Kristi Johnson
Kristi
Johnson, Navajo, PharmD, is currently working for the
Indian Health Service at the Phoenix Indian Medical
Center. When this article was published she was in her
last year of pharmacy school at the University of
Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Preparing to Improve Her People’s Health Care
When Johnson was 12 years old, her mother took her to the
Indian Health Service Hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico for
outpatient medical care. “As we entered the hospital, I saw
an elderly woman sitting in the pharmacy area, waiting for
her medications,” Johnson remembers. “When my mother and I
returned to the pharmacy about an hour later to get my
medications, the elderly woman was still sitting there. My
mother and I waited and waited. The elderly woman also
waited. No one talked with her. She looked tired and sick.
“After a while I was so concerned that I told my mother
that I wanted to talk to the pharmacist. My mother didn’t
want me to do that. Finally, I couldn’t keep quiet any
longer. I went up to the pharmacist and told him that the
woman had been waiting more than an hour. I asked him what
was happening.”
One of the technicians apparently heard Johnson. He came to
the front desk and said that the medication had been ready
for a while. Johnson sat down. The elderly woman was given
her medication and left. But again Johnson was worried. She
realized that no one had talked with the woman about her
medication. She knew that her own grandmother was wary of
Western medicine and needed help in understanding these
medicines and how to use them. Johnson also knew there were
medicines that could be harmful if they were taken in the
wrong way.
It was then that Johnson decided that she wanted to become
a pharmacist. Some day she wanted to return home and
provide the highest quality care to her grandmother, other
Elders, and all her people.
Johnson is now in her final year of pharmacy school at the
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Her first
rotation is at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center. Here she
is having hands-on experiences under the supervision of a
Navajo pharmacist, Jefferson Fredy, who graduated from the
University of New Mexico School of Pharmacy in 2003.
The
Journey
Johnson was
living in her family’s home just outside of Bluff, Utah
when she and her mother traveled to Shiprock and witnessed
the way in which the elderly woman was treated. “Our
community has
about 20 houses, and we’re all related, “says Johnson.
After graduating from high school in Blanding, Utah, where
she moved in her senior year, Johnson attended College of
Eastern Utah. Then she transferred to the University of
Colorado in Boulder and earned her B.A. in molecular
cellular developmental biology. Throughout her schooling
she felt the support of her family, particularly her
mother, grandmother, and uncle.
Johnson was
enjoying her first year in Colorado at pharmacy school when
she learned that her grandmother, who she dearly loved, was
gravely ill. “My grandmother had an infection that she
didn’t tell anyone about because she was terrified and
didn’t want to go to the doctor. She tried to treat
herself. Then she went into septic shock. She was sick in
the hospital for about two months. Our family was always
there. I went every weekend from school. Sometimes I didn’t
go to school on Friday. Finally she passed away. It was so
sad. It didn’t have to happen.
“My grandmother is why I wanted to be a pharmacist. I
wanted to take care of her and make sure everything went
okay. When my grandmother passed away after my first year
of pharmacy school, I almost quit. I thought I didn’t have
any reason to be in school any more. My professors were
very nice. They told me to not be so hard on myself. My
mother convinced me that my grandmother wanted me to go to
school. In our family it’s important to be educated. My
mother has her bachelor’s degree and is a counselor. My
oldest sister is an RN. Another sister is a teacher.”
Hanging
in There
Despite her
great sadness, Johnson stayed in school. Now reflecting on
her first three years of professional education, she says
that she likes the way that her school organizes the
learning of pathophysiology and drugs around body systems.
“That helps to tie everything together,” she says. She also
liked getting a taste of the real world in Comprehensive
Patient Care. In this course, she and the other students
were given simulated patient charts and had to do such
things as list the patient problems and do assessments and
plans for each problem.
“We had to do evidence-based medicine. When we prepared
cases we had to use the latest published guidelines and
articles to back up what we were recommending. If we didn’t
have evidence, we had to have a really good reason for what
we were proposing.”
Starting in her first year, Johnson, as part of her
coursework, shadowed a pharmacist. Observing the pharmacist
at work helped her better understand the roles and
responsibilities of a pharmacist. Also, in the second part
of the third year, Johnson and her classmates each shadowed
a physician. “I shadowed a dermatologist in Boulder,
Colorado. It was really neat to be with him. He knows his
patients well. I realized how hard physicians work. I never
saw him take a break,” she recalls.
When Johnson completes her rotation at the Phoenix Indian
Medical Center, she will spend the rest of the school year
rotating through other settings, such as the Drug
Information Center at the University of Colorado, a private
pharmacy in Boulder, and a supermarket where she will be
working in the diabetes care center.
After Johnson receives her PharmD, she is considering
applying to the Indian Health Service for a residency
experience. “IHS is where my grandmother and cousins and
uncles and aunts and all go. I want good healthcare for my
family and all Native Americans. When I was young, I was
disappointed with IHS, but now that I’m working in pharmacy
at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, I see that they have
made changes and are continuing to make changes for the
better."
Practice
After
completing her residency program, Johnson hopes to practice
back home. But, regardless of where she practices, she
wants to be available to people. “I don’t plan to leave my
work at work. If people want their blood pressure or blood
glucose checked at my house, I’ll say, ‘Come on over.’ Even
now when my husband (who is a nurse studying to be a PA)
and I go home to my community, we have little mini-health
screenings.”
Johnson values traditional medicine. Her grandmother used
to gather herbs and send them to her. “A lot of people use
these herbs today,” she says. “I want to work with someone
who has been taught the correct way to gather and
administer traditional Navajo herbs, including how to sing
the songs, how to do the whole process. We need to respect
both traditional and Western medicine. But my focus will be
to try to get Native people to use Western medicines along
with their herbal medicines. My grandmother would not take
her [Western] medicine. I wish someone could have told her,
‘This is from the earth. It’s just from the earth in a
different way.’ My grandmother was stubborn.”
When Western medicines can be helpful and even life saving,
Kristi wants Native people to be comfortable using them.
Advice
Johnson is
eager to see more Indian people in pharmacy. “For those of
us who go back to where we came from, we’ll actually be
able to take care of our family. You will never have to
stand by the sidelines and say, ‘This isn’t the best
treatment. This isn’t the best drug.’ When you provide the
care, you will give the best care possible.”
Although Johnson didn’t have an opportunity to shadow a
pharmacist during high school, she recommends that high
school students interested in careers in pharmacy try to do
so. She also suggests doing volunteer work. “When you’re
being interviewed for pharmacy schools, they want to see
that you do things for other people.”
“During high school make sure you have a good background in
the sciences,” she continues. If you feel that you’re not
being challenged, don’t sit around and wait. Challenge
yourself. I didn’t have a biology teacher who challenged me
a whole lot. But I challenged myself. I started going to
the local community college while I was in high school. I
wanted to know more about biology. So I found ways to learn
more. My mom taught me that you can’t expect things to come
to you. You have to make things happen.
“Take one step at a time,” cautions Johnson. You can be
overwhelmed if you think of the whole process at once. Keep
at it. There are so many wonderful opportunities waiting
for you. You can make a positive difference in other
people’s lives”
This
article was originally published in the Autumn 2004 issue
of
Winds of Change. (The cover
artist is Clarrisa Hudson, Tlingit.)