Update from Jeff

From Jeff:

Well, three weeks down as a nurse in the Alaskan tundra. Nursing here is quite an experience and I don’t think there is really anything thing that could have prepared me for this. As the motto states: “Alaska tundra nurses: we are out there.” I am here to tell you that there has never been a more true statement. I am learning that improvising and doing things in unconventional ways is just a part of nursing here in the Alaskan bush. The experiences I have here will go a long way throughout my career.

I work in an outpatient clinic here at the YKHC Regional Hospital. We serve pediatric patients and our clinic doctors also provide family medicine services. We see upwards of sixty patients throughout the day unless the airplanes can’t get to the villages, which during the winter is a common occurrence, so I have been told. Besides my clinic there are two other clinics and we have an OB department and an ER but any intensive care patients go straight to Anchorage.

Since I started, I have given more vaccinations than I can count. We also do more chest x-rays than you will ever see down in the lower 48. This is because Tuberculosis and Pneumonia are still common illnesses here as well as a number of other illnesses that you don’t normally see. 

I like that there isn’t much distinction between RN’s and LPN’s here. We are all nurses here and LPN’s are not looked down upon like I noticed in the lower 48 states.  I really like my job and the challenges that it presents to me every day. I don’t think there will be very many dull moments during my time here in Bethel. I love being a nurse in rural Alaska. I look forward to the summer when I will get to fly to the real last frontier of North America and visit the villages of some of the most isolated populations of the United States. I am looking forward to our upcoming cultural events and am enjoying working with the Eskimo’s. They are very appreciative of healthcare workers and they are a very positive and friendly group of people.  They make it all worth it with their gratitude.

                Well that is all for now. I hope you all are well. Now, that Laura is here I finally feel like this is home and I am happy to be here in Bethel and the Last Frontier of Alaska. God bless and bye for now!

From Laura:

Over the last two weeks, I’ve noticed that the airplanes come in to land at the airport from one direction and fly over our house on the takeoff.  However, the wind picked up again today and all of the planes have switched directions.  When they’re landing now, they come in right over our house, so low that the noise roars throughout the house and from the deck outside, I’ve even been able to read their numbers on the side of the airplane.  Apparently when it’s windy, they come in to land in the direction that makes the wind more of a tailwind so they’re not fighting it in the other direction.  It’s crazy cool! 

We have not gotten any snow so far today (so I’m down $1 to Jeff!), but it’s still predicted on the forecast for the next ten days.  We’ll see what it looks like tomorrow!