I started out my journey to Minnesota with an action packed weekend of volunteering and tours! I visited Minnesota as a part of my goal to visit an elder care facility in every state surrounding Iowa before the Miss Iowa pageant. First stop at 8am on Sunday was the Gillette's Children's Specialty Care Hospital.
My favorite part of my tour to the CMN hospital was going behind the scenes! I got to see every facet of the hospital and all the amazing thing this hospital does for these children in one place so that children and their families don't have to be shuffled around.
Below are some photos of their fabrication room where they make prothetics, braces, and wheelchairs in house for their patients in need.
It was amazing to talk to the makers of the wheelchairs. They can cost as little as $3000 for a basic model or up to $60,000 for a model that may stand or have electric capabilities. They explained that though the cost is steep, independence for these wheelchair bound children that the wheelchairs can provide is priceless. It was amazing to hear them speak about the pride they feel when they come across someone they've helped during everyday life and see the huge impact these chairs have on children.
The next location for tours was the Walker Methodist Health Center. It was amazing to talk with their programs coordinator to discuss their amazing Music and Memory program that they run. This program uses each resident's favorite music to stimulate memories and improve quality of life for these residents. It was also amazing to learn about their state of the art Delirium Care Facility. While dementia is a slow progressive disease, dilirium (persistent confusion, restlessness) can be brought on by overmedication, dehydration, and other short term medical complications. The Delirium Care Facility seeks to fix these short term medical issues to get these resident's healthy and back home to lovedones instead of in long term care facilities.
Visiting Minnesota was truly a life changing experience for me. The state of the art children's and Elderly facilities that exist in Minnesota are unlike any comprehensive care I've seen before. The amazing passion these caregivers had for their patients was unparallelled. It truly reaffirmed my commitment to the elderly and healthcare in general. I'm so excited to start on my masters degree in Health Care Administration in January!
And here are some bonus pictures of myself and dogs from the Pearl City Barbeque benefitting Muscatine Senior Resources (and a picture of a cool car!)
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