Wednesday was an early day for us since our shift started at 7am. Today my nurse preceptor was from South Carolina on a 2 year contract. There are a few nurses that are on the 2 year contract. At this hospital there is a high turnover rate. However, they have lots of incentives to get people to come work there since it is not the most desirable place.
I had the same patients as the day before. The person with the frostbite was being discharged. I did find out things about their discharge process that is very different from ours. They are allowed one escort from a village to come with them for free. When discharging a patient, we have to file paperwork about traveling. This is the case since some of these people travel from the different villages and require a plane to get home. It's an additional thing nurses have to it for their job. Sometimes patients aren't able to fly out until the following day. If this is the case, there is a place called a hostel for people to stay for the night. It is just a room with a one bedroom and a common living room and bathroom. They are certainly not glamorous, but they do the trick.
After clinicals we decided to walk around the town. All the houses were built up on stilts. The stilts prevent the permafrost for shifting the houses. Even the hospital is on stilts. We went to the Yupik museum in town. It is a very small place but it shows the different cultural things about the Yupik. After that we meandered over to the "mall." It is the grocery store, clothing store, outdoor, and electronic store. Has everything one might need. We wanted to go check out the food prices. They we astronomically high. A gallon of ice cream cost near $18. A quart of orange juice was $10. This was the same with about everything there. I was blown away with how much everything was. Everything has to be flown in since Bethel is only accessible via airplane or barge. It is hard to imagine how these people make it work with food this expensive.
I had the same patients as the day before. The person with the frostbite was being discharged. I did find out things about their discharge process that is very different from ours. They are allowed one escort from a village to come with them for free. When discharging a patient, we have to file paperwork about traveling. This is the case since some of these people travel from the different villages and require a plane to get home. It's an additional thing nurses have to it for their job. Sometimes patients aren't able to fly out until the following day. If this is the case, there is a place called a hostel for people to stay for the night. It is just a room with a one bedroom and a common living room and bathroom. They are certainly not glamorous, but they do the trick.
After clinicals we decided to walk around the town. All the houses were built up on stilts. The stilts prevent the permafrost for shifting the houses. Even the hospital is on stilts. We went to the Yupik museum in town. It is a very small place but it shows the different cultural things about the Yupik. After that we meandered over to the "mall." It is the grocery store, clothing store, outdoor, and electronic store. Has everything one might need. We wanted to go check out the food prices. They we astronomically high. A gallon of ice cream cost near $18. A quart of orange juice was $10. This was the same with about everything there. I was blown away with how much everything was. Everything has to be flown in since Bethel is only accessible via airplane or barge. It is hard to imagine how these people make it work with food this expensive.