Last week Human Resources (HR) caught up on the 2020 “put on hold due to COVID-19” Years of Service recipients, who have remained patient for two years. We are thankful for the work they have actively performed for YKHC for all time and we want to make note here of one long-term staff member, William “Bill” O’Brien, presently a Senior EMS Instructor. We caught up with Bill at an Emergency Trauma Technician (ETT) class that he was teaching, and were pleased to share the stories of his time at YKHC.
“I’ve enjoyed the 30 years here at YKHC. I’ve had students who said things like, ‘You taught a class to my mother, or you taught my father’,” said Bill in front of his class.
One of the students, Merrill Lake of Chevak said, “You taught my brother, too”.
Bill shared some background of his time at YKHC. “This job has taken me to every village in the Delta, as I’ve taught basic CPR and first aid all the way up to ETT class. In Crooked Creek, I had high school students take a class. That was really cool because later on, the Village Health Aide said, ‘The students helped us a couple times in emergencies- those kids who took the Emergency Trauma Technician class’. I thought that was pretty cool to learn of the way my teaching comes around to help our communities”.
We asked Bill, how have things changed in how you teach a class, and what has technology done for you as an instructor? Bill chuckled and said, “Oh yes, I used to have those clear plastic overhead projector slides. I still have some in my office. I can even remember the chalk boards I used long ago. Also, I remember having a class room one-third the size of the Education Room we have now. To do our practice, we had to fold up the tables and put them against the wall to make room for the students. That was back in the Joe Lomack Building; I started working back there. That was also when the EMS department still responded to calls for the community. We had our pagers on. YKHC was the transport before the city of Bethel got its own. I remember when we’d get calls, ‘Hey there, do you have a 207 we can use’. I mean, we’ve come such a long way in my time working here at YKHC, and I’ve enjoyed all of it and the people I have met.”
Bill said about the time he worked here for us, “We may not be where we want to be, but we aren’t where we used to be”.
He shared what we all know in our hearts: we are constantly improving, it is getting better every day. We were excited for this class we met while honoring the Years of Service folks last week, and to understand how each of these folks will go back to the home communities of their villages to care for our families.
ETT Class is what he was teaching the day years of service awards were given out. So we took a photo with a few of his class members Darlene Mochin, Merrill Lake, Christian Stewart, Natalie Active.
