By Linden Staciokas
Most people have some understanding of what being a health aide means: helping people get the treatment they need for a problem. Often this means a physical problem but it can also mean finding the right treatment programs for addiction, mental health issues or escaping an unhealthy living situation such as domestic violence. What many don’t know, however, is that becoming a health aide can open doors to other careers or opportunities. This is what happened to Betty Jo Schmitz, known as B.J.
When B.J. was first profiled, three years ago, life was going along pretty much as planned for her. After years of home schooling her two daughters, at last they were launched into successful careers, one as a nurse and the other as a veterinarian. Looking for a new challenge, B.J. looked around for a job that would combine her love of science and her desire to help people, when she spotted an advertisement looking for a health aide. She was in her 60s when she applied to the program, considerably older than their usual student, but TCC was willing to invest in someone other companies might have considered too close to retirement; in 2019 B.J. became the health aide for Evansville, a village of about 30 people, located on the banks of the Koyukuk River about 180 air miles from Fairbanks. B.J. was not the only one thrilled with her assigned village—her husband, a retired science teacher, finally had a chance to indulge in all of the outdoor activities he loved but had not always had time to do.
B.J. loved her job and her location, but in 2022, life circumstances changed. Family health issues suddenly appeared, and she needed to be closer to more substantial medical care, so she and her husband moved into Fairbanks and B.J. became an itinerant health aide. Those positions are not full time, so she also continued her search for some other way to use her health aide training while remaining with TCC. That was when she heard about a new initiative designed to improve health care in the villages.
“The job is called Community Health Aide – Clinical Coordination,” explains B.J. “It is a project currently focused on just three villages. The purpose is to figure out how to use the clinic staff and visiting physicians and providers to improve not just the health of people who come to the clinic, but the health outcomes of the entire village.”
The program is only a few months old, so right now B.J. and Amanda Turner, a clinical pharmacist implementing the initiative, still are figuring out how to collect data and interpret it in ways that will mean more comprehensive and effective village-wide health services. The beginnings of new projects can be frustrating, when it seems like there is nothing but a lot of information gathering, meetings, and memos without a final purpose visible. However, B.J. and other project employees are committed to not imposing solutions generated by employees working in Fairbanks. They truly want this chance to improve the health of entire villages to be a collaborative effort involving as many people as possible, and that means a lot of talking, talking, and more talking, especially including village residents.
Meanwhile, B.J. continues taking occasional assignments as an itinerant health aide. To keep her certification current, she must see a certain number of patients, and only going out to the villages will insure that. “I wanted to cut back on my travel due to responsibilities at home. However, I loved working in the village clinics, so being able to still do that to a more limited degree, while also working on this new project is pretty perfect for my situation.”
Listening to B.J. talk about how she approaches patients, it is clear that one of her superpowers is something that some consider a negative: her age, or rather, the gift of humility that it gives those lucky enough to survive into old age. She doesn’t rush into situations, sure that the “latest and greatest” thing she has learned will be the perfect answer to a problem. She works collaboratively, committed to remembering that the patient is in charge of his or her own life and is the one who makes the final choices about services. This ability to keep the focus on what the patient and indeed the entire village wants, will be crucial if this new project is to accomplish one of the main goals of helping everyone who lives in a community, not just those who visit the clinic.
Continuing to be given new challenges outside the narrow definitions often given to the career of health aide is what makes the TCC program attractive to B.J. She and the other health aides who have agreed to be profiled in this newsletter over the months, have done so partly to showcase the many possibilities available to graduates. The hope is that getting the word about the many opportunities will attract applicants who might never before have considered becoming health aides.