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Mary Ellen Doty expected her first job in rural Alaska to be temporary.
Instead, the nurse practitioner, entrepreneur and author said her time in the Yukon River village of Tanana changed the course of her life.
Doty is the author of “Medicine at 50 Below: A Memoir of Healthcare, Healing, and Hope in Rural Alaska.” The book recounts her experience practicing medicine in remote Alaska communities and the lessons that shaped a company she later founded.
The new book begins with a story about her arrival to Tanana, where she admits the original plan was to stay for two years, pay off her student loans, and leave. But the Athabascan village welcomed her in a way she didn’t expect.
Before her arrival, the village fixed up a house where she and her young son would live, including a Lion King-themed bedroom.
“Every little bit of their welcome was completely genuine, and it really did give me the confidence to at least stay,” Doty said.
And she said serving a community like Tanana, where the nearest full-fledged hospital is hundreds of miles away, amplified her love for serving others.
“There was a lot of need for what I had, even though I was a brand new nurse practitioner,” Doty said. “I brought a lot to the table that they needed out there, and it was just.. it was a perfect fit. It was like a hand in a glove”
Doty said she originally planned to write a business book. But after getting sick and spending time in the hospital, she realized she was writing the wrong story.
“What I really want to write is that just that experience that I had that came from my heart, that was out in those villages, and what led to me grasping onto that and keeping that as I went forward in my life,” Doty said.
Doty said that sense of purpose continues through her business, Wilderness Medical Staffing. It helps place physicians and nurse practitioners in remote communities including the Norton Sound area. She said providers placed in Alaska villages often experience the very same thing she did back in Tanana, and embed themselves in the community.
“They’re at basketball games or fishing with people of the villages,” she said.
In June, Doty embarked on a tour of Alaska to promote her book, including stops in Fairbanks, Soldotna and Nome. She said she’s been able to reconnect with people she hasn’t seen in years, including some who traveled from Tanana.
“It’s like seeing my family. I just can’t explain it any other way. It’s not even like friends. It’s like this is my family,” she said.
Copies of “Medicine at 50 Below: A Memoir of Healthcare, Healing, and Hope in Rural Alaska” will soon be available at Maruskiyas in Nome or online at Amazon.
