Martina Lauterbach, Transcript Section 10

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KAREN: What kind of advice would you have now for somebody who might want to be a health aide, a young person?

MARTINA: A young person, go for it. And you know, if you want to go on, I mean, you should. I mean, I encourage everybody to go to college right -- you know, nowadays, because you know, if you're going to be in the village, you know, then I would encourage, you know, somebody that wants to be in the medical field to go into being a health aide because they are -- it's not as hard as -- or it's hard, still, but it's not like, you know, when I was a health aide, because you know, they have, you know, paid time off and you know, they have several health aides, you know, in the villages now. They just don't have, like, two people for people -- a village of 500. And they have the itinerant -- itinerant community health practitioners now, too.

KAREN: What's that?

MARTINA: They travel.

KAREN: Oh.

MARTINA: I mean, you know, like if they need a cover in the village, these itinerants will go to different villages. My aunt is one of those. And she does, you know, travelling, covering for people that need health aides in the village.

KAREN: Oh. If somebody needs to go on vacation and their alternate is not available.

MARTINA: Right. Then, you know, this person is, you know, called to go, you know, to that village.

KAREN: Well, that's good.

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: And is she based out of Bethel? I mean, is it a Y -- what is it --

MARTINA: She can be based -- well, she was living here for a while, and, you know, she would fly from here. But Bethel would be the one to contact her to let her know that, you know, this village needs to be covered. You know. Can you -- or would you, you know, be able to cover for them.

KAREN: That seems like that's a new -- fairly new idea.

MARTINA: They've had this for a couple years or longer.

KAREN: It seems like a really good idea.

MARTINA: And they have several of them. I think a lot of them are probably based out of the villages, you know, from their villages, but they -- you know, Bethel is the office. I'm not sure who it would be in Bethel that would, you know, be their supervisor.

KAREN: Right. But also it seems like a good way to be a health aide but get some relief from the pressures of the constant.

MARTINA: Right.

KAREN: Because you could go someplace and then you get a break and then you go someplace else.

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: Yeah. I don't know how you handle that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week schedule of the health aide in the old days.

MARTINA: It was tiring. It was. I mean, you know, even if I wanted to go camping, I couldn't go camping. Because, you know, if I wanted to, you know, go for a boat ride, you know, or just to go a few miles, I mean, I had to make sure that the other health -- you know, the other health aide that was working with me, you know, would be available. And maybe she had plans, I don't know.

I mean, so it was really hard. But I -- you know, I'm glad I experienced it.

KAREN: Well, that's one of my other questions is how do you think being a health aide influenced your life?

MARTINA: Taught me how to be patient. And you know, work hard at my job, you know, right now. And independence, you know, taught you independence. Making decisions. So, I mean, taught you a lot of things.

KAREN: Yeah. Your making decisions made me think about you needed to trust yourself --

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: -- to know what I see here and the symptoms and the diagnosis and what to do, that I'm -- I'm doing the right thing.

MARTINA: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: And it sounds kind of scary.

MARTINA: Yeah, it is, but you know, I could have been wrong. And you know, I still was wrong, you know, sometimes, but at least you know the patient got taken care of. I mean, went to Bethel, and if they needed to go from Bethel to here, you know, Anchorage. And got taken care of.