Before we toured the health facilities on Monday, we visited Seward. It was one of the most beautiful drives I have ever taken in my life. The mountains, water, and wildlife were perfect. We saw moose, puffins, harbor seals, mountain goats, and best of all….a humpback whale. Val and I met some locals on the beach and they said they haven’t seen that in over 20 years! I also had AMAZING seafood chowder at a local tavern that reminded me of Wisconsin. I’ll definitely be back there someday.
Monday morning we toured the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium along with the medical center and the southcentral foundation. It was really fun to get to see healthcare in not only a different state, but with an entirely different population of people than we are used to. We had three truly amazing presenters in the morning talk about their involvement with the health of the native alaskan people. We first met Josephine, a native Athabascan from up the Yukon river, and she was so enjoyable as a presenter. She told us stories of her people: her dad’s hunting stories, how they cured salmon, picking berries with her husband, how she met her husband from the marines, it was so generous of her to share with us and really made us realize how big of an impact this culture has on this state. She let us know that this was expected in encounters with natives, we have to be good listeners and respect what they want to know and what they want to know about us. We then listened to two nurses in leadership, one was integrating councils into leadership positions within nursing and the other presented to us a presentation on safety in regards to cultural competence. One of the most impacting presentations today was that of the engineer involved with native living outreach programs. There are so many risks with Alaskan rural living that can be easily solved with the right technology. First of all, most of Alaska is inaccessible via roads, therefore creating even more problems. By flying out to these villages and improving sanitation they break a huge barrier to health for them.
After that, we learned about Telehealth in Alaska and how important that is because of the inaccessibility throughout the state. It was very interesting to see how many obstacles are in the way such as primary care and medication refill, when we are so used to it where we are from. Tomorrow as I start clinical I hope to be able to learn even more about the alaskan culture and how they cherish the traditions of their people within the healthcare system here.
Monday morning we toured the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium along with the medical center and the southcentral foundation. It was really fun to get to see healthcare in not only a different state, but with an entirely different population of people than we are used to. We had three truly amazing presenters in the morning talk about their involvement with the health of the native alaskan people. We first met Josephine, a native Athabascan from up the Yukon river, and she was so enjoyable as a presenter. She told us stories of her people: her dad’s hunting stories, how they cured salmon, picking berries with her husband, how she met her husband from the marines, it was so generous of her to share with us and really made us realize how big of an impact this culture has on this state. She let us know that this was expected in encounters with natives, we have to be good listeners and respect what they want to know and what they want to know about us. We then listened to two nurses in leadership, one was integrating councils into leadership positions within nursing and the other presented to us a presentation on safety in regards to cultural competence. One of the most impacting presentations today was that of the engineer involved with native living outreach programs. There are so many risks with Alaskan rural living that can be easily solved with the right technology. First of all, most of Alaska is inaccessible via roads, therefore creating even more problems. By flying out to these villages and improving sanitation they break a huge barrier to health for them.
After that, we learned about Telehealth in Alaska and how important that is because of the inaccessibility throughout the state. It was very interesting to see how many obstacles are in the way such as primary care and medication refill, when we are so used to it where we are from. Tomorrow as I start clinical I hope to be able to learn even more about the alaskan culture and how they cherish the traditions of their people within the healthcare system here.