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By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist
When Faith Nakano celebrated 60 years of working as a nurse at Shriners Hospital last year, orthopedic surgeons from around the country sent her letters of congratulations on her retirement.
But she wasn't retiring.
It's 61 years now, and Faith, who is 80 years old, still isn't going anywhere.
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"I haven't thought of it yet," she says. "You know, I hate the word retirement.
Nurse Faith Nakano has worked at Shriners for 61 years. Here she helps with a cast in 1984.
I don't like to hear that. There's no word like that in my vocabulary."
The more you learn about Faith, the more there is to admire. In her decades of service at Shriners, she had 50 years of perfect attendance. Dr. Donald Jones, the emeritus chief of staff who worked with Faith for 43 years, likes to point out: "That means she got sick once every 5 1/2 years."
Even now, she has to be told, almost forced, to go home after her shift.
"I don't like this punch-in, punch-out nowadays," she says. "I think if we didn't have to punch in and punch out, I would work longer hours because no one would tell me I have to go home. With labor rules, it's 'Go home now!' I say 'OK, but I'll be back tomorrow.' "
Her first five years at the hospital were spent caring for inpatients — children from Hawai'i and the Pacific region with orthopedic problems, mostly from polio. For the next 38 years, Faith worked in the operating room assisting surgeons. She also worked with outpatients and now is in medical records.
It's hard to tell who Faith has helped more — the thousands of patients she has cared for or the 128 surgeons she helped train.
Duke Gonzales, director of public relations for Shriners Hospital, says that when he's at public events, he often meets people who were once patients at Shriners. He comes back and tests Faith's memory with a name, condition, a brief description of the family. It never fails. "Faith remembers all her patients," he says, "and they all remember her."
Faith saw her role as a surrogate mother to the kids. In the old days, children would be hospitalized for up to three years at a time. Faith and her husband, Steve, never had kids of their own, but, she says, "I have all my children here."
She gets invitations to weddings of former patients. They send her flowers. One of her patients brings in his grandchildren to see her.
"I think some of your former patients are retired already and you're still working, yeah?" Gonzales says. Faith just smiles.
She got to be close to the children she took care of, cuddling them when they were scared, even crying with them sometimes.
"It's OK to cry in front of the children," she says. "You're human and you're going to show your human side. And I'm the very one, tears come out so easily."
You wouldn't know it hearing some of the stories from the surgeons. Shriners Honolulu is a training hospital for residents in pediatric orthopedic surgery. Dr. Jones says Faith played a crucial role in training one-third of the orthopedic surgeons in this state and dozens of others who went on to work across the country.
"Faith showed them the proper ethics of behavior and operating-room decorum," Jones says. She also saved them from getting in trouble by chasing after them to sign charts or finish dictation or by gently but firmly keeping them on schedule for clinic appointments.
And heaven help the resident who got busted uttering a swear word in the hospital.
"I'd tell the doctors, 'I want to see you in the nurses' lounge,' says Faith. "I would tell them, 'Listen, when you have your own office, you're not going to have anyone working for you if you behave like that.' "
And there are many stories of Faith's calm presence and gentle guidance in surgery. If residents were unsure how to proceed, they'd hold their hand out. Faith would put the proper surgical instrument in their hand.
In a book of remembrances that Dr. Jones put together for Faith, some of the surgeons who trained at Shriners sent her these words:
"I well remember the days when you handed me the surgical instrument I needed rather than what
I asked for with a courteous explanation," wrote Dr. Robert Nemechek of Shriners Honolulu.
"You were always able to portray a calm demeanor and show an excellent example on how patients are best treated, not just as patients, but also as human beings," said Dr. James Roach, from Shriners in Utah.
"In the last 20 years, I have had the opportunity to influence the hