Once we got to the Anchorage airport and all of us made it through security, we had a couple of hours to wait until our plane boarded at 12:45 am. We flew out of Anchorage about 1:30 am, had a short layover in Seattle, and landed in Minneapolis only a few minutes later than our expected time. After being up since 6 am yesterday morning, experiencing a time difference of three hours, and only sleeping a few hours on the plane, I am very tired. This was an amazing experience and there are so many more adventures that I wish I could write about, but if I did, these posts would turn into novels! I am so thankful that the other students on the trip have become some of my best friends during the past 10 days, and I already miss spending time with all of them. Spending my last college spring break in Alaska with 11 other nursing students and three professors has turned out to be my best college memory. If anyone reading this is considering going on a trip to Alaska, my suggestion would be to do it with an open mind and try as many native foods and activities as you can. This trip has given me a new perspective about travel nurses and rural health care that I would have never gotten if I hadn't gone on this trip. There were some people who thought we were out of our minds to want to go to Alaska for spring break, but I wouldn't trade the past 10 days for anything!
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We saw the northern lights last night! Shelby S. and I went out onto the ice on the Kotzebue sound about 3 am and we were treated with an amazing light show of green lights dancing across the sky. The pictures we got don't come close to showing the beauty of the northern lights, but they are still pretty good. This morning, Ernie and his wife, Mary, drove us to the airport so we wouldn't have to pull our luggage through the snow covered streets. As we flew out of Kotzebue, we watched the sun rise, and we saw several mountains as we got closer to Anchorage. After landing in Anchorage, we were met at the airport by part of our entire Alaska group and drove to Alyeska for a day outside. Once we got to Alyeska, we met the rest of the Alaska group and got our tram passes and decided when and where we would meet at the end of the day. A group of us had planned to go snowshoeing, but the ski resort only had one pair left to rent, so we decided we would just walk on the trails in our boots. We took the tram to the top of the mountain and the views were gorgeous! We ate lunch in the restaurant on the top of the mountain and they had a mountain goat right by our table. After we ate, we took the tram back down the mountain and walked on the snowshoe trails. It was a beautifully sunny day, and the snow was a little soft, so if we got to close to the edge of the trail, we would fall into deep snow. It was a comical walk with great people! After we regrouped, we drove over to a restaurant called Jack Sprat in Alyeska. We had reservations, but we arrived early, so while we waited, some of us walked over to an art gallery which had a wide variety of artwork, including tiny glass flowers. The restaurant was quite nice, and the food was great too. I had baked ricotta cavatelli with chicken which was very good, and I was glad to share some with Sarah who had ordered the dol sot bibimbap not fully knowing what it would be like. After our meal, we drove back to Anchorage to finish packing up and cleaning the house before leaving for the airport about 10 pm. Hopefully the flights back to Minneapolis go well and are on time!
Today was our last day of clinical at Manillaq and Shelbey H. and I were in the ER. We were busier today than we had been the first day we were in the ER, so the day went by very quickly. One patient came in and needed an IV started, and I was able to successfully start my first IV while above the Arctic Circle. During the day, Paula was able to connect with Darlene and picked up the polar bear and sea otter key chains Darlene had made for us. After we finished our day of clinical, one of the secretaries at the hospital, Laura, drove us to Rotman Stores to show us the clothing that they sold, then she drove us to the hotel so we could get ready to go on a snogo ride. Three snogoes and their drivers picked us up at the hotel and we went out onto the tundra. It was cold, but we had lots of layers of warm clothes on which helped us stay warm, especially driving back to Kotzebue into the wind. While we were driving around, we saw several snowshoe hares hiding in the willows. We also saw a trail from caribou, but we didn't see the caribou anywhere. We did see some windmills on the tundra which is how Kotzebue generates their electricity. The water for Kotzebue comes from a lake called Devils Lake, which we drove over while on our snogo ride. We also drove to the top of Cemetery Hill which had a cemetery on the top of a tall hill with a view of almost the entire village of Kotzebue. After we got back to the hotel from the snogo ride, we decided to eat supper at the hotel restaurant. The food was delicous and the view was great too- we watched the sunset over the Kotzebue sound one last time. Tonight we are hoping to see the northern lights, last night when we checked, it was snowing. We leave Kotzebue tomorrow morning to fly to Anchorage, so tonight is our last chance to see the northern lights above the Arctic Circle.
