Take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to share your passion for healthcare with the people of the Bering Strait Regions.
While the majority of NSHC’s 500 employees are based in Nome, many staff members regularly travel to villages to treat patients. Fifteen villages, ranging in size from 150 to 750 residents, are scattered along the Bering Sea coast and on islands of the region.
Norton Sound Health Corporation services 15 villages in the region, in which Village Health Services manages clinic operations. The majority of staff in the department are community health aide practitioners. These front-line primary health care providers are a critical link between doctors in Nome and patients in villages. Seven villages of our region have a full-time physician assistant or nurse practitioner in the communities of Brevig Mission, Savoonga, Gambell, Shishmaref, Elim, Saint Michael, and Unalakleet.
Community Health Aides/Practitioners are local people who are trained to become often the only healthcare provider in their community. Not only are they seeing patients during normal clinic hours, but must also provide on-call service after hours for urgent and emergent patient care.
Being a Community Health Aide/Practitioner is a demanding position with the health care of the community being their responsibility 24 hours a day. It’s important that they are supported by everyone, including their family, their community members, village leadership, and corporate leadership.
Teller is located on a spit between Port Clarence and Grantley Harbor, 72 miles northwest of Nome, on the Seward Peninsula. Teller is a traditional Kawerak Eskimo village with a subsistence lifestyle. Many residents today were originally from Mary’s Igloo. Seals, beluga whales, fish, reindeer, and other local resources are utilized. A herd of reindeer roams the area.
It’s not the easiest place to get to, but those who make it to the Arctic Circle will be rewarded with rolling tundra, mountains, and coastal plains leading into arctic waters. Experience native culture in the towns of Nome and Barrow, and meet Alaskans who still practice ancient whaling customs. It’s an otherworldly place: the sun truly doesn't set in the summer and doesn't rise for several months in the winter. It’s even rare to see wildlife, though this is the place to see polar bears and caribou.
Many towns in the region are only accessible by air, with most flights departing from Fairbanks, though you can find flights from Anchorage as well. You can also drive to the Arctic via the Dalton Highway, a 414-mile stretch of gravel and dirt that runs from the town of Livengood up to Prudhoe Bay and through some of Alaska’s most remote wilderness