How Community Keeps Nurses in Navajo Nation
Cristina Rivera Carpenter | Nurse | Navajo Nation | 2016 Global HEAL Fellow
Research shows that social support, advocacy training, and tools to address social determinants of health lead to increased healthcare worker retention and decreased burnout.
90%
Of Fellows report that HEAL makes working long-term in underserved communities feel more sustainable
In Navajo Nation, Dr. Cristina Rivera Carpenter is working at the same hospital where she began her career 16 years ago. An Indigenous woman and single mother of five at the time, she balanced clinical work, teaching, and family while earning her master’s and PhD in nursing. What fueled her? Community.
During her HEAL Fellowship, while starting her PhD program, a co-fellow reminded Cristina that “being strong doesn’t mean doing everything yourself; it’s about knowing when to lean on others and when to let them lean on you.” Through HEAL, Cristina found that community to lean on. Mentors like Dr. Michelle Kahn-John, a PhD-prepared nurse, psychiatric nurse practitioner, healer, and Indigenous scholar, guided, encouraged, and advocated for her as a Robert Wood Johnson Future Nursing Scholar, which helped pay for her PhD program. Dr. Adriann Begay, a HEAL alum, became her mentor and anchor through her hardest moments—so much so that one of Cristina’s daughters’ middle names is Adriann. “So many times it felt impossible, but as a community, we made it through,” Cristina reflects.
Now, Cristina is helping other nurses do the same. Working alongside Dr. Begay, she’s shaping HEAL’s Southwest Leadership Program, designed to support and retain nurses serving Indigenous communities. This program has 18 nurses serving Navajo and Zuni Nations, making HEAL’s Southwest Leadership Program one of the largest Indigenous-led healthcare leadership programs in the US. “HEAL changed my life, my family’s life, and my health system,” she says, “now I want that change to ripple out.”