The quote in the title was one of my favorite quotes that I heard from one of the Native speakers from The Alaska Native Heritage Center. The woman was a Native of Alaska and she became depressed and sought out alcohol for comfort. She was suicidal and her father eventually found out. To get her help, her father hired someone as she explained, like us. She was a white woman with business clothes and name badge. She said that this woman explained her job, her college degree, and jumped into asking a whole bunch of questions. Immediately, she stopped listening and said she believed that this woman was not there to help her.
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For two of the days in Alaska, we had clinical at two different school sites. We got to learn about what school nurses do in a rural setting. The two schools I got to be apart of was Kenai Middle School and West Homer Elementary. My interpretation of school nursing going into these experiences was that the nurses see around 5-10 students a day for having the cold or the flu.
My first experience as a school nurse, which was at the middle school, was nothing less but overwhelming. My nurse Dixie had a minimum of 60 students come in throughout the day. While many students came in for ice, ibuprofen, and tylenol for head aches, stomach aches, and different body pains, to my surprise, many of the middle school students came in for psychosocial issues. These kids have many family issues and are dabbling into drugs and sex at a very young age. Dixie has average 60 kids come in a day because she is someone that they can trust. She said that the kids come to her for counseling rather than the counselor because of the relationships she has worked hard to build. While kids coming into her office just to socialize makes her day busy and puts her behind, she would not take it back. Because she is so lenient with the students, this has allowed them to open up and explain what is really going on. I was so inspired by the work and effort she puts in a day and realized how emotionally and physically draining it is. I also realized that a lot of the kids do not eat breakfast or drink enough water at this age. This issue was causing majority of the headaches and stomach pains the students were facing. She had saltines, peanut butter, and apple sauce that she would hand out to the kids who did not eat. There was constant teaching throughout the day, ranging from personal hygiene, bullying, healthy eating, and coping strategies. My experience at the elementary was a totally different ball field. My nurse only saw about 20 students and her two main ones were diabetics (a kindergartner and a 4th grader). The entire day at the elementary school, we spent teaching 3-4 graders about hand hygiene and 5-6 about nutrition. I really enjoyed this experience even though I was nervous coming into it. I was afraid the kids were not going to enjoy or respect what I had to say. I planned a fun enough lesson where the kids were engaged, had fun with the activities, and were learning. While it got rowdy at times, I loved "seeing" the light bulbs go off in the kids heads. I loved the education part of the experience and learning how to teach children about their health. Overall, I absolutely loved my school nursing experiences and it was definitely not what I was expecting. The amount of emotional support these kids need is enormous and difficult to figure out how to provide at times. These nurses are constantly teaching kids how to grow and become healthy young adults. If it was not for these experiences, I would have never of known how important these nurses are in many of these students lives. Thank you so much school nurses for all you do! One of the days we were able to go to a museum and learn about the Native culture and look at some of the art. I was extremely fascinated by the floor I took pictures of above. There was a giant list of the different regions in Alaska that we were able to see before entering the exhibit. Once you walked into the giant room, there were rows of glass containers holding tons of artifacts. Each side of the rows had a sign from the different regions they were from. Behind the glass showed the different kind of clothing, footwear, tools, artwork, masks, etc. I really enjoyed this because you could see the similarities and differences between the groups. While many use furs for their clothing, their decorations and patterns they use on them are similar yet very different. We were told that you can tell where someone is from just by how their clothing is made. I enjoyed seeing all the artifacts and how rural the regions were. My favorite artifact that I saw were the jackets made out of fish skin. They make these to protect them from rain and snow, which keeps them dry. I loved seeing all of the different artifacts and art throughout the tour through the museum.
This trip to Alaska came at the perfect time. My life has been chaotic the past couple months and I have been scrambling to find time to unwind. Life has been constantly throwing challenges and has been moving incredibly fast. I just recently bought a new car and have gotten hired for a nursing job when I graduate at St. Luke's ICU float pool. While this is all exciting, it have been also overwhelming. Thinking about grad school, buying an apartment for my dog Kobe and I, and paying off bills has been nothing short of stressful. I have been trying to adopt new hobbies such as reading, working out, and photography to keep my mind preoccupied but it is always pushed to the side because of school and work. I felt as if life was controlling me and I did not have a way to take the wheel. When we got to Alaska, we were given time to site see and the beauty took over me. I was taking pictures of the mountains and my classmates and my soul was at ease. I was in a different world, seeing land "untouched" by man. This was what the Native people were able to wake up to and live in every day. Some village's do not have jobs and only do "chores" to help support their families. They do not have the stress of technology or college and can focus solely on their family. Our lives are incredibly different and while I do love the life that I live, I sometimes envy the Natives. Where they live, living off nature, family being everything, having respect for others, and being educated by elders through stories. I have gotten consumed in the beauty and have a new appreciation for nature and how EVERYTHING is connected. Not only is nature there for the scenery, but it has many uses that we do not fully respect or use. I could sit in one spot and spend hours taking pictures of everything around me. I am blessed for what this world provides for us and I want to pass on the importance of preserving the land like Alaska.
PLANE RIDE
After a long day of traveling and patiently waiting to get to Alaska, we glanced out the plane windows and realized we were getting "warmer." We could see the snow covered mountains lay across the land for miles as we scrambled in our bags for our camera's. We also got lucky enough to see the sunset over the mountains with the pink, orange, and blue splashes of color through the sky. |
Author
Hello! My name is Molly Jazdzewski, I am a senior nursing student, and I got the chance to experience the lifestyles of Alaska! |