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Gloria Park, |
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| KAREN: So when the program was then formalized in 1968, what was your involvement at that point? DR. PARK: In '68? We had -- we had pretty good -- pretty well had travelling clinics going pretty well at that time. Prior to that, it was more sporadic. And -- and we were gradually growing from a handful of villages to a dozen to 20 to 30. KAREN: And so did you continue to work with health aides? DR. PARK: Yeah. And I've forgotten when -- when I made the last field trip. Probably I finally had enough help in outpatient that I had someone that -- well, what I did before we had enough help in outpatient to do this, we borrowed any of the -- what we call GMOs from the different wards and specialties. And they were working as general medical officers -- they used that term with the Public Health Service -- on the internal medicine ward, on the pediatric ward, in surgery. And as they had time to do it, then we sent them on trips to some of the villages, and assigned some areas to them for as long as they were here. And some of them came for two years, some renewed their PHS and stayed. And the Public Health Service would usually let them stay, rather than send them somewhere else, if they wanted to. And -- and I tried to assign villages to -- to them, to cover and do the general stuff, but they didn't also work in the outpatient clinic where I was working until I had at least two physicians that I could assign a few villages to each one. And as I assigned villages to other general positions, then I backed off from making as many trips. And being gone for, you know, a couple months at a time. Or -- well, six weeks is the biggest, I think, that I made. And I rapidly decided this had to be -- to be divided up. KAREN: So -- DR. PARK: So -- so I was more involved then in helping with developing manuals. And we'd get volunteer physicians on other -- other wards to make some of the trips. And they appreciated, too, having certain villages that were sort of theirs. It was kind of like being a general practitioner for -- KAREN: Right. DR. PARK: -- for half a dozen villages. KAREN: Right. So about when do you think was the time where you transitioned out of those field trips? DR. PARK: Personally? KAREN: Yeah, you personally. DR. PARK: Oh, about -- probably by the '80s. KAREN: Okay. So you did it for a long time. DR. PARK: Yeah. And started out, you know, just going. KAREN: So you said up to six weeks. So tell me the schedule of the field trip. DR. PARK: Yeah. Actually, I was trying to think. Six weeks was intermittent over the certain period of time. I was trying to think, the longest actual trip, if you didn't get weathered in, was about two weeks at the most. KAREN: And that would be for one village or -- DR. PARK: No, say all the villages on the Aleutian Chain at one time. And go from village to village. And I actually had one physician marooned because of weather for almost two weeks one time. KAREN: Oh, wow. DR. PARK: The most I -- I didn't usually miss a -- I didn't get marooned more than two or three days at a time. KAREN: You had enough supplies with you? DR. PARK: Personal supplies? KAREN: Yeah. DR. PARK: Or medical or -- KAREN: No, personal. What happened when you got stranded? DR. PARK: You just made do. You know. So... KAREN: All right. So did you enjoy doing those field trips? DR. PARK: Oh, yeah. Get more contact, you know, with the villages, and it was kind of like being a family -- instead of, you know, the first -- the terms of a family physician. And it was the old do whatever you could type thing. But it -- it was interesting. It was kind of like being a small-town doctor on -- on flying here and there. KAREN: So did you miss it once you stopped doing that travelling? DR. PARK: I did. Yeah. But I became more involved in the administration and working in clinic half time. KAREN: Do you -- DR. PARK: Of course, during this time, I was -- I don't know, I think I -- let's see, 1980. I think I was still making trips up close to 19 -- it might have been a little before that. KAREN: So it sounds like you've seen a lot of the state and met a lot of people. DR. PARK: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And each clinic, well, you know, it was like being a family physician for a small group. It was almost -- and of course, almost everybody in the village was related. So it was -- it was a -- it was a good training experience. KAREN: And when did you retire? DR. PARK: In '85. That's why I'm thinking that maybe that '80 was -- might have been closer to '75. | |
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Last updated 11-4-06
Last updated 11-4-06