What do you think?
Rate this book
Win a free kindle copy of this book!
0 days and 01:47:03
100 copies available
U.S. only
Medicine at 50 Below: A Memoir of Healthcare, Healing, and Hope in Remote Alaska
Win a free kindle copy of this book!
0 days and 01:47:03
100 copies available
U.S. only
A Nurse Practitioner’s Story of Grit, Care, and Innovation
In today’s medical world, burnout is rising and rural clinics are left understaffed, and many clinicians feel trapped in a system that has forgotten its purpose. Professionals try cutting hours, switching jobs, even turning to corporate locum tenens agencies—only to find the same disillusionment waiting for them. The frustration is exhaustion, moral injury, and the sense that the heart of medicine is slipping away.
But there is another path—one discovered in the most unlikely the remote villages of bush Alaska, where temperatures plunge to 50 below and a single clinician may stand between a community and catastrophe.
Medicine at 50 Below offers a different path. By sharing her years as a nurse practitioner in bush Alaska where she was often the only provider for hundreds of miles, Mary Ellen Doty reveals how reconnecting with purpose and autonomy can revive both the clinician and the communities they serve. Her experience led to the creation of Wilderness Medical Staffing, now staffing more than 150 rural and remote clinics with physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants seeking meaningful work.
Mary Ellen writes with clarity, humility, and a deep respect for Alaska’s people and land. Her purpose is Show readers that there are solutions for rural healthcare and that there is a way for clinicians to reclaim the meaning they thought was gone.
In this book, you’ll discover:
- The realities of practicing medicine in extreme environments—and the resilience it builds.
- How rural and remote medicine can restore professional purpose and reduce burnout.
- Why rotational staffing solves problems permanent placement never could.
- How community-centered care leads to better outcomes for Native Alaskans.
- A founder’s blueprint for creating a mission-driven healthcare company without losing your values.
If you’re ready to see what meaningful medicine can look like again, Medicine at 50 Below will show you the way.
In today’s medical world, burnout is rising and rural clinics are left understaffed, and many clinicians feel trapped in a system that has forgotten its purpose. Professionals try cutting hours, switching jobs, even turning to corporate locum tenens agencies—only to find the same disillusionment waiting for them. The frustration is exhaustion, moral injury, and the sense that the heart of medicine is slipping away.
But there is another path—one discovered in the most unlikely the remote villages of bush Alaska, where temperatures plunge to 50 below and a single clinician may stand between a community and catastrophe.
Medicine at 50 Below offers a different path. By sharing her years as a nurse practitioner in bush Alaska where she was often the only provider for hundreds of miles, Mary Ellen Doty reveals how reconnecting with purpose and autonomy can revive both the clinician and the communities they serve. Her experience led to the creation of Wilderness Medical Staffing, now staffing more than 150 rural and remote clinics with physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants seeking meaningful work.
Mary Ellen writes with clarity, humility, and a deep respect for Alaska’s people and land. Her purpose is Show readers that there are solutions for rural healthcare and that there is a way for clinicians to reclaim the meaning they thought was gone.
In this book, you’ll discover:
- The realities of practicing medicine in extreme environments—and the resilience it builds.
- How rural and remote medicine can restore professional purpose and reduce burnout.
- Why rotational staffing solves problems permanent placement never could.
- How community-centered care leads to better outcomes for Native Alaskans.
- A founder’s blueprint for creating a mission-driven healthcare company without losing your values.
If you’re ready to see what meaningful medicine can look like again, Medicine at 50 Below will show you the way.
204 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 11, 2026
622 people want to read
About the author
Mary Ellen Doty
1 book7 followersMary Ellen Doty is an advanced nurse practitioner, entrepreneur, and the founder of Wilderness Medical Staffing, one of the most respected medical staffing companies serving rural and remote communities across Alaska and the American West. She built her career where most medical professionals never set foot—far off the road system, in isolated bush villages where temperatures plunge to 50 below and healthcare is often scarce or nonexistent.
With decades of experience in frontline medicine, Mary Ellen is driven by a simple mission: to bring high-quality, purpose-driven healthcare to communities long overlooked by the traditional system. After witnessing the realities of rural and reservation healthcare firsthand, she created a rotational staffing model that delivers experienced, motivated clinicians to the communities that need them most—and still gives those clinicians a meaningful, balanced way to practice. Today, Wilderness Medical Staffing has served over 150 clinic sites, saving hundreds of lives and easing the suffering of thousands.
