In 2020, Oklahoma State University partnered with the Cherokee Nation to open the first tribally affiliated medical school in the U.S. It’s hoped that the school would help to address the shortage of doctors in rural Oklahoma, where there’s a 25% vacancy rate for medical providers in the Indian Health Services. Recently, the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at Cherokee Nation held its first commencement in Tulsa, minting 46 new doctors, nine of whom are Native American.
One graduate, Mackenzee Thompson, a 26-year-old member of the Choctaw Nation, is helping to fulfill the school’s goal by continuing her medical training at the Cherokee Nation Family Medicine Residency, serving rural Oklahoma. This is exactly what Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr of the Cherokee Nation hoped the school would do, provide medical personnel to local medical facilities that reflect the area’s demographics.
The school’s dean, Dr. Natasha Bray, says building and staffing the school has been a challenge, but OSU has been a reliable partner and, according to Thompson, they’ve provided great support to the students, as well. But getting the first-of-its-kind medical school up and running was just the first part of the Cherokee Nations plan. Chief Hoskin says the tribe is committed to making healthcare a priority, “asserting control over its own healthcare destiny.”
Source: GOOD MORNING AMERICA