Denali Center

Today was day 1 at the Denali Center, which is connected to the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center, where I was last week. I spent today orienting to the Denali Center with one of the RN's. Denali Center is the only skilled nursing facility in interior Alaska. The next closest place would be in Anchorage. The Denali Center has four wings-- Tamarack and Birch are both long-term care wings; Willow Run is a dementia unit; and Aspen is the short-term care wing. I got a tour of each wing and I was also able to meet the RN's, LPN's, and the nurse practitioner, who I spent the later part of the afternoon talking to about Master's options and her role at Denali. It was a very different day for me; the flow was slower and I was allowed to kind of make myself useful any way I wanted to. I got to listen to some great stories of two women, one who grew up in a remote village and another who grew up in Fairbanks. It was amazing to sit back and listen to these elderly women recall memories of their families and of childhood, which seemed like a long time ago. I realized everyone can learn so much from these people. Their knowledge and wisdom is invaluable and can so easily heighten perceptions of nursing.