Transforming Care at Home in Navajo Nation
Bronwyn Smith | Clinical Pharmacist | Navajo Nation | 2021 Global HEAL Fellow
The skills, confidence, and community Bronwyn gained from HEAL are shown to support retention in underserved communities that face healthcare workforce shortages.
85%
Of fellows report that they are more confident after participating in HEAL
During her lunch break, Dr. Bronwyn Smith often sits at her mom’s kitchen table, just down the street from Tuba City Regional Health Care’s satellite clinic in LeChee, the Navajo community where she grew up and has served since 2016. It’s a short journey between family and work, but one that reflects the deeper responsibility Bronwyn carries as a Diné clinical pharmacist: caring for her community while working to improve the systems that shape their health. Studies show that when clinicians have a deep shared history with their patients, as Bronwyn does, caring for the community she grew up in, they can provide more culturally concordant care, proven to increase BIPOC patient medication adherence.
Early in her career, Bronwyn recognized opportunities to improve care, but pushing for change on her own felt isolating and overwhelming. That shifted when she found HEAL.
Through the Global HEAL Program, Bronwyn joined a community of healthcare workers, 20% of them Indigenous, who faced similar struggles and helped translate her lived experience into systems-level action. The skills, confidence, and community Bronwyn gained from HEAL are shown to support retention in underserved communities that face healthcare workforce shortages. Bronwyn took that a step further. With community support and tools such as systems mapping, power analysis, and culturally grounded approaches, Bronwyn redesigned her pharmacy workflow to reduce wait times. She also launched a diabetes and anticoagulation clinic in LeChee, directly meeting community-identified needs. In fact, the majority of HEAL Fellows say that they apply the skills and knowledge from HEAL training to their day-to-day work in healthcare.
Today, Bronwyn’s impact continues to grow. As the post-graduate pharmacy residency director, she draws directly from HEAL teachings. One lesson she returns to often begins with a photo of a woman in labor. Together with residents, she maps the many barriers that women may face just to reach the hospital, helping residents identify the structural determinants of health that stand in the way of many Native patients accessing care. As Bronwyn reminds her trainees, healthcare workers can only change what they learn to see.
Bronwyn returns to HEAL as a mentor in the Southwest Leadership Program, supporting nurses working to improve healthcare access and quality across Navajo and Zuni Nations. She passes on the confidence and tools that helped her find her voice.
Looking ahead, Bronwyn aspires to serve as a chapter house leader, advocating for community-driven change at the national level in Navajo Nation. From her mother to her children, her vision remains rooted in home: “My hope for what I’m doing now is laying a foundation for others to follow behind me to create a healthier, more culturally grounded community, and build a world that is more kind.”