LEE CATALUNA

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Shortly after her husband died last year, Connie Chun approached Honolulu Community College with an idea of a way to honor him. Chancellor Ramsey Pedersen asked if she didn't want to take more time to think about it. "He told me, 'Why don't you come back later when you're not crying.' But I knew this is exactly what my husband would have wanted."

Dr. Hing Hua "Hunky" Chun was chief of medicine at St. Francis Hospital when he and Connie met. Connie was a nurse at the time, and later went on to become a lawyer and a legislator.

In the last months of his life, Dr. Chun was hospitalized. Still, he tended to patients who were in nursing homes by phoning in orders to nurses' aides. Many of the nurses' aides who worked alongside Dr. Chun during his career were educated in the Philippines and licensed there but, because of language and cultural barriers, had difficulty passing the Hawai'i licensing exam. Dr. Chun would say: "Connie, these nurses are so good. You have to do something to help them."

Connie understood the situation from the inside. She was born and raised in the Philippines and worked there as a surgical nurse before coming to the United States as a Fulbright scholar.

"The thing that we do is we memorize everything. But in essay questions, we're lost," says Connie.

The Chuns had long talked about providing a review course for immigrant nurses taking the Hawai'i exam. As a legislator, the first thing Connie did was to introduce a bill that would allow an intensive one-year training for foreign graduate nurses. The bill failed, but the Chuns never gave up on the idea. It only made sense, they said. There's a huge nursing shortage, and these nurses are capable. They're working in low-level medical jobs but they're trained as registered nurses.

Last year, Connie Chun donated $30,000 to HCC to set up the review course. The first eight-week session ended this week, with 40 students (from several countries as well as Hawai'i-born) completing the course.

The idea became reality so quickly because there was an informal review program in existence. Ron Oman, a nurse at Kuakini and recent Filipino Nurse of the Year, saw a need in the community and had been volunteering to tutor for the nursing exam.

"Filipino nurses are the backbone of Hawai'i healthcare," Oman says. "They have the medical knowledge, but there are language and cultural challenges."

For example, Oman says, if asked what foods are rich in Vitamin K, a nurse from the Philippines might name bitter melon and potato leaves rather than broccoli and asparagus. Right answers, but not test-answers.

On the final day of class, Connie addressed the students:

"Eat and sleep and review for the test. Think in English. Pass the test. Then, you will be saying thank you to Dr. Chun."