Saturday, November 24, 2012

So it's been almost a week since I arrived back in the Lower 48...and really, I'm tempted to say that I arrived back in the country; because I feel that Alaska was somewhere in a foreign country! What a different world. There are SO many things back here that I was excited to see again and get used to again; but it's actually taken a long time to adjust to life here. The day we got back to Minnesota I felt like a little mole who'd been weaving my way in the dark underground. Now I'm being forced to get back to the way I used to eat, sleep, exercise, study, and .... well, everything before I left. I'm continually shocked by the amount of things I have around me in such a minimal distance. Seeing malls again that are five minutes from home, being at the Mall of America, seeing Target and Walmart and grocery stores lining every street has been very overwhelming for me. I almost don't know what to do! I feel very spoiled in a way. I know how hard it is for people to travel and get around and get access to basic necessities, especially in Barrow; here I can snap a finger and it's almost delivered on a silver platter. I don't like the feeling. It's almost as if I've turned minimalist since I've been back. There hasn't been anything I was aching to see. I thought people going out on Black Friday had lost their minds and if anyone from Barrow had heard of Black Friday, they'd surely faint. I guess I'm still trying to get used to everything here. I never, ever want to forget anything I experienced in Alaska. So far I'm golden!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Saturday November 17, 2012

Well, today was our last day in Barrow! I was very lucky to have finally gotten sleep. Unfortunately, that didn’t occur until late in the morning and so I didn’t get out of bed until about 2:30 pm….but that’s okay. I spent the afternoon slowly getting ready to leave, packing up last minute items and leaving the rest of my food and a hair dryer for the students ha. After that I met Mirri at Cold Man Coffee (THEY HAD ESPRESSO!) so we got espresso with the on-call van driver and then headed back to the dorm until it was time to leave for the airport. We ate a small dinner with Mirri and before you knew it, it was 6:15 and we left for the airport at 6:30! I changed into my scrubs for comfort and we said our goodbyes. It was so surreal pulling up the airport because it seems like we had JUST done that when we arrived. It was just as mind-boggling. We’re still upset we didn’t see a polar bear! Pastor Morrow came to see us off at the airport which was so kind. The airport was packed since there is only a morning flight an an evening flight out of Barrow. We boarded at 7:47 and departed Barrow at 8:30! It was pretty emotional taking off and looking down into the darkness, knowing this crazy adventure hasn’t YET left us! We have a very LONG night and day of traveling into tomorrow afternoon. Oy. Wish us luck!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Our Last "Full" Day!

In addition to yesterday, today was a pretty busy day. We went over to the Public Health Department today at noon to meet with Doreen Leavitt, the Director of Community Health. We discussed changes we might want to make to the program next year; and what has been the most influential experience so far in Barrow. After that we headed over to Kiita Alternative High School to teach a class of about fifteen students about community health and health careers. The students were pretty engaged and it just continued to feel good teaching as much as we could to whoever was interested about the importance of a healthy lifestyle. After that we went back to the college for about an hour and then FINALLY got to teach to the women at Arctic Women in Crisis, a women's and children's shelter for domestic abuse victims. We taught on stress reduction and relaxation techniques. It was a more difficult population to do health education with, but I think there was a lot they were able to take away from the presentation. I can't believe we leave tomorrow! I don't really even know to how mentally "wrap up" all that we've done here. It's been such an amazing experience with ups and downs just like any other place. I know that when I get back to Minnesota this will be such a valuable experience for me to look back on.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Eben Hopson Middle School



















