Sinking teeth into dental career: Kiana woman returns to Arctic with new skills

December 23rd 3:01 pm | Hannah Heimbuch    

Just after the New Year, Jana Schuerch will return to the Northwest Arctic with her fiancé and three children after two long years away for school. She returns with new credentials and a hope that she can bring better health care to the home she's been missing.

Schuerch's youngest daughter and adopted son were only a few months old when she was accepted into the dental health aide therapist program. Still, Schuerch knew it was an opportunity she couldn't turn down.

"It was a little hard, leaving my friends and my family here in Kiana, and knowing I'd be gone for two years," Schuerch said. "But it was rewarding going through the program knowing I'd be able to come back and help them."

Offered through the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the program trains and places dental therapists to work in rural communities, communities like Kiana, a village with about 480 residents.

Schuerch said the Arctic has always been home, and really the only place she and her fiancé Charlie want to live.

"I was already planning on living here forever and raising my family here," she said. "I like living in the village and I want my kids to live here."

Starting Jan. 3, Schuerch will serve a six-month preceptorship in Kotzebue under a supervising dentist. From there she will move her services back home to Kiana, where as a certified Dental Health Aide Therapist she will offer preventative and some restorative care to Kiana, Selawik and Noorvik - for starters.

It's taken some moving around and more than a bit of hard work to get to this point. Schuerch spent the intensive program's first year in Anchorage through a University of Washington partnership. She then spent a year in Bethel doing clinical work. Add to that three children - now ages seven, two and two - and there's more than a little juggling to be done.

"It was hard trying to figure out how to balance my home life and my school life," Schuerch said.

She said the year in Bethel, where they didn't know anyone, was especially hard on her and her family.

Now that she has graduated, Schuerch said the move to Kotzebue for her six months of supervised work is an exciting prospect, not only because they'll be close to friends and family, but because of the new level of work she'll get to experience.

"I'm excited to go to Kotzebue and focus on being the provider and working with my patients," she said.

During her clinical year of school Schuerch said she shared all the assisting and housekeeping duties with her fellow students. Now, while a supervising dentist will check all of her work and preparations, Schuerch will be treating her own patients and focusing solely on providing care.

"This is to make sure I can come out to the village on my own and do the work," Schuerch said.

That work includes preventative care, cleanings, exams, fillings, simple extractions, community outreach and working with schools and pregnant mothers.

The Maniilaq Association sponsored Schuerch's participation in the program, and she said there are similar resources out there for other villagers looking for opportunity.

"There are scholarships and people willing to help (people) get through school," Schuerch said. "There's so much they can go out and accomplish. They can leave for a few years then go back to help their people."

 

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