6 week update

Six weeks ago, I started my career in nursing. At last, I was following through with my dream of becoming a nurse; after decades of thinking about it, now I was living it. Let me tell you, that first day was scary as hell. No amount of clinicals or school can prepare you for the day that you are now the nurse and not the student. Your license gives you the ultimate responsibility of helping people lead healthy lives and to stay alive when health is failing them. The first few weeks were very overwhelming. Here I was a baby nurse in a surreal situation in a small town in Alaska I had never heard of a few months ago.

The organization I work for is unique in many ways. I work in a clinic that would probably be considered an ER in most small towns in the lower forty eight. We do procedures and tests that an ER back home would do and it doesn’t matter if there is an LPN or RN behind your name. Up here we are all just nurses on the tundra.

The people we serve here are far different than the patients I worked with during my clinical experiences. They are so appreciative of our services and our facilities have made such a difference in the health care of the Eskimo people. Gone is the highest rate of tuberculosis deaths in the country and now, epidemics of the flu don’t wipe out entire families. 

The Eskimo people value life so much more than their American counterparts. You won’t find an abortion clinic within hundreds of miles. Eskimo’s greet children with open arms by adopting the children born to mothers that choose life but not motherhood. Children are honored in this culture. I’ve also been amazed at how active the men are in their children’s lives. It definitely goes against the old stereotype that men don’t know how to nurture like a mother can.

I am proud to be a nurse for the Eskimo people and Bethel is definitely an experience like no other. I am happy to go to work every morning. Gone are the days of hating my jobs as a preschool teacher. I will be a stronger person, man, and nurse in three years when I head back to my Oregon home. I love you all and miss you all more than you will ever know but I don’t regret the decision I made coming up to the last frontier of Alaska!