This morning we woke up nice and early (not so nice) and went with Mirri over to Eben Hopson Middle School, where we spent the morning teaching about 600 middle school students about different health topics. Boy, what an energy-expenditure it was to “bring myself back” mentally to a sixth grade level!!!!! My mind and feet were definitely spent by the time we got done at noon! I was in Ms. Parks’s classroom the whole time, presenting seven times, each for thirty minutes. I taught about community health and school health, stress reduction and relaxation with the seventh graders, hand hygiene, gowning and gloving, health careers, nutrition, and blood pressure. The most successful two presentations were the stress reduction presentation and the Glo-Germ activity during the hygiene presentation. The kids ALL understand now that handwashing is THEEEE NUMBER ONE WAY TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF ILLNESS! I think, by the end, I was shouting it at the top of my lungs. Poor Ms. Parks was the behavioral monitor for the sixth graders. Endless rowdiness, I tell you. It was a lot of fun to be introduced as an out-of-state speaker and nursing student! Some of the kids were really smart and most were able to call out ideas about current stressors, current health topics, and ways to keep themselves healthy in this environment. I was very pleased! This is such a critical developmental time and while I slightly expected their focus to be elsewhere than the classroom, they were able to rein in the energy and pay attention. Throughout our time the Wellness Center said our time at the middle school teaching would be very beneficial because it’s highly needed; and I would have to agree! We have tomorrow off and then Friday we will go to Kiita, the alternative high school, and present on community health and available health careers. Then it’s home on Saturday!

November 13, 2012

This morning we met Mirri at AHEC and headed out to Barrow High School, where we had five students attend a lunch session about health careers. We went over a brief overview of available health careers, discussed which classes are usually necessary for pre-reqs and certain programs, and then we discussed the options in nursing. We talked to the students about the importance of critical thinking and healthcare communication as well. Three of the students were interested in nursing, one was interested in med school, and one was interested in radiology technician. It was great to hear that at least five students are interested in health careers! We encouraged the students to continue pursuing opportunities to explore their futures in health. Tomorrow we’ll teach about 600 students in the middle school!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Last Week....

The last few days have been so much fun with Lynnea here! We've definitely hit up the town and made quite a scene.... We have been to visit the Inupiat Heritage Center, Tuzzy Library, and the AC. We went to church this morning and then went on a hunt for a small gift for all the people we've worked with here in Barrow. On Friday night we went to Brower's Cafe for dinner and had a good, warm meal! I think we accomplished a lot in 4 days!

I can't believe our time here is winding down so quickly. If you say it's "technically" Monday, we only have five days left! Things have flown by. We've been able to ruminate a little this week on all that we've experienced so far. It seems like we just arrived in Fairbanks, unsure of where to go and who to talk to.

We're all ready to teach on a variety of health topics this coming Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. We are excited to meet the middle and high school students and hopefully get some hands-on time within the lectures to keep students occupied. We're planning to teach on Western and Native nutrition, stress reduction and relaxation techniques, community health development, health careers, and hygiene/handwashing/gowning and gloving. We have gowns and gloves and blood pressure cuffs and Glo-Germ to let the students experiment with. The community has agreed that these health teaching topics will be very beneficial in getting the students to think about health careers. Stay tuned for a winding down of activity this week!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

 On the charter to Kaktovik!




 A note from Daddy!


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Kaktovik

Well, this is from Monday but the Internet's been too slow to let me upload this entry any earlier.

This morning 16 of us from public health, the wellness center, the library, and other key employers in the community headed to Kaktovik on a charter flight for the health fair. We took off at 10am and landed at 11 to a frigidly cold, and I mean bitter cold, barren place. WAY more remote than Barrow. The snow was glazing white for miles around and looked smooth enough as ice cream, the way the wind had drifted it up into mounds. It was breathtaking—no pun intended. A van from the clinic picked us and all our gear up and we headed for Kaleook School, where we set up shop in the gym. The health fair was quite a success, running from 2:30-5:30pm on a variety of topics including the importance of the flu vaccine (I assisted an LPN from Samuel Simmonds in giving flu shots), BMI readings, BP screenings, cancer screenings for breast and prostate cancer, dental health, gun safety, infant developmental screening, and disaster awareness. Kids and their families filtered in and out and were required to stop at each station. We gave about 20 immunizations which was, I guess, a fairly good number for the health fair. After we closed down at 5:45 we ate some pizza and fruit and then took off on a little polar-bear hunt (in the van). Bertrand drove us around like shrieking kids, looking for the supposedly 7 polar bears currently roaming the area. After a half hour of driving around in the snow with the headlights on (which includes driving ON THE RUNWAY to get out to the bone pile near the water), we drove back. Unsuccessful. I was so disappointed! All I wanted to see was a polar bear! Why did they have to go into hiding NOW? Anyways, then we found out the flight was supposed to land back in Kaktovik at 7:05 and at 7:20 we got a call saying it was JUST leaving Barrow. Hmmmm. So we all piled into the warm clinic and sat for a little over an hour. But we made it back safe, and that’s all that matters.
Well, Professor Lynnea is finally here! She arrived last evening about 7:30 and took a taxi here to the dorm. We gave her a short tour and the boys brought her luggage down to her room. We stayed up catching up and making observations about Barrow, etc. Then this morning she headed off to meet with someone at the Wellness Center in town. When she returned we ate lunch in the dorm and then took a trip into town. We went through the Inupiat Heritage Center which included a lot about the whaling culture and subsistence way of life. After that we walked to Tuzzy Library. It's a pretty beautiful library for such a small town. Then we HAD to go to AC and introduce her to the exorbitant prices of foods.......It's been so nice to have a familiar face here! People have been very welcoming as usual. It's nice to correspond about things in person without the delays of bad Internet and emails! Tomorrow we plan to go out to dinner and drink soda! Time to hit the town.....stay tuned! ;)

