Native News Network

First Board-Certified Navajo Female Surgeon Nominated for U.S. Surgeon General

Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord has put a lot of thought into how to improve health care for American Indians and in the process has come up with concepts that could make the nation's health care system better for everyone. Arviso Alvord, the first board-certified Navajo woman surgeon, has been nominated to serve as U.S. Surgeon General by the by the National Indian Health Board and the National Congress of American Indians.

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Working at the Indian Health Service hospital in Gallup, New Mexico, Arviso Alvord says she saw how uncomfortable Navajo patients were in dealing with white doctors and Western medical facilities. "They were two completely different cultures," she says, so she started integrating traditional Navajo and Western principles of healing. "I listened patiently as people spoke, rather than trying to extract information from them. I tried to make sure I understood what they wanted. Some people wanted to take sacred objects into surgery with them, so we were flexible. We were very respectful of their ways of understanding."