Mary Ellen earned her bachelor’s degree from Montana State University and her master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has presented at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners’ national convention in New Orleans and served as an international speaker in Melbourne, Australia. She is also the primary contributor to the Wilderness Medical Staffing blog, where she writes about rural healthcare, staffing challenges, and the human side of medicine.
Born in Montana, Mary Ellen spent 19 years living and working in bush Alaska before returning home, where she now lives 20 miles out of town with her sassy border collie, Jack. She’s an avid hiker, a country woman at heart, a student of Carl Jung’s work, and a woman of faith.
Learn more about her work and connect at maryellendoty.com or wildernessmedicalstaffing.com.
With decades of experience in frontline medicine, Mary Ellen is driven by a simple mission: to bring high-quality, purpose-driven healthcare to communities long overlooked by the traditional system. After witnessing the realities of rural and reservation healthcare firsthand, she created a rotational staffing model that delivers experienced, motivated clinicians to the communities that need them most—and still gives those clinicians a meaningful, balanced way to practice. Today, Wilderness Medical Staffing has served over 150 clinic sites, saving hundreds of lives and easing the suffering of thousands.
Mary Ellen earned her bachelor’s degree from Montana State University and her master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has presented at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners’ national convention in New Orleans and served as an international speaker in Melbourne, Australia. She is also the primary contributor to the Wilderness Medical Staffing blog, where she writes about rural healthcare, staffing challenges, and the human side of medicine.
Born in Montana, Mary Ellen spent 19 years living and working in bush Alaska before returning home, where she now lives 20 miles out of town with her sassy border collie, Jack. She’s an avid hiker, a country woman at heart, a student of Carl Jung’s work, and a woman of faith.
Learn more about her work and connect at maryellendoty.com or wildernessmedicalstaffing.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 11, 2026
Doty was new to her role as a nurse practitioner when she took a job that was off the beaten path—literally and figuratively. A clinic in the remote wilds of Alaska needed staffing, and a two-year commitment would pay off her loans and give her (or so she thought) a relaxed entry into her field.
I picked this job in a similar manner to the way I picked my husbands—hot, exciting dates, commitment in the middle of the night, and then donning dark glasses the next morning to block out any sunlight on our way to the chapel. (loc. 192*)
As it turned out, Doty loved it, and stayed well beyond her two-year commitment—but it was not relaxed, and she soon learned that there were deep staffing shortages for such positions, both because of the challenge (she was a one-woman family medicine clinic and emergency department and preventive health services clinic all rolled up in one) and because two years is a long time to uproot yourself and your life. And eventually it occurred to her that there must be a better way.
The first half of the book I found really compelling—Doty finding her footing in Alaska, falling in love with the community, the community gradually starting to trust her. (The previous provider was...not one to inspire trust.) It was not easy, and she does not make it out to be: It was more than she signed up for, and she quickly understood why so many didn't stay the distance; she was effectively on call 24/7, and depending on the situation it could be just Doty standing between life and death.
We had been flying for over an hour and a half, and not since that last small mountain to the northwest of Fairbanks—about 150 miles ago—had I seen a road. (loc. 107)
In the second half of the book, Doty describes leaving her first posting in Alaska—first for somewhere a bit less isolated, then back to her home territory of Montana, where she tried and quickly became disenchanted with corporate medicine (basically the opposite of what she'd been doing in Alaska). When she realized she wasn't the only one, she started to dream up a better model of locum care for remote clinics in Alaska, one that would let providers from the lower 48 practice the way they wanted to practice without uprooting themselves and would ensure continuity of care for remote communities. I admit that I did not find this part of the book as interesting; I find medicine (and especially the less discussed parts of medicine, such as work in villages with extremely limited resources on hand) compelling to read about, but the stress and frustration of building a start-up rather less so. A lot of that material is about long hours in cramped quarters, overworking to the point of burnout, and meaningful dreams, and while there are absolutely readers who will love this, for me as a reader that part of the book wasn't as engaging.