Friday, November 2, 2012

Well, our flight that was due back yesterday was cancelled on account of stormy weather. We’re finally back in Barrow! The flight back was choppy but we survived! Overall I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to work in the village and get a close look at providing healthcare where resources are even more limited than in Barrow. I was trusted and welcomed by the people and given quite a bit of autonomy in the clinic, which was very rewarding! Hopefully this weekend we’ll be able to rest and get all packed to fly to Kaktovik for the health fair on Monday.

Happy Halloween!















HAPPY HALLOWEEN! It’s the first time I haven’t been home for Halloween in years! I miss it, but I’m excited to see the little kids trick-or-treat here, although they cheat and drive around in their cars…  This morning we woke up a little later and went back to Kali, where we reviewed the results of the 100 or so PPD’s we placed on Monday morning. Then went back to the apartment and hung around until returning to school at 1:00 for a school-wide Halloween costume parade. Even the babies were dressed up. SO ADORABLE! They had prizes for 3, 2, and 1 place in each grade. The kids were really creative with their costumes! After the parade we saw patients in the clinic all afternoon for immunizations; I even got to lead my own appointment! There were some kids who were okay with getting shots and one who was definitely NOT okay getting shots…imagine what you like! There were also more charting disasters and failed attempts to get ahold of people in the community. How frustrating! I suppose the difficulties are never really solved because the small villages can’t get access to the Anchorage Medical Center records or the Barrow records, which are computerized and organized. Not to mention that a different PHN usually returns to the village each time, and they complete records differently. Sometimes kids just slip through the sidelines and they are considered compliant to go to school even though their records don’t show it. Tomorrow morning we plan to read the last PPD results from those we placed Tuesday, and then get back to the apartment to pack up before the flight to Barrow leaves at 12:30. Overall it’s been an up and down visit! I learned a lot more about PHN and what it entails in a tiny village like Point Lay. I enjoyed working with the people, who were very kind and welcoming. I sensed how close they were as a community and came to recognize the children at the school through their family ties. Life is hard in the village, no doubt; even harder than in Barrow, and in Barrow life is hard as well. For the most part I’ve seen the people be very proactive about their health despite the disparities they face throughout the state. I am humbled by those in the PHN profession who care about the people and sacrifice their time and resources to make the village visits. I’m so glad I got to be a part of one!

Tuesday October 30, 2012

Helloooo! This morning we woke about 7:00 and got ready to go back to Kali School. We placed more PPD’s and then headed back to the clinic. Today I got to give a bunch of immunizations. That’s really all people come in to the clinic for. I got such a good glimpse into the paperwork, the filing, and charting that the PHN’s are responsible for. I also realized how difficult it was, granted that most people in the town are related (literally); they move constantly; a majority don’t have phones; and the charts are NOT organized in any way, shape, or form. It is very difficult to keep track of immunization records and well-child visits because the system is so…well, scattered. It made my head hurt trying to watch Michelle keep on top of charting. In the afternoon we completed a well-baby visit on the CUTEST little baby I’ve ever seen!!!! Oh, so adorable. Poor Mom. I know eye contact is considered fairly rude here but I couldn’t help but stare at this little guy! I just wanted to take him home! Throughout the rest of the afternoon we just continued to prep vaccine information statements and give shots. We were both exhausted by the time night came.