Today Shelbey H. and I worked in the inpatient unit at the hospital. They have 11 patient beds and the patient population includes all ages from infant to elderly with a variety of diagnoses. One thing that is very different than I am used to is having paper charts. The medication information is on paper, along with some of the patient information, but there are some patient assessments that are charted in an electronic health record. The shift today seemed to be fairly consistent with other shifts that I have worked during other clinical rotations on a med-surg floor. After we finished at the hospital, we met a woman who makes things out of furs named Darlene. Paula had met her earlier and asked if we could meet Darlene and see some of her furs. Darlene invited us to her house, and she walked us there from the hospital. While we were walking, a puppy started following us and jumped onto one of the sleds we were borrowing from a staff member at the hospital. After a little while the puppy jumped off the sled and walked over near a house and sat down, so we are thinking that is maybe where the puppy lives. Once we got to Darlene's house, she invited us in and began showing us several of the furs that she had. Some of the furs she showed us were from caribou, wolf, sea otter, seal, polar bear, and calf. Darlene also took the time to share some stories about her family and their traditions, as well as information about her culture and it was clear to see how proud she is of her heritage. Darlene also brought out kuspuks for us to see and showed us how she makes the soles for mukluks. Darlene was so welcoming, offering us coffee and treats, then telling us that she was going to make us each a key chain using fur because she wanted us to each have something beautiful from her village. After leaving Darlene's house, we walked to the AC which has two levels, the first level has a grocery store and the second level has clothing and household items. Many of the food and household items are very expensive because of they need to be flown in or brought in on a barge when the water is open. The items that are heavy or those that take up a lot of space cost more to get to Kotzebue, so they are more expensive in the stores. After our visit to the AC, we then stopped at the fire station on our way to the hotel and had a brief tour and visited with the firemen that were there. Our supper was a Crock Pot meal which consisted of vegetable noodle alfredo and it was sure tasty! After we finished eating and got the supper dishes cleaned up, we divided up the gifts that we brought for our nurse preceptors and other people at the hospital that made our week special. If it is clear enough later tonight, we are planning on going out to see the northern lights.
Today Shelbey H. and I spent the day learning about the different aspects of the Maniilaq Association including their travel coordination department, public health, outpatient services, infection control, and long term care. We began the day learning about travel coordination from Deb, a nurse who works to coordinate travel for patients who need medical care in other places such as Anchorage. Deb works closely with Medicaid to see who will need to cover travel expenses, Medicaid or Maniilaq Association, and there is a lot that goes into setting up travel for patients in Kotzebue and patients in the 11 villages that Maniilaq provides care for. We then went to public health to learn about public health nursing in Kotzebue from Mary and Billy. These nurses work on preventative care by providing vaccinations, well child visits, vision screenings, and education. They also complete tuberculosis screenings in all school aged children because tuberculosis is very prevalent in Kotzebue and the surrounding area. The public health nurses also work with disease epidemiology and make contact with individuals who have a disease or could have been exposed to a disease, in addition to traveling to the 11 villages served by Maniilaq Association and make referrals to Maniilaq as needed. Shelbey and I then went to outpatient services where we met Mary Ann and had a tour. We learned that about 1/3 of the appointments end up as no-shows each day because patients decide they need to go fishing or hunting to provide food for their family instead of coming in for their appointment at the clinic. The people here seem to focus on their family and providing for their family more than focusing on their individual health needs, which goes with their culture. Part of the outpatient services is a specialty clinic that has the entire year planned out with when different specialists will be in Kotzebue. The specialty clinic sends out invitation letters to let people know when specialists will be in Kotzebue so they can schedule appointments. After lunch, we met with Janet in infection control and learned how she monitors the cleanliness of the ER and inpatient units in the hospital and how she works with the state to monitor infections. We ended our day touring the long term care facility which has 18 beds and provides care for the elders of Kotzebue and the other 11 villages Manillaq serves. They try to focus on what is best for the residents and they follow the wishes of the residents as much as they can. The residents here are able to decorate their room however they want and they can have a refrigerator or freezer in their room for their family to bring in and store traditional foods for the resident. There are also several glass cases with artifacts in them including traditional parkas and bone tools. One thing that I found very thoughtful is that any elder in the community can come to long term care and eat three meals a day free of charge. Throughout the entire community in Kotzebue, there is a strong desire to care for the elders and make sure their needs are met. After clinical, we walked to the art gallery which has beautiful furs, whale bone carvings, items made from caribou antlers, mittens, gloves, hats, mukluks, kuspuks, knives, jewelry, and Eskimo yo-yos. We then went back to the hotel to get ready for our second potluck of the week. This potluck was set up by Paula's friend Ernie and his wife, Mary, and included more traditional foods such as reindeer stew, shiifish, salmon spread, pilot bread, vegetables, oranges, chocolate bunt cake, and tang to drink. We were able to talk with Martin again, as well as some other Native Alaskan community members. After our meal, we were treated to native singing and dancing, and we even got to try dancing. The elders in the community seem to have a strong desire to pass on the traditions and culture of the Inupiat people to the younger generations, so it was nice to see some younger people involved with dancing and playing the drums. After the potluck, one of the nurses that was there told us she had found a picture of Paula from when Paula was here nearly 30 years ago!