Still. This was the hardest work I had ever loved, writes Doty (loc. 801); that she was able to take that feeling and translate it into something that enabled other people to love the same work is nothing short of wonderful.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
I picked this job in a similar manner to the way I picked my husbands—hot, exciting dates, commitment in the middle of the night, and then donning dark glasses the next morning to block out any sunlight on our way to the chapel. (loc. 192*)
As it turned out, Doty loved it, and stayed well beyond her two-year commitment—but it was not relaxed, and she soon learned that there were deep staffing shortages for such positions, both because of the challenge (she was a one-woman family medicine clinic and emergency department and preventive health services clinic all rolled up in one) and because two years is a long time to uproot yourself and your life. And eventually it occurred to her that there must be a better way.
The first half of the book I found really compelling—Doty finding her footing in Alaska, falling in love with the community, the community gradually starting to trust her. (The previous provider was...not one to inspire trust.) It was not easy, and she does not make it out to be: It was more than she signed up for, and she quickly understood why so many didn't stay the distance; she was effectively on call 24/7, and depending on the situation it could be just Doty standing between life and death.
We had been flying for over an hour and a half, and not since that last small mountain to the northwest of Fairbanks—about 150 miles ago—had I seen a road. (loc. 107)
In the second half of the book, Doty describes leaving her first posting in Alaska—first for somewhere a bit less isolated, then back to her home territory of Montana, where she tried and quickly became disenchanted with corporate medicine (basically the opposite of what she'd been doing in Alaska). When she realized she wasn't the only one, she started to dream up a better model of locum care for remote clinics in Alaska, one that would let providers from the lower 48 practice the way they wanted to practice without uprooting themselves and would ensure continuity of care for remote communities. I admit that I did not find this part of the book as interesting; I find medicine (and especially the less discussed parts of medicine, such as work in villages with extremely limited resources on hand) compelling to read about, but the stress and frustration of building a start-up rather less so. A lot of that material is about long hours in cramped quarters, overworking to the point of burnout, and meaningful dreams, and while there are absolutely readers who will love this, for me as a reader that part of the book wasn't as engaging.
Still. This was the hardest work I had ever loved, writes Doty (loc. 801); that she was able to take that feeling and translate it into something that enabled other people to love the same work is nothing short of wonderful.
*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book was a quick read about something I didn't know I didn't know about. It seems logical: rural real need medical providers. But it's more than that, because they need medical providers that know what they're doing. It seems logical, but it's a fact that doesn't really hit until your read about a situation and think "Well, what WOULD I do if I was in rural Alaska, in a clinic without even a blanket warmer, and a 29-week pregnant woman with no prenatal car came in in laboring?" My answer? Cry probably.
While there were times that I felt the writing was clunky or drawn-out, it never detracted from the story being told. I inhaled this book in two sittings. The only other thing I missed in this book was probably my own fault. I was hoping it'd be more about the individual stories of patients and people in this Alaskan town, rather than focusing on Doty's experience navigating a dehumanizing medical system. While I did leave feeling like there was a cohesive message, I can't help feeling like we are missing some of the pure pathos that comes from hearing a bit more detail about her experiences in the day-to-day practice of medicine. Even so, Doty does an excellent job of painting a picture of a historically underserved yet thriving culture while making herself a character. She's less than perfect, but the compassion she demonstrates along the way makes you root for her and her ambitious mission.
While there were times that I felt the writing was clunky or drawn-out, it never detracted from the story being told. I inhaled this book in two sittings. The only other thing I missed in this book was probably my own fault. I was hoping it'd be more about the individual stories of patients and people in this Alaskan town, rather than focusing on Doty's experience navigating a dehumanizing medical system. While I did leave feeling like there was a cohesive message, I can't help feeling like we are missing some of the pure pathos that comes from hearing a bit more detail about her experiences in the day-to-day practice of medicine. Even so, Doty does an excellent job of painting a picture of a historically underserved yet thriving culture while making herself a character. She's less than perfect, but the compassion she demonstrates along the way makes you root for her and her ambitious mission.
Review of advance copy
[I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]
A captivating book from beginning to end.
Very rarely do I sit down with a book and get engaged hour after hour until I realize
1) it's getting late, and
2) I'm getting hungry,
but with this book I did.
This memoir is a poignant reminder of the fragility of the health care system… especially when the nearest help is hundreds of miles and days away.
