Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 9, 1 September 2013 — PREPARING Kanaka Maoli FOR CAREERS IN HEALTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PREPARING Kanaka Maoli FOR CAREERS IN HEALTH

Sitting in a classroom at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine, first-year medical student Chelsey Ruth pondered a question on why she is part of a program to mentor ki students at Nānākuli High and Intermediate I School's new Heahh Academy.

For Ruth, the question was odd, because she had never given it a second thought. Giving back to the community, she says, is just something she expects of herself. "For me, it's just natural to want to be able to help someone else pursue their goals, especially in medicine," Ruth said. "That's what I should be doing and I want to do it. Deep down it's really important to help these students and help them realize their potential."

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< University of Hawai'i medical student Chelsey Ruth, left, is participating in a new program to mentor students in the Health Academy at Nānākuli High and lntermedi- | ate School. Here, she poses with Dr. Winona Lee, director of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence, whieh is part of the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at f the John A. Burns School of Medicine. - Photos: Helson Gaspar

The program at Nānākuli was launched in late August as a partnership with the Department of Education and the medical school's Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence. It is hoped the academy ean create a pipeline to entice students, especially Native Hawaiian students to enter heahh care fields.

Native Hawaiians are traditionally underrepresented in the heahh care industry; for example, just 4 percent of doctors practicing in Hawai'i are Native Hawaiian. Ruth, a Native Hawaiian from 'Aiea, wants to encourage students who have dreams similar to hers. She feels the mentorship ean be valuable. As a twin, Ruth has always had an interest in genetics. A high-school biology teacher encouraged her to pursue the sciences. Her dreams are big - she wants to create a community genetics program for Hawai'i. "It's a little different because I'm envisioning this center where you

have multi-disciplinary departments all working to increase education, genetic education, prevention, family history, everything in general right there," Ruth said. Even her big dreams center on giving back to her community. That is not lost on officials at the medical school. They say they see Native Hawaiians as uniquely qualified to be heahh care professionals. They are seeing many students whose goal is to be a general practitioner or to serve in medically underserved areas. They say Hawaiian values make for better doctors. "Some of those things can't be taught. They ean be nurtured, they ean be developed in terms of altruism, respect and eommunieahon," said Dr. Winona Lee, director of the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence. Lee said doctors and nurses ean only do so mueh and they need to be able to partner with the patient to provide the most effective health care services. "Some of our students understand why Grandpa doesn't want to go to the doctor,

because they (doctors) don't take the time to talk story. ... But our students realize we need to take some time to really get to know the patient. That's what they respond to, and then we ean talk about their health condition, we ean talk about what we recommend," Lee said. Agreement to enhanee pipeline programs In June, Nā Limahana o Lonopūhā, the Native Hawaiian Heahh Consortium, and the U.S Department of Heahh and Human Services Office of Minority Heahh signed a memorandum of understanding for a fiveyear partnership designed to enhanee pipeline programs to get more Native Hawaiians into heahh care professions. In addition, the partnership will work to integrate culturally competent heahh care services and decrease cultural barriers to encourage people to get the heahh care they need. The Native Hawaiian Heahh Consortium, chaired by OHA Ka Pouhana, CEO Kamana'opono Crabbe, comprises private, nonprofit, state, academic community heahh centers and community-based providers. At the Native Hawaiian Center for Excel-

lenee, more than 1,200 students from kindergarten to the 12th grade are exposed annually to heahh care professions. Lee sees her program as augmenting the work done by Nānākuli High and Intermediate

educators. "These students need to be given a ehanee to succeed. They may not all want to be physicians, but they should be given the ehanee to say whether they see themselves as a physician," Lee said. Chaminade University has its own pipeline program in nursing that reaches out to Native Hawaiians. The upshot, the school believes, is better quality heahh care. "When you work with a certain populahon, whether it's Hawaiian or non-Hawaiian there are certain cultural protocols that ean add to care for a person," said RaeDeen KeahiolaloKarasuda, director of Chaminade's Office of Native Hawaiian Partnerships. She said the school teaches culturally eompetent care. "The fact that our curriculumis framed in a culturally competent way . . . is a benefit to all of us because we're in Hawai'i. It's important to know what those protocols are and not just

tor Hawanan patients but for loeal patients as well." Dean of Nursing Steph-

anie Genz says the culturally competent care ean manifest itself in many ways. Lor instance, understanding traditional remedies or simply knowing that some patients might prefer poi to potatoes. "If you ean show themthat you understand that they have personal values and beliefs and culture that is important

to them . . . and you're willing to work with themon that and bring in as mueh indigenous healing as you ean, I think people will respond to that and they will know you really care about them," Genz said. Lee, the UH Native Hawaiian Center of

Excellence director, said: "It's important to have all medical students, future physicians, not just Native Hawaiian students understand the eulture, understand the diverse cultures of Hawai'i, but especially the host culture because Native Hawaiians have many health disparities." Leadership in nursing Sharmayne Kamaka is a mother of five and grandmother of seven who is a second-year student in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Chaminade University. She is one of six students of Native Hawaiian ancestry who is getting a scholarship covering her tuition funded by Queen's Heahh Systems, Kamehameha Schools and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Kamaka has seen first-hand the difference between good and bad nursing, as a patient who was disabled and as a mother with a

daughter īn the hospitai. Kamaka started her nursing journey in 2007 as a certified nurse aide through Windward Community College's CNA-LPN-RN Pathway program that synthesizes modern medical advances with Native Hawaiian

cultural values. "They really integrate kuleana, and mālama and ao and pono and all these values that are held dear to Hawaiians," Kamaka said, referring to the values of responsibility, caring, teaching and learning, and excellence. The pathway encourages students to progress from certified nurse

aide, to iicensed practicai nurse to registered nurse - and to heeome leaders in the community. Since starting the program, Kamaka has heeome the chair of the Nursing Pathway program. "Now I'm totally in a leadership role From CNA to the nrooram

chair - whoa!" Kamaka said. "The pathway has done that for me. It's changed my life." She said in her experience, the best nurses are loeal and tied to the community. "If you are Hawaiian or live in Hawai'i your whole life, you're so exposed to all the different ethnicities because Hawai'i is a melting pot. You're more culturally sensitive and you care for whoever walks in the door. You still have that aloha for them." While Kamaka is expecting to graduate with

a Bachelor of Science in 2016, she said her education will not stop there. She would like to continue on and get a higher degree to be able to teach and give back to her community. "I'm doing it to care for my community and my kūpuna," Kamaka said. ■

RaeDeen Keahiolalo-Karasuda is director of Chaminade University's Office of Native Hawaiian Partnerships. The school's pipeline program in nursing reaches out to Native Hawaiians in the belief that it will result in better quality health care. - Courtesy: Ctiaminade University