Nursing in Hawaii. A Dream Come True.

 

   (That's my paddling team racing in The Napali Coast Challenge, in Kauai)

You had me at Hawaii.

It was during my second year of nursing school at TRU, I was sitting in the front row of I believe, my Health & Healing lecture with Dr. Joyce O'Mahony. She invited a guest lecturer that day, Steven Ross (which at the time of this writing, Sept 14, 2023, is serving his second term as the chairperson of the TRU nursing program).

I remember him introducing himself, “My name is Steve Ross, and I’m one of the only male faculty in the program, my background is… I worked in Hawaii for 7 years…”

As soon as I heard that, ding ding ding! That was it, he had me at “Hawaii”. All I could think of was, “I need to talk to him after class and find out more about Hawaii”. I was definitely inspired, and now I had a new dream.  

Eight years later, and through the ups and downs of life, I finally made it here. It was a long and complex journey, and as positive as I am, there were a lot of times that I actually did not think that my dream of going to Hawaii was ever going to come true. On top of that, things went on hold for a few years because of the Global Pandemic in March of 2020. Borders were shut down globally.

    (Downtown Honolulu, at the Waikiki Yacht Club)

     (Queen's Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, downtown Honolulu)

I currently work in the Emergency Department at Queen’s Medical Center, which is located in downtown Honolulu. Queen’s Hospital is the largest private, non-profit hospital in Hawaii, with 575 acute care beds. It is the state of Hawaii designated Level 1 Trauma Center, and also serves as the major referral center for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, orthopedics, surgery, emergency medicine and behavioral health medicine.