By providing enough information to give a sense of the isolation and the dangers that lurk there, it doesn't over-burden the reader with one horror story after another.
Instead, the author, through personal experiences, explains the ways that the health care system can falter, and then explains how she chose to do her best to fix it.
A captivating book from beginning to end.
Very rarely do I sit down with a book and get engaged hour after hour until I realize
1) it's getting late, and
2) I'm getting hungry,
but with this book I did.
This memoir is a poignant reminder of the fragility of the health care system… especially when the nearest help is hundreds of miles and days away.
By providing enough information to give a sense of the isolation and the dangers that lurk there, it doesn't over-burden the reader with one horror story after another.
Instead, the author, through personal experiences, explains the ways that the health care system can falter, and then explains how she chose to do her best to fix it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I loved this brutal honesty of this book. THe author lived it, knows it, and decided to do something about it.
How do you get qualified doctors to go into the bush of ALaska? What kind of people would want to go to a rural area and practice medicine?
This book answers those questions and more. You find inspiration and a deeper understanding of why some people venture into the wilds of Alaska.
I was outraged at the first doctor she had "encountered" in Alaska. What a punk.
Overall this is a short, engaging memoir of a doctor living in the bush of Alaska and helping the people there.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
How do you get qualified doctors to go into the bush of ALaska? What kind of people would want to go to a rural area and practice medicine?
This book answers those questions and more. You find inspiration and a deeper understanding of why some people venture into the wilds of Alaska.
I was outraged at the first doctor she had "encountered" in Alaska. What a punk.
Overall this is a short, engaging memoir of a doctor living in the bush of Alaska and helping the people there.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Medicine at 50 Below is a really interesting read. I read through it in a single sitting. I really enjoyed reading the author's experience practicing medicine in a remote Alaskan clinic. There were heartbreaking moments and moments of true community. For me it was really eye-opening. Especially the areas around treatment and truly caring for patients over the for profit/corporate medical practices we see so much today.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
What an inspiration this woman is! An absolutely amazing story of a life experience that you can experience by reading her memoir. The author holds nothing back and you will come to laugh, cry, be scared and astonished along with her. Her writing style is like sitting by the fire, drinking one of her infamous cups of coffee and just listening as she shares her story. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from Author
This was an interesting glimpse into an issue I knew very little about. The author’s dedication to providing excellent medical care in dramatically underserved communities is admirable.
I enjoyed learning about the things that drove her to start Wilderness medical staffing. However, I think for me too much of the story was devoted to that. I wanted more about her experiences in these communities. Because of that I didn’t have the emotional connection I was hoping to have with the story. However, if you are interested in medicine or in starting a business I still think this is a memoir you will find worthwhile.
3.5 stars.
I enjoyed learning about the things that drove her to start Wilderness medical staffing. However, I think for me too much of the story was devoted to that. I wanted more about her experiences in these communities. Because of that I didn’t have the emotional connection I was hoping to have with the story. However, if you are interested in medicine or in starting a business I still think this is a memoir you will find worthwhile.
3.5 stars.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I received a free copy of, Medicine at 50 Below, by Mary Ellen Below, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Tomorrow are high is -2 below, I cant imagine -50 below. Its -50 below in parts of remote Alaska, where nurse practitioner Mary Ellen tells stories about life in Alaska. This was a very interesting read, what we take for granted, milk, children in remote Alaska do not.
January 15, 2026
“it was the hardest work i have ever loved”
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
An engrossing memoir of a nurse practitioner who spent decades providing care in Alaskan bush country. Highly recommended!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is an Arc review from Netgalley
Loved this book. It’s emotional, honest, and you can tell the author poured her whole heart into it. I really enjoyed the mix of medical stories and personal moments, and some parts were genuinely hard to read because of how limited healthcare access is for so many people. Also, the healthcare system being so business focused is beyond frustrating. Great read, and it stayed in my head after I finished.
Loved this book. It’s emotional, honest, and you can tell the author poured her whole heart into it. I really enjoyed the mix of medical stories and personal moments, and some parts were genuinely hard to read because of how limited healthcare access is for so many people. Also, the healthcare system being so business focused is beyond frustrating. Great read, and it stayed in my head after I finished.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews