A part-time job for two years helped reinforce why Kendra Lone Elk went into nursing.
After graduating in 1995 from South Dakota State University, where she took classes in Brookings and at the West River Nursing Program, Lone Elk spent time as the case manager for the Flowering Tree Treatment Center.
“I’m real thankful I did that because it gave me the opportunity to learn about addiction and manipulative behavior. It was really eye-opening,” said Lone Elk, who now is the health administrator with the Oglala Sioux Tribe. “After I started nursing school, I realized I had lived a sheltered life. I grew up at my grandparents in the country. It was shocking to me to learn we suffered from diabetes, alcoholism and had all of these health problems and child abuse because I was never exposed to any of it. However, I’m thankful I was there.”
That position led her into a position with Indian Health Services.
“I loved public health, loved community health, but to be a public health nurse with IHS, you have to have a bachelor’s degree and one year of med surg experience,” she said.
As a result, Lone Elk spent a year working in acute care. While it was not what she wanted to do long term, it allowed her to gain plenty of firsthand experience.
That year allowed her to go into public health nursing with the Indian Health Service in Pine Ridge, a position that lasted 15 years. She made the move to work for the Oglala Sioux Tribe two years ago where she championed home health-care accreditation, which is a critical need on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Lone Elk was recently promoted to be the tribe’s health administrator.
That position completes a major change for someone who received an associate degree in business administration in 1993 from Oglala Lakota College. When Lone Elk was thinking of pursing a degree in nursing, she was not thinking of a career in public nursing.
Proud of choice to attend State
“When I started nursing school, I never thought about working back here. I wanted to work at a university and go into research,” she said. “I really liked that part of nursing. I thought I was going to do that.”
“The reasons why I chose SDSU were the fact that I would receive a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and the success rate of the students passing their state boards,” continued Lone Elk, who completed her bachelor’s degree in 1995. “I recommend SDSU’s nursing program to anybody and everybody who expresses an interest in nursing. I took a nursing class with another school and it wasn’t as thorough as ones I took at SDSU. I explain all the positive aspects of SDSU, which includes that they work with local tribes.”
Lone Elk’s journey in nursing began at the SDSU College of Nursing in Rapid City, and she ultimately finished the program on the main campus in Brookings.
“I needed epidemiology so I went to Brookings to finish rather than waiting a year to finish,” Lone Elk said. “I had never been to the main campus, so it was a little overwhelming, but I did it. I am proud of my SDSU education. I wear my nursing pin every day to show it.”
As proof of her pride in her education, Lone Elk proudly displayed her South Dakota State pin.
Perseverance
However, her time at State almost did not take place.
“I applied for the Indian Health Services’ 457 scholarship—an awesome scholarship but every time I applied, I kept getting denied,” Lone Elk said. “I didn’t understand why. I had letters of support from the tribal president, from my high school instructors and before I started nursing, I had a business administration degree (associate) from OLC.
“When I found I kept getting denied despite having a 3.75 GPA and excellent recommendation letters, I called to ask why,” she continued. “I was told when you are filling out the application, you mark you want to work in a university setting and we want nurses to come back and work with the underserved populations. As a result, the next time I applied, I selected to work in small reservations. I’m so glad I called otherwise I would have never received the scholarship.”
That scholarship opened a career for Lone Elk, who is grateful for the perspective her education has given her.
“I think a lot of times, as a health-care provider, what we think is a priority for a person isn’t a priority for them,” Lone Elk said. “They might be in a domestic violence relationship or they might be without propane or not have food and dealing with those issues is what’s important to them."
“Sometimes, we can’t even imagine what their issues are,” she continued. “We’re sitting there teaching them about their medication. Our people will agree because our people are real passive. They’ll accept what you have to say even if they disagree with you. Most of the time, they won’t verbalize it. They’ll do or say what they have to get you out of their house fast.”
However, Lone Elk said things are looking up for the health of the tribe.
“Every year our elder numbers are growing. It’s right there in black and white. We’re living longer, which means we’re doing something right,” she said. “Our pediatric population is booming also.”
Due to her position, Lone Elk still gets to conduct research, just not the research she initially thought of doing in a university setting.
Former SDSU College of Nursing Dean Nancy Fahrenwald, whose program of community-based participatory research involved American Indian tribes, said, “Public health nurses like Kendra are well-equipped to conduct research with tribal communities. What we know from years of research on health disparities is that a participatory research approach, which identifies health concerns of the community and focuses on collaborative partnerships to meet health needs, is the most successful. Kendra’s environmental-focused project on child asthma is a great example of a meaningful and sustainable way to improve health outcomes.”
National presentation
Lone Elk recently co-presented a session on one of the threats facing the American Indian population.
At the National Tribal Forum on Indoor Air Quality, in partnership with Jill Heins Nesvold from the American Lung Association—Upper Midwest, the session was entitled “Building Capacity to Identify and Remediate Indoor Air Hazards.”
The session offered the numerous lessons learned and outcomes of a three-year indoor air-quality program to address children’s environmental health on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation by building capacity for health-care providers to identify children with poor asthma management, conduct environmental assessment in the home, develop remediation plans and evaluate the impact of the plans.
“It starts with a passion for people and their health,” said Fahrenwald when asked about Lone Elk. “From there, it is the drive and ambition of our alumni that leads to impact, and Kendra’s national presentation on child asthma intervention exemplifies the recognition that follows persistence and passion.”
Those qualities can be shown in her presentations or when she talks about the time and care she provides to the members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, a career Lone Elk never thought she’d pursue.