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Gloria Park, |
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| KAREN: And so then when you started and were doing radio calls, you would -- some of the people you talked to had been those chemotherapy aides? DR. PARK: Yeah. And especially in big areas. And occasionally, let's see, I was trying to think when we used the term "health aide" to begin with. KAREN: Yeah. I've been wondering where that term came from. DR. PARK: Some used the term "medical aide," but then that was used in other ways, too. Health -- "health aide" term came along pretty fast. KAREN: Yeah. I forgot to ask -- DR. PARK: But not paid. KAREN: Yeah. It's something I should have asked Walter Johnson where the term "community health aide" came from, you know, that has now become such a common phrase. DR. PARK: Yeah. KAREN: You know, how it developed. DR. PARK: It was so common, I can't remember where it came from, either. Walt might remember that. I did dig out one of the 1976 booklets that gives a little bit of history in the front of it. I could get that out before you leave. KAREN: Sure. DR. PARK: Or I can do it now, whichever. KAREN: No. Before I leave, we'll take a look at it. DR. PARK: It's 1976, though. KAREN: Yeah. It would be interesting to see. DR. PARK: And I can't find a copy of the first one. What happened is each -- each hospital, each field hospital, and the Anchorage hospital was considered the main hospital. And -- and we developed a program and to -- to work with health aides in the village, until later on when there were funds to bring them in, to actually bring them in for two or three weeks, or whatever, for some training. And we started volunteer-type -- well, I shouldn't use the word "volunteer." Our own staff would go out and hold field trips, and we tried to get into the main villages at least twice a year. And just once a year on the smaller ones. Later on, that got a little more frequent. And since when I came, there was no one working full time in the outpatient department. KAREN: Wow. DR. PARK: So I inherited the outpatient department, which within a few days, somebody notified me that I was supposed to go upstairs and deliver a baby, because they said whoever is working in outpatient department also did do deliveries. That way they didn't -- you know, they couldn't pull people out of surgery. KAREN: Yeah. DR. PARK: And some of the specialists had not had any background, you know, went straight into a residency program. KAREN: So had you delivered a baby before? DR. PARK: Yeah. KAREN: Or that was your first one? DR. PARK: I delivered -- I delivered quite a few in internship -- KAREN: Uh-hum. DR. PARK: -- on a regular basis. So. And later on, a lot of the physicians came up here that had not. They went directly into certain specialties. KAREN: So when you -- the staff traveled out to the villages on these field trips, were you training the health aides or was it to provide medical services for people in the villages? DR. PARK: Both. And if there was no -- what I -- what I asked our physicians to do, and I did a lot of trips, and then mainly the physicians on other services sort of volunteered to go. And we developed a -- a list of supplies and all and what to take and -- and, of course, took some of the records, not much, and take especially hospitalization records of -- of that village. And it was a matter of one of the first things each physician had to do was pack their own stuff, and then we would arrange for one of the nurses to help us with that. But we used usually two foot lockers, the old-fashioned foot lockers. And -- and we'd develop our own list of stuff, take limited records because you don't want to carry around too many of that. And go out, meet the -- the chemo aide or the health aide or the midwife, they would volunteer to help us with clinic. And -- and it was a matter of follow-up on physicians -- or on patients in the clinics. That had been in the hospital. And then see anybody who was sick or had a chronic disease. And, of course, the majority of the village might well be perfectly healthy when we arrived, but we encouraged regular physicals, and we did the school physicals. And from that is the gradual development of what to take with you and what to do and -- and get somebody that's a volunteer. Usually there would be two or three people in a -- in a village who would volunteer to help us set up for the clinic. And we would hold clinic in wherever there was space. Frequently, the back room of a school, if they had more than one room. Or sometimes just a matter of curtaining off a part of the school. KAREN: Uh-hum. DR. PARK: And we would hold clinic at least one evening to get those that were busy in the daytime. | |
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Last updated 11-4-06
Last updated 11-4-06