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Hannah Anderson, |
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| MARLA: When -- when did you retire? HANNAH: Five years ago. What year was that? MARLA: So in 2000 you retired? Was there a health aide before you started working here? Was there -- HANNAH: No. No. MARLA: There had never been a health aide in Bettles before? What did people do then? HANNAH: I guess they go into Fairbanks for health care. And there were big -- a lot of families here. FAA families. And of course, there were airplanes -- they, you know, got flown out a lot -- MARLA: Fly. HANNAH: -- for any kind of care and that. And the state was here, they had families. And sometimes there was -- Park Service wasn't here yet. But some of them would be, like -- I always thought there was an EMT or somebody that had some sort of -- MARLA: Medical training? HANNAH: -- medical training. Yeah. First responders or, you know, type of thing. MARLA: But there are always airplanes here? HANNAH: Yeah. In and out. Yeah. MARLA: And so they were always in and out. HANNAH: Uh-hum. MARLA: And did you ever have a hard time getting in touch with the doctor, or did you always have telephone communication? HANNAH: I -- I always had telephone communication with the doctor. It wasn't hard to get ahold of a doctor. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: Yeah. Some -- some of the places had a radio, and so I don't know how that was, like Allakaket, I guess, had radio at the beginning. We always had telephones when I started. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: Yeah. So it wasn't so bad that way. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: Yeah. MARLA: And did you have any role models or any people that you looked up to? HANNAH: Yeah. You mean as health aides or as -- MARLA: Yeah. Or in the profession. HANNAH: Oh, yeah, Dr. Johnson was one of them. And Jim Androuli. And lots of doctors. Public Health nurses, a lot of them, like they go out and take care of, I guess what they do, screening, immunizations, and stuff like that. Villages, when there was nobody else. No health aides and stuff. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: Yeah. MARLA: Anyone in particular that stands out in the Public Health nurse that -- or -- HANNAH: I can't think of names right now. When Andy and I were at the lodge, once or twice a year would be health -- Public Health nurses would come out. And they did everything. They checked. Yeah, I mean back then, they did everything. You know. They just didn't go out and screen kids and hearing and eyes and stuff like that, they went and they checked patients. MARLA: Right. Did they have -- did they have patients come to the lodge or did they go to people's houses or -- HANNAH: Usually FAA was here so they had counts of fact, they would set up clinic over there. And give shots and check people and do pap smears and stuff like that. MARLA: Right. And did you have to do immunizations for the kids in the schools? HANNAH: Yeah. Uh-hum. MARLA: And what else did you have to -- HANNAH: We did that and -- well, we were in a fluoride program back then. MARLA: What does that mean? HANNAH: That means doing fluoride. MARLA: Oh, okay. Fluoride treatments? HANNAH: Treatments and stuff for kids. MARLA: So you were doing that work, as well? HANNAH: I don't think they do that anymore. No, they had sent out these things to take to school and do fluorides. MARLA: I remember having a plate -- HANNAH: Yeah. MARLA: -- that they would put up. HANNAH: Yeah. That was -- see, I'm kind of forgetting. It was preventative dental. MARLA: Dentistry. HANNAH: Yeah. MARLA: So how to floss and how to -- HANNAH: You floss and you brush your teeth, and how to brush your teeth and stuff. Because we had that in training and stuff. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: We would just come out here and do -- it was part of the health aides' work, I guess. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: So we were trained to do that. We were not dentists or dental assistants, we were health aides that, you know, took care of that portion of the health program. MARLA: A preventative. HANNAH: Yeah. Preventative stuff. MARLA: So you didn't ever have to pull teeth or anything? HANNAH: No. No. No teeth pulling. MARLA: What other kind of -- HANNAH: All right. It was bad enough. To listen to today's kids, you would think you were pulling their teeth. Yeah. MARLA: Well, what other kind of preventative education did you perform in the village? Was there anything? HANNAH: I can't think of anything. MARLA: I imagine that -- HANNAH: There was preventative stuff, you know, would be -- what would it be? MARLA: Like I was thinking like, you know, diet or, you know -- HANNAH: We didn't do -- we didn't do too much of that. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: I think, you know, a lot of it was like we talked to people about cleanliness, keeping clean, clean water, your food. When people have colds, you wash your hands a lot, use a lot of water. Cuts, you take care of cuts. You cut your hand, wash. You know, part of was common sense. Wash your hands with soap and water. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: Don't just bandage your -- you know. Medicines are not going to take care of everything, you know, you need to keep it clean. MARLA: Yeah. HANNAH: I took care of a lot of cuts and stuff like that. You don't want to get it infected -- you don't want to get it infected. MARLA: Yeah. HANNAH: Burns, cuts, or -- so you wash. Well, we'll give you some medicine to put on it after you wash it. Give you some Bacitracin to put on there if you wash it first. MARLA: Right. HANNAH: Yeah. That type of stuff, you know. MARLA: Okay. HANNAH: Everyday stuff people should know already, but -- MARLA: But not sometimes. HANNAH: Yeah. Just get careless. MARLA: Yeah. | |
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Last updated 11-4-06
Last updated 11-4-06