KAREN: So when you started as a health aide do you remember what kind of equipment you had? You talked about a black bag.

TRUDY: I had the otoscope, I don't think there was very much else. Bandages and stuff that you normally carry around with you if you have a bag. Thermometer. Just the otoscope made a real big difference.

KAREN: Why?

TRUDY: Because you could hear and see things that you normally don't see. Like if you're listening to the ear and they say they're having a real bad problem with their ear, well you could look and not see anything but if you could listen, you could hear that there is a problem. With almost anything that you're trying to check. When they talk about their lungs feeling full, you could tell. Everything, I think.

KAREN: And then as the years went on, you know, when you stopped being a health aide, when you retired what kind of equipment did they have at that point.

TRUDY: There wasn't much difference except stuff that you use for newborns. We had the otoscope. I don't think I had anything else. If I did, it just slipped my mind. A lot of these stuff just slipped my mind because I'm not doing it anymore.

KAREN: So, you've mentioned before about being the health aide consultant. So, you went form health aide to health aide consultant to retirement.

TRUDY: No, they called me. If we're having a workshop then I would go and if there was something they needed, I would be the one to talk to.

KAREN: But you weren't in the clinic full-time seeing patients all the time?

TRUDY: Not when I'm gone. How could I be two places in one time?

KAREN: No, that was when you became the consultant, you just kind of helped out?

TRUDY: Well, the one thing they wanted a consultant is because Alaska was new -- well actually, we know it was something that wasn't practiced in Alaska until after the first health aide.

So, because we're so new, you call us new because nobody hardly knew about us. And we were there to help the people. Each community knew that they were there to help them. So --

KAREN: Okay.