Beverly Patchell
Blending
Traditional and Western Medicine
In
her present work Beverly Patchell, Cherokee, RN, MS, CNS,
draws on her rich experiences in traditional, allopathic
(western), and alternative medicine. She is on the faculty
of the University of Oklahoma School of Nursing where she
is the project director for the American Indian Nursing
Student Success Program, site coordinator for the Bridges
to the Doctorate Program, and co-director of the Center for
Cultural Competency and Healthcare Excellence. She also
teaches courses in traditional medicine, alternative
medicine, culture, and spirituality.
Her wisdom about nursing and indigenous healing is
recognized in her work as a community consultant on this
topic to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and
to the National Library of Medicine. Patchell is the
current president of the National Alaska Native American Indian Nurses
Association (NANAINA).
In addition to speaking engagements and many other
activities, Patchell also manages to continue her own
private practice. “I have a holistic practice,” she
explains. “It’s close enough to traditional that some
people from other tribes have me come in and work with
their tribe for a couple of days. Usually I do some group
work that includes explaining some of what I do. Then for
another day or two I work with people individually.
Sometimes a half a dozen people will drive together here to
Oklahoma City for the weekend. I spend as much time with
them as we need.” As part of her practice, Patchell also
cares for people in her local community including students
who need extra help with stress and learning issues.
Faculty sometimes also turn to her for stress-related
issues.
Foundations
of Her Practice
The foundation for Patchell’s holistic practice began for
her as a child growing up in Tahlequah, located in the
Cherokee Nation. “There were many healers in my family and
community,” Patchell remembers. “Most people could do some
kind of healing. Like now, everyone had things that they
specialized in.”
Patchell married and moved to Oklahoma City where she and
her husband had two sons. Later she decided to go back to
school. “My family suggested that I call Martha Primeux,
Cherokee, a family friend,” Patchell remembers. “Martha,
one of the founders of NANAINA was then an assistant dean
at OU [University of Oklahoma] in the School of Nursing.
Martha suggested that I be a nurse. That idea fit. I had
enjoyed some work I had done as a nurse’s aid. Martha
became my mentor.”
Toward the end of nursing school, Patchell discovered that
she was drawn to working with people (particularly children
and youth) with mental health issues. After receiving her
BSN in 1978 from OU, she worked in an adult and adolescent
inpatient psychiatric unit in St. Anthony Hospital in
Oklahoma City. While earning her master’s degree with a
major in psychiatric/mental health nursing, she began
working at Willow View Hospital where she eventually was
clinical director of the inpatient children’s unit. During
this period, she also received her certification as a
clinical nurse specialist in psychiatric/mental health
nursing of adolescents and children.
While Patchell was at Willow View Hospital, she began her
private practice with children and young adolescents. She
worked with children of military people who were being
deployed to Dessert Storm. She also cared for children in a
local school district.
Returning to Cherokee Nation
A key point in her developing career was when she and her
family returned to Cherokee Nation where she first served
as a family therapist and then program director of the Jack
Brown Center Native American Adolescent Treatment Center
that serves Indian people
from all over the U.S. “My training was in talk therapy,
but I realized that talk therapy didn’t work with Native
people because of the belief that you give power to
whatever you speak. They believe that talking about pain,
despair, fear or anger gives power to these feelings, so
they don’t talk about them. I knew this from my own family,
but until this time it hadn’t clicked with me that talk
therapy wouldn’t work.
“I started to do story telling because you can talk
indirectly about a person’s concern through animals, trees,
objects, and mythical things. That worked in groups because
someone always picked up the thread. But when I was working
with only one person who didn’t want to talk, I had to be
creative and more indirect. With these individuals and also
with groups, we did drumming, dancing and art and spent
time in nature. We did things that helped the youth feel
connected to whatever they felt disconnected from.”
Patchell next did staff training and development for all
the employees of Cherokee Nation, not just health
providers. Her work took her to facilities all over the
nation and included a project for keeping people out of
nursing homes.
In Cherokee Nation Patchell continued her private practice
and worked with and learned from medicine people. In her
search for ways to reach Indian people she took classes in
a type of energetic therapy.
In 1998 for family reasons Patchell had to return to
Oklahoma City. First she went into practice with one of her
teachers. Then she set up her own practice, incorporating
all that she had been learning.
Over the years Patchell had supervised OU nursing students
in the settings in which she cared for patients. In 2000
she was hired to direct the American Indian Nursing Student
Success Program. “Part of the position involves recruiting
students and occasionally supervising students in Cherokee
Nation. I had been missing being in my community so that
was one of the reasons I accepted the position.”
The Success Program and Patchell’s many other activities
have been flourishing in her care. Patchell herself is
filled with healing energy and is an inspiration to many
people.
This
article was originally published in the Summer 2007 issue
of
Winds of Change. (The cover
artist is Bunky Echo-Hawk, Yakama/Pawnee.)