Nolita Madros, Transcript Section 2

Community Health Aide Program Project Jukebox

Nolita Madros,
Transcript Section 2

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MARLA: So what was -- what was the transition from being a CHR to a CHP?

NOLITA: Well, the CHR was mostly letting the CHP know what was going on with the patient, versus when you're a CHA, you actually get to help the patient with their medical problems.

MARLA: Okay. And so just so we can clarify, CHR stands for?

NOLITA: Community Health Representative.

MARLA: And CHP stands for?

NOLITA: Community Health Practitioner.

MARLA: And CHA is?

NOLITA: Community Health Aide.

MARLA: Health aide. Okay. So transferring over to Ruby meant you had to go get more training to become a CHP or --

NOLITA: Oh, yeah. When I transferred, it just meant that my whole door for medical information opened up. I had to go to sessions, and then, of course, you had the training period to take care of people.

MARLA: And what kind of training? What was the training like?

NOLITA: The first one I went to, I transferred in June and I went to my first session, Session 1. Back then there was three sessions, 1, 2, and 3. I was like the last part of that program with the three sessions. Right now we have five sessions.

So -- so I went to Sitka. Or, no, Seward. I went to Seward first. And that was pretty interesting. Because I got to meet six other -- five other health aides that was from all over the state of Alaska, and we started our -- our training.

MARLA: So when was that?

NOLITA: September of '92.

MARLA: Okay. And so the -- what was the first training? What did you learn at the first training?

NOLITA: How to do blood pressures, how to do measure -- you know, basic stuff. You know, blood pressure, vitals, emergency skills, we had to have that. And we did some suturing. Some IV stuff. But just basically how to check -- check the patient.

MARLA: Okay.

NOLITA: So.

MARLA: And how long was that session?

NOLITA: Four weeks.

MARLA: Okay. Wow. That's pretty long, huh?

NOLITA: I don't know. Four weeks is a long time to be away from your family, but it really helps your job when you learn.

MARLA: Yeah.

NOLITA: So.

MARLA: Yeah. And then why in Seward?

NOLITA: It was one of the training centers. There's training centers in Nome, Bethel, at that time Seward, Sitka, and later there was one in Fairbanks for a while. So.

MARLA: Okay. And so how long did you stay in Ruby?

NOLITA: I stayed there until '98.

MARLA: Oh. So six years. And during that time, did you continue to get the rest of the trainings?

NOLITA: Yes, I did.

MARLA: Okay. And what were the -- what were they like?

NOLITA: Well, the Session 2 just basically brought you back up to speed to Session 1, and then it gave you more experience in how to do different kind of exams and stuff.

MARLA: Okay. And did you know people in Ruby before you moved there?

NOLITA: Yeah. I had friends there.

MARLA: Okay.

NOLITA: Friends. Friends from school.

MARLA: Was it hard to be a health aide or a CHP in a village that wasn't your own? Or wasn't the one you -- you were raised in?

NOLITA: Well, no, but you know, as -- I always look at things in two ways. One door closes, another one opens. It's just like a new adventure.

And so once my CHR door closed, my CHA door opened, at first it was hard because I had a two-year-old son and I was a single parent, I had to find a dependable, reliable baby-sitter, and that -- that didn't take very long.

I got someone that, you know, would take my son and at a moment's notice or -- and she had a lot of kids, her and her husband. And they would always know when something was going on, even before I knew.

So one of the kids, one of the older kids, the teenagers, would come pick up Adrian, and would say this person got hurt on a snow machine, blah-de-blah, and I'm bringing Adrian to mom and dad. And you can pick him up -- and if it was late at night, I'd just pick him up the next day. So.

MARLA: That's pretty great.

NOLITA: So -- and on the very bottom line with baby-sitters is you've got to -- that is your lifeline to your job. So you treat your baby-sitter the best. They -- there's no other person in the world that you could trust to watch your child.

MARLA: Yeah.

NOLITA: And they did a great job.

MARLA: That's great.

NOLITA: Linda and Butch did a great job. And with their kids, too.

MARLA: And what's their last name?

NOLITA: Captain.

MARLA: Captain.

NOLITA: Yeah.