Stella Krumrey,
Transcript Section 4

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KAREN: I didn't finish talking about your training. You said once you became a health aide, then you continued to get training?

STELLA: Yes. You have to. You had -- you were required to, so many CME's that you had to get every -- every two years.

KAREN: Those are continuing ed credits?

STELLA: Continuing, yes. Uh-hum.

KAREN: Do you know what "CME" stands for?

STELLA: Continuing medical education.

KAREN: Oh, okay.

STELLA: Uh-hum.

KAREN: And where would you go to get those?

STELLA: Anchorage is where I went to get mine.

KAREN: Uh-hum. And --

STELLA: And some -- you know, and here in Kodiak, one, if they offered something here.

KAREN: What's an example of some kind of a course you'd take to go for CME credits?

STELLA: Emergency kind of things like, you know, how to take care of people, those kinds of things. And we always had, like, for pediatrics for children or for giat -- gia -- how you say, for older people.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: Those -- just whatever they think that we needed.

KAREN: Uh-hum. And that's to keep your certification active?

STELLA: Certification, yes. Uh-hum.

KAREN: And what happens if your certification -- if you don't get those credits and it runs out?

STELLA: Well, you lose your certification. You have to, you know, go and start over again, or try to get all those credits in.

KAREN: Uh-hum. And is there some sort of an exam for being certified?

STELLA: Yes. You do a -- uh-huh, you get a testing after.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: You do a -- well, they -- what we did is we had a pre-test and a post-test. They wanted to know how far along we were to be able to, you know, take the -- take the class.

KAREN: Uh-hum.

STELLA: Like a math class, English class, and all those other stuff that -- that you would have to know before you went to sessions.

KAREN: Oh, so you would have to know all that beforehand?

STELLA: Uh-hum.

KAREN: Oh. Okay. Again, I was wondering if -- if there are health aides who don't pass the certification but who continue to be health aides without the certifi -- can you continue to be a health aide and be employed without that certification?

STELLA: No. No. You have to be certified.

KAREN: And even from the beginning it was like that, in the beginning of the program?

STELLA: Yes.

KAREN: Yeah.

STELLA: Uh-hum. Yes. We have to keep up our certification to be -- to be able to be employed. Uh-hum.