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Nurses find All workers should be as happy as Raylene Nolan, Colleen Morgan, Elaine Healey, Stevee Sasama, Madelyn Barangan, Pamela Reuben-Eubanks and their colleagues.
their reward in
making a difference
Co-workers at Straub share
Shortage worsening
their reflections on a profession
that carries many demandsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comTheir jobs are demanding and often back-breaking, with long hours on their feet. But they go home feeling good because they are helping people and saving lives.
They are registered nurses.
They happen to work at Straub Clinic & Hospital, but they are typical of the men and women being recognized during this National Nurses Week at all health care facilities.
"For me, this is instant gratification," said Healey, interventional radiology nurse. "Our goal is to avoid surgery, to fix the problem," she said, describing special interventional procedures to monitor, diagnose and treat patients.
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Healey moved here in 1987 as a relief nurse in radiology, intending to stay a couple years. After 15 years, she said she loves her job so much she cannot see herself doing anything else.Nolan, emergency unit supervisor, joined Straub 20 years ago. She worked nights as a licensed practical nurse at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children while going to college.
She said she worked awhile in the oncology unit, but likes ER because of the activity and challenge to figure out what is wrong with patients.
Another Straub veteran is Colleen Morgan, with 23 years in nursing, now in the Cardiac Cath Lab (Cardiovascular Imaging Intervention Center).
"You can't get bored with this job, that's for sure," Morgan said. "Your mind is working. It's very physical. You have to be organized. It's teamwork, too."
Sadama, father of four boys -- one 18 months and triplets, 2 1/2 -- laughed, saying, "Work is vacation for me. It's a good balance."
He began transporting patients in the hospital in 1988 while going to the University of Hawaii. "Once I worked with patients in a part-time job to get me through school, I decided on nursing."
He earned a bachelor's degree in 1993, still working, and is now assistant supervisor of the intensive care unit.
Matthew Whaley, in ICU, said he looked into careers in high school in Minden, Nev., and decided he would be "highly marketable" for a nursing position with an associate degree.
"It ended up taking six years. By then, honestly, I was so far into it, I figured I might as well finish up," added Whaley, now working on a bachelor's degree at Hawaii Pacific University.
Dina Martinez and Wendy Atmodova, oncology nurses, started at Straub 10 years ago, paying Straub back with a year of work for scholarships. Martinez went to UH-Manoa, and Atmodova to HPU.
Some days are difficult, they said. "You wear your emotions on your sleeve or take them home and cry," Atmodova said. But there are good days, too. "A lot of times, we do cure them," said Martinez.
They said they have learned to appreciate their health and "small things" from the patients. "They're giving to us in a sense," Atmodova said.
"It's a tough job ... not for a lazy person," Martinez said. "You hustle on your feet all day, but it's rewarding."
With different patients, families and cultures, Atmodova said, "you always learn something new every day, so you can't do your job with your eyes shut."
Reuben-Eubanks, cardiac rehabilitation/health education nurse, tries to "empower" cardiac patients with information and classes and advocates for them with nurses and doctors.
"What's unique is, I get to follow the process from beginning to end," she said, from a first meeting in the doctor's office through surgery and after they go home. "I try to increase their confidence and prepare them."
Barangan returned here 13 years ago after graduating from Seattle University. One of her many responsibilities on the medical/surgery floor is orienting nursing graduates. "They're thinking, 'Can I handle this?'" she said. She tells them, "Yes, but it takes time. The acuity level is very high for some patients. We work extra hours; sometimes we don't even put overtime in. It's just for the love of it."
Barangan said she wanted to be an accountant when going to St. Andrew's Priory. She turned to nursing after caring for a relative and working for a year as a doctor's medical assistant.
"She makes us feel at home," said Philomena Muller, who brought her sister here April 20 from Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Her sister, who lives on Ebeye island, had a stroke and is awaiting surgery.
"She's doing OK now because of the medication and all the nurses," Muller said.
National Nurses Week will be celebrated by Hawaii Nurses Association members, friends and families at a Carnival by the Sea from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at the Waikiki Aquarium. Carnival celebrates
National Nurses WeekThe event is sponsored by the HNA and ALTRES Medical to honor Hawaii's 12,000 registered nurses. The association represents 3,700 of them.
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Christi Keliipio, Hawaii Nurses Association executive director, says, "My greatest fear is, if we don't celebrate and show nursing as a grand place to be, when I need one, there may not be one." Nursing shortage worsens
with little relief on the horizonBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comNational Nurses Week is being observed with attention focused on the country's nurses shortage.
The vacancy rate nationally for registered nurses is 21 percent, Keliipio said. The shortage is so severe in some areas, facilities are offering signing bonuses as high as $10,000 or $15,000, repayment of student loans for a three-month commitment and other enticements.
Keliipio, who replaced Nancy McGucken in February at HNA, said Hawaii has had critical-care nursing shortages since about 1986, with traveling nurses filling vacancies. She came to Hawaii as a traveling nurse in 1989 from the North Dakota-Minnesota area, working for St. Francis Medical Center.
She said Hawaii hospitals cannot offer bonuses because of union contracts, but traveling nurses may have air fare paid and get housing or cars. Such extras are negotiated with hospitals by recruiting companies, which also may pay bonuses, Keliipio said.
Worsening shortages in nurses and nursing faculty are predicted if trends continue.
Stephani Monet, Hawaii Nurses Association director of education and practice, noted a study by the University of Hawaii School of Nursing that showed 400 nursing graduates are needed every year for 15 years just to replace those leaving because of retirement.
About 280 are graduating annually now, she said.
Faculty also will be a huge problem if more people cannot be encouraged to get master's and doctorate degrees and teach, because the average age of professors now is 56, she said.
"Salaries for faculty are not very good, either," said Keliipio, who teaches nursing fundamentals at Hawaii Pacific University.
Hawaii offers many opportunities to learn nursing, at the UH-Manoa and Hilo campuses, community colleges, HPU and the University of Phoenix.
UH-Manoa does not have enough faculty positions to take all student applicants, said Robert Anders, School of Nursing interim associate dean.
It now has 242 undergraduate nursing students and 82 graduate students, including 22 in doctorate programs.
There were 120 applicants for the baccalaureate program in the coming fall, but only 40 can be admitted, Anders said. Last fall, he said, the school was able to take 10 more students for a total of 50 because of funding from the Queen's Medical Center.
Usually about 30 students are admitted in the spring, and an additional 20 were funded by the Hawaii Pacific Health hospitals (Straub, Kapiolani and Wilcox), he said.
The school also was able to take 33 Hawaiian-Samoan students into the program or to work on prerequisites because of a federal grant.
Carol Winters-Moorhead, dean of the HPU School of Nursing, said flagging interest in the profession on the mainland "does not seem to hold true for Hawaii."
The school totals about 750 students and has three graduations a year, averaging 50 to 60 graduates in the fall and spring, she said.
A new nursing laboratory is planned to resolve space problems in the Hawaii Loa campus buildings, she said.
HPU has adequate faculty now, but it faces the same problems as other schools in replacing retirees, she said. People in health care agencies who might teach a course or two also are less willing as their workload increases, Winters-Moorhead said.
Hawaii has not been progressive enough to pay for higher levels of education, she pointed out. "It's sort of 'a nurse is a nurse is a nurse.' In other states, bachelor's degree nurses move quickly into leadership and management positions."
However, Hawaii's nursing students can market themselves anywhere in the world because of experience with diverse facilities and cultures, she said.