Today was our first day working in the hospital at Maniilaq. Shelbey H. and I were in the ER, working with two travelling nurses. One nurse had worked in Kotzebue several times and the other nurse had just started here last week. The ER has three exam rooms and a trauma room that is split into two sides so that two trauma patients can be treated in there at the same time. Throughout the day, we only had two patients come into the ER, which the nurses said was unusual. One patient came in with an ingrown toenail, so Shelbey and I had the opportunity to watch a partial toenail removal. Another patient came in an I was able to attempt to start an IV and draw blood to complete lab work, but I was only partially successful. I was able to get blood return in the IV chamber and fill one of the vials, but then the blood would stop flowing and we couldn't get it back. I started another IV and the same thing happened, the nurse then tried a third time and still was unable to get enough blood to fill the third vial. Later Shelbey tried to get blood for the lab work and had trouble with that too. After discussing possible factors for having so much trouble, we decided that the patient was most likely a little bit dehydrated, which makes starting an IV difficult. When we didn't have patients, we were able to talk with the nurses and other hospital staff about their experiences in Kotzebue. Everyone told us about how positive their experiences have been with the local people which made me more excited for the potluck that we are having tomorrow evening with some of the local people. Midway through the shift, one of the main ER coordinators came out to have the nurses complete some paperwork and take a medication quiz, so Shelbey and I took the quiz too and surprised the ER coordinator and ourselves that we would have gotten a passing grade if the quiz was graded. Shelbey and I worked together on the quiz, but the questions were designed for nurses who had been working in the ER for a while, not student nurses, so we were pretty proud of our work. After our shift ended, we walked to the hotel where Paula had made our Crock Pot supper. We had chicken noodle soup that turned into more of a hotdish with spinach and ate it picnic style on the floor as we discussed our day. We ended the night with a clinical conference with the Anchorage and Homer groups.
We left the house in Anchorage at 4:30 am, and Cindy drove us to the Anchorage airport to fly to Kotzebue. I had the Crock Pot as one of my carry on items, and it had our cold food in it, including chicken and cheese. It got pulled to have a TSA agent check it, and the only comment the agent made was, "oh, chicken" as they looked at what was in the Crock Pot. The flight to Kotzebue was about 2/3 full, and we all had window seats and it was neat to see the lights of Kotzebue appear out of the darkness below the plane. Once we landed, we had to wait to get our luggage because the airport is being remodeled and there wasn't room for the out going passengers, the incoming passengers, and our luggage. We were told it would be about an hour before luggage could be picked up and Paula's friend, Ernie, surprised us at the airport, so he gave the students, Shelbey H., Jordyn, Shelby S., and myself a ride to the Nullagvik Hotel, then went back to help Paula with our luggage. Once Paula and Ernie returned to the hotel with our luggage, minus one missing box of food, we quickly brought everything up to the hotel room and walked over the the hospital to begin our first day. It was a cold walk, even with our warm winter coats, hats, mittens, and boots on! Now I know why Paula suggested that we wear snow pants when we walk to clinical in the mornings! We had to complete HR paperwork, get name tags, complete a fit test for the type of masks that are worn when providing care to patients who have tuberculosis, and have a tour of the Maniilaq Association. As we walked from the hospital building to the HR building, we stopped in at the fire department to let them know that we had a surprise for them from Melissa (from the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage) that we would bring by later. After we completed the tour of the Maniilaq Association, we walked back to our hotel to prepare for the potluck that the hospital had organized for us. When we walked from the hotel to the hospital potluck, we dropped of the doughnuts and coffee sent by Melissa at the fire department. During the potluck we ate a combination of native foods and other foods which included muktuk, salmon berries, blueberries from the tundra near Kotzebue, moose chili, homemade buns, salad, pickles, oranges, cookies, and cake. If you haven't heard of muktuk before, it is whale blubber and it has a fishy flavor and is quite chewy. The muktuk that we ate was coated in seal oil and we were told that it is best with a little salt sprinkled on it, so we all at our muktuk with a little salt on it. The potluck was a great way to meet some of the nurses and other hospital staff that we will be working with during the week. After the potluck, we decided to walk around town a little bit and we ended up walking along the Kotzebue sound where we met Martin. Martin was also walking and he stopped to talk to us, as he could tell we were from out of town, and told us many stories along with some information about Kotzebue and it's residents. We ended our first day by having a clinical conference with the group in Anchorage, sharing about our day's experiences.
