not only nursing education, but for the future home of a range of training programs.

The new OU College of Nursing at Tahlequah will be open to all students. It will focus on moving registered nurses with associate degrees, LPNs and eventually holders of non-nursing bachelor’s degrees onto a fast track to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

This helps the whole region as students compete for admission based on merit. But having one of the country’s great public nursing schools on our health campus is an opportunity to sharpen our focus on creating a system where Cherokees are taking care of Cherokees to the greatest extent possible.

That is why Deputy Chief Warner and I propose creating a $5 million scholarship endowment through a partnership with the Cherokee Nation Foundation. This creates an unending annual source of funds to help Cherokees get their degrees if they agree to come to work in our health system.

Our plan goes even further. We propose spending $1 million each year through our Education Services department on not only scholarships for health degrees, but also youth-focused health career exploration programs. Hundreds and hundreds of Cherokees in grade school right now must be the doctors, nurses and other health professionals of tomorrow if we are to achieve a world-class system of wellness. But they need our support.

There are a range of healthcare jobs that require career training instead of college. So, we propose spending $1 million annually on non-degree healthcare workforce training through our Career Services department.

Our proposed scholarships and grants are on top of the more than $37 million that Cherokee Nation spends annually on supporting our citizens to realize their dreams in college and career training programs. But our plan recognizes that jobs in the health industry are of special importance to our shared future.

Getting behind the young generation of Cherokees coming up means getting behind all of them. That is why our plan includes opportunities for at-large Cherokees who dream of coming home and joining our healthcare workforce. We know that a young Cherokee who sees herself as a future doctor is more likely to be one. Multiply that times thousands of young Cherokees across professions ranging from medical doctors to health IT specialists, and it is easy to see opportunities to inspire young Cherokees everywhere.

Imagine the pride we will feel when the OU College of Nursing opens within walking distance of the existingOSU College of Osteopathic Medicine on the most impressive healthcare campus in Indian Country. Our plan follows the lead of our predecessors, part of the work of generations, for generations.

Our plan challenges us to measure annual progress and develop three-year plans with ambitious workforce development goals. Our plan ensures that we take immediate action to bring more Cherokees into our healthcare workforce and make steady progress over the long term.

Cherokee Nation’s health system is the largest in Indian Country. It is a system that provides over 3 million patient services per year, open to citizens of all tribes. Its success is the key to improving our quality of life and unleashing our enormous potential as a tribal nation and as tribal citizens.

In this century, we can realize the dream of a world-class system of wellness that sets the global standard. But we cannot realize that dream if we do not make an unprecedented generational investment in our healthcare workforce. Our proposed 21^st Century Cherokee Healthcare Workforce Initiative does just that.

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