Barbara Johnson, Part 1, Transcript Section 17

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Barbara Johnson, Part 1
Transcript Section 17

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KAREN: Do you feel like that -- the training that you got was enough to help you deal with all the kinds of cases you came across?

BARBARA: Well, yes and no. Because there were times that we have to really -- you know, I've had times when I was talking to the doctor and he would -- he would talk me through different things, you know, that I wasn't taught when I had to do things in the clinic for something. You know, like I had to give a cortisone shot one time and he talked me through that.

KAREN: Yeah.

BARBARA: You know. Because we're not taught to do that. And those kind of things, you know, they talk us through it. And I'm not quite sure what else.

KAREN: When you were first hired in Angoon, did you -- were you hired and you were sent out for training or did you work first and get training later? How did it work?

BARBARA: I think they -- they mostly took me because I was always volunteering, too, and then I filled out the application for that. And then the doctor in Mount Edgecumbe would determine whether I was, you know, whether I could do it or not.

So one of them thought I was too nervous. And so I thought, well. But my aunt was a health aide, too, and they thought I had too many kids, and she told them, too, that's why I'm a health aide because I want to know what to do when they are sick.

So I went, you know, after I was okayed by the doctor to go to, I went to Sitka first and learned, you know, basic vital signs and stuff like that, and basic first aid, you know.

And then after that, we started going to Anchorage for our -- our training.

KAREN: Yeah. Well, so yeah, you started with not very much.

BARBARA: Huh-uh. Nowadays, they have really good training. Whereas before, when they were training us, it was okay, you know, nowadays, I wished I had trained -- the training they have now because it's so good. You know.