This morning we left Anchorage to drive to Seward for the day, where some of the group was planning on going kayaking but that was canceled due to an avalanche warning. Along the way, we stopped for pictures along the Seward highway and filled our water bottles from a mountainside artisan well. We also made a bathroom stop part way at a little convenience store. Once we arrived in Seward, we walked around near the water and saw a sea otter swimming around. There was also a sign near the water that marked the start of the Iditarod trail. We also wandered into several of the shops that were open- some were closed for the winter and some were closed because today is Sunday. After spending a few hours looking around Seward, the Homer group left to drive to Homer while the rest of us drove back through the mountains to Anchorage. Along the way we were stopped in traffic for about an hour due to a multi-car accident that was blocking both lanes of traffic. While waiting, the van that I was in made up a story one line at a time to help the time go by faster. Once we made it back to the house in Anchorage, we ate supper and the Kotzebue group got our luggage packed, including four boxes of food.
Today we drove from Anchorage to go on a dog sledding tour at Salmon Berry Tours, near Talkeetna. A few minutes after we began driving, we saw two moose, and we continued to see moose along the way to Talkeetna. After arriving at Salmon Berry Tours, we had dressed in all of our winter clothing layers, and the dog sled guides shared how impressed they were that we were all so prepared for the cold weather. One of the guides had previously worked at a dog sledding place in Minnesota, and it was fun to talk to her about her transition to living in Alaska. On the dog sled tour, we rode around a swamp and enjoyed views of the mountains in the distance. We were also able to tour the dog yard, meet dogs and some puppies, learn a little bit about how they manage the more than 60 dogs that call Salmon Berry Tours their home and prepare the dogs for races. The Iditarod was going on while we were there, so it was fun to meet some dogs that had competed in past Iditarod races. After we all got back from the dog sled rides, we looked in the guest yurt which had cider, hot chocolate, coffee, and information about the Iditarod, including a map of the race on the floor with a marker showing where the leader was. After leaving Salmon Berry Tours, we drove into Talkeetna and explored the little shops there. There was a fat tire bike race going on and the finish line was on main street, so we got in on the fun and cheered the bikers on. It was exciting to see all of the unique shops in Talkeetna and to join in the cheering section for the bike race. On the way back to Anchorage from Talkeetna, we saw stunning views of mountains almost the entire drive. Once we arrived at the house in Anchorage, the faculty, Andrea, Cindy, and Paula, prepared a lovely fish fry dinner for us. We had salmon, cod, and halibut with rosemary roasted potatoes, salad, and roasted broccoli. We ended the day by playing games, hanging out, and laughing so hard we started crying.
After leaving the Minneapolis airport yesterday afternoon with the Crock Pot ready for an adventurous spring break, and a long evening of traveling, we arrived to the house we are staying at in Anchorage at about midnight. Upon waking up to start our first official day in Alaska, we realized that the house we are staying in had a beautiful view of the mountains. We began our first full day in Anchorage today by being woken up by Paula saying we could sleep in later because the first person we were scheduled to meet with needed to reschedule. Due to having our first engagement rescheduled, we had time to go explore a bit of downtown Anchorage. As we walked down the street, we checked out several gift shops, including a fur store. We then drove to the Alaska Native Medical Center for a delicious lunch that included reindeer stew, salmon, and fry bread. Following lunch, we toured the Alaska Native Medical Center which provides comprehensive medical services and acute, specialty, primary and behavioral health care to the Alaska Native and American Indian population in Alaska. At the beginning of our tour, we met a lady named Melissa, who is from Kotzebue, and we offered to bring something up for her if she wanted to send anything with us for her family and/or friends that are in Kotzebue. We then toured the Southcentral Foundation and learned about how they primarily use non-pharmacologic treatments, their focus on holistic medicine and their use of several natural remedies traditionally used by Alaska Natives. The Southcentral Foundation works to improve the health and social conditions of Alaska Native and American Indian people as well as empower people to take charge of their lives. Following these two tours, we returned to the house for supper before heading to the Alaska Native Heritage Center to meet Yaari. Yaari was kind enough to reschedule our meeting from earlier in the day due to a personal scheduling conflict, and we learned so much about her personal experience and her experience with natural medicines. She explained about how she uses natural medicine in her life and in the lives of those she helps heal. She was also able to explain what she does as a shaman and how she is able to use healing touch, and even gave us a demonstration using a student. We ended our first day in Alaska by playing games and becoming even more excited for adventures to come during the remainder of our trip!
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AuthorHi! My name is Megan Hamernik and I am a senior nursing student at The College of St. Scholastica. While on this wonderful trip to Alaska, I was able to spend time in Anchorage, Talkeetna, Seward, Kotzebue, and Alyeska. Please continue reading to learn about my amazing capstone experience in Alaska! ArchivesCategories |