Graduate Spotlight
Kathleen Oakford, RN, MNH and ND
Kathleen Oakford has worked in Michigan as a labor and delivery nurse for 15 years, including nursing management for almost eight years. She is encouraged to see her hospital administration moving toward cost-effective alternative and complementary care, and energetic in her role to help government agencies see the light.
This mother of four discovered the effectiveness of holistic healthcare first-hand by pure necessity when one of her children was born with a chronic condition. Over the years Kathleen learned to give her son plenty of B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and evening primrose oil. Then when the family discovered UCLA’s Finegold Diet – which eliminates foods with artificial colors, artificial flavors, and preservatives – they even learned how to eliminate certain prescription drugs.
The Oakfords both work with Michigan’s Natural Law Party (NLP), whose platform includes monetary incentives for wellness: treatments and methods that help prevent disease. “Our healthcare system pays for lumbar surgery but not chiropractic care. It pays for heart surgery but not preventive cardio-pulmonary exercise programs,” she says. “We need healthcare reform.”
Kathleen Oakford favorably compares her CCNH distance-learning experience with traditional college. “So much in-class teaching are just rote memorization,” she recalls, “without deep, intense learning. Independent study results in independent thinking, to choose your own direction and find your own way.”
During her midnight shifts in neonatal, she was able to complete Clayton College assignments in between her tiny patients’ long naps. At home she followed the same routine on weekends, nurturing and being nurtured by her family while ultimately earning two graduate degrees in natural health, both with high honors.
Oakford sees the value of midwifery as well as conventional hospital deliveries. Although she prefers a nurse/midwife for general OB/GYN care, she feels that all “first births” should occur within a hospital setting whenever possible. She is helping her facility become more like a birthing center, so that families get the best of both worlds.
Oakford has also gravitated to healthcare leadership over hands-on care. She wants to change the system, by helping change many minds at once rather than one mind at a time. As a nurse educator, she facilitates RN-to-RN training and patient education in herbal gardening, natural antibiotics, and guided imagery / visualization.
“Sometimes nurses feel trapped and burned-out by the constraints of current healthcare policy, but there are so many directions in which to go. With an advanced degree, nurses can shift to teaching. This is so rewarding because it lets the most gifted nurses reinvent their jobs rather than fade away.
“Politically, I believe that healthcare reform has to come from both the top and the bottom in order to help the most people. If Medicare and Medicaid covered natural and preventive treatments, our healthcare crisis would be over. It doesn’t matter to me if I am the lawmaker who changes the law or a citizen making recommendations to the lawmakers. I just want to help make things happen.”
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