About five percent of all applicants to Hawaiʻi nursing programs are Native Hawaiian and only five percent of those accepted into the programs graduate.
Windward Community College’s Nursing Pathway Program is boosting those numbers by incorporating a Hawaiian-focused curriculum. The program for disadvantaged students has graduated about 320 students since its inception in 2007, putting them on the path to a career in nursing.
The pathway program is founded on Hawaiian values and mixes Native Hawaiian healing traditions with modern nursing practices.
“The mixture between Native Hawaiian values and culture into Western medicine is not valued and I feel that we need to bring it back,” says Dr. Jamie Boyd, program coordinator of the nursing pathway program.
The program also helps lift many Native Hawaiian students out of poverty by providing its students with the skills and tools needed to not only become a nurse, but the opportunity to become a leader in the medical field as well.
“Kamehameha Schools is extremely proud and excited about our partnership with The Windward Community College Nursing Pathway Program,” says KS Extension Education Services Director Stacy Clayton. “It is exciting to see Ke Ali‘i Pauahi’s desire for educational opportunities that improve the capability and well-being for people of Hawaiian ancestry manifested and thriving in this program.
“Pauahi would be pleased to see so many Native Hawaiian haumāna pursuing their dreams of becoming nurses,” added Clayton.
Students enrolled in the program first experience eight weeks and 150 hours of nurse aid training. After the eight weeks, nurse aid students can choose to apply for the pathway.
In order to be considered, students must pass the nurse aid course, pass the state exam to become a certified nurse aid (CNA), be accepted into an accredited college or university, work or volunteer in the community in the healthcare field, and be personally recommended to Dr. Boyd by a current CNA in the pathway.
The Pathway
Pathway students create positive change for others and for themselves through community service. There are seven Native Hawaiian values that serve as facets in the pathway program: ho‘omalu (governance), a‘o mai (education), a‘o aku (teacher training), hana (employment), kōkua (service), alaka‘ina (leadership) and lāhui (nation).
Licensed Practical Nurse Sharmayne Kamaka says that the pathway builds leadership skills that no other western nursing school teaches. Students in the pathway help care for the program’s Healing Garden which nourishes their pilina (relationship) with the land.
Pathway student Noe Hoapili sees value in the program. “There’s always a constant need to retie our people to the ‘āina.”
Boyd agrees. “When we’re in the ‘āina, immersed in thoughts and prayer, we receive better ways to take care of ourselves and the people,” she says.
Aside from maintaining the Healing Garden, pathway students come full circle when they serve kūpuna (elders) for four hours a week at Lunalilo Home, Ke Ola Mamo or Papa o Lōkahi.
Serving the kūpuna not only helps students recognize the different ailments that come with age, but gives them an opportunity to learn more about the elders and talk story with them. (Hear more about this aspect of the program on Hawai‘i Public Radio)
After the Pathway
After the pathway, students are encouraged to apply for higher education at an accredited college or university. The program partnered with Kapi‘olani Community College to reserve 10 of their 80 nursing school seats for pathway students.
The pathway program has also successfully transitioned six students to the Chaminade University of Honolulu nursing program. Chaminade students pay a total of $100,000 in tuition for the four-year nursing program. However, pathway students only pay $10,000 of it because they are able to earn scholarships by returning to WCC to train new nurse aide students for two hours a week.
“[Modern] nursing school teaches you how to become a nurse, not a teacher,” says Boyd. “If we want Hawaiians to succeed in their training, we need to teach them how to teach others.”
Kamehameha Schools is a primary funder of WCC’s Nursing Pathway (Out of Poverty) Program. KS has granted the program more than $1.1 million over the last five years and has collaborated with the program through its Extension Education Services(EES) ‘Āina- and Culture-Based Learning Program.
Learn more about Windward Community College’s Nursing Pathway Program in the video below:
[Modern] nursing school teaches you how to become a nurse, not a teacher. If we want Hawaiians to succeed in their training, we need to teach them how to teach others.
Dr. Jamie Boyd, program coordinator of WCC
Pathway students practice taking a patient’s vital signs at Chaminade University. CNAs can earn college scholarships teaching nurse aide candidates at WCC.
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