Nursing in Barrow

Children in grades pre-K through 12 th grade attend Harold Kaveolook School in Kaktovik.   It’s a modern facility with staff, Inupiat and Caucasian, that seem passionate about their work with the children.  The ratio is 7:1, students to teachers and since arriving on the North Slope close to year ago, I’ve heard teachers talk about wanting to work there. The new principal, Todd and his wife, Ann, the combined 3 rd and 4 th grade teacher, had most recently moved from Ambler, in the Kobuk region, where teacher, authors and photographers, Nick Jans (titles of books listed in a June blog entry, “Overcoming Writer’s Block”, after sharing a flight to Fairbanks) and Seth Kantner (Ordinary Wolves, Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska) spent good parts of their lives.  Nick moved there as a young man while Seth grew up nearby with his brother and parents subsisting off of the land.  Ann said that the school there where they worked and where Nick taught...

On Monday, I placed PPD’s on 57 children ranging from pre-school to 12 th grade.  The kids are absolutely precious—some curious, some afraid, some shy, some friendly, some extremely funny and some self-reported to be very brave.  I set up an area off of the teacher’s lounge to place the TB testing and let Amanda, the school secretary know I was ready to start.   Miss Catherine brought pre-schooler’s one by one in to see me where I explained the shot and how important it was.  “Is it going to hurt?” most wanted to know.  I assured them that it probably would hurt a little bit, but that I’d be as fast as I could and that Miss Catherine was there to hold their other hand if they wanted.  Another woman, Marie, lent a hand when holding a little arm in place was required.  I promised bubble blowing afterwards and saw many concerned little faces brighten up and then laugh, saying “that didn’t hurt at all!”  They were good advertisements for the chi...

I felt fortunate to being flying to Kaktovik on Barter Island to work in the clinic this second week of September.  Bertrand, the public health nurse who had been assigned to the village before me had advised I go this week, saying that it’s when I would see the most polar bears as well as learn more about the culture in the village as they would have started their fall whaling season. I wasn’t able to prepare for the trip during the week as other things kept pulling for my attention, so I enjoyed spending a quiet Saturday there, planning and packing.  I would be placing PPD’s, the skin test for TB on all of the children in the village school as well as giving immunizations to those who needed them, doing well child checks on infants, and giving education around SIDS, caring for teeth, starting solids, reading, common infections, toilet training, temper tantrums and reducing risk factors for diabetes, heart and vascular diseases and obesity. Public Health Nursing has...

One of the highlights of the 4 th of July festivities was an umiaq race held on the ocean on Friday night.   Ten whaling crews would paddle out and around an ice berg in their skin boats, competing for a monetary prize and most likely the satisfaction of their teamwork and having a well-made vessel.   You’d think that I might have learned from the night before, but because this could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Sandi, Stefan and Michael, I found myself anxious for us to arrive when it was scheduled to begin at 7 pm.   I encouraged everyone to jog on our way from the apartment to where they would launch, shouting, “Run!   Come on!   It’s going to start in a few minutes!”   A few minutes turned into quite a while but we enjoyed the time immensely, meeting one of the whalers and his crew waiting to go out and his wife there keeping an eye on their young son who would be in the boat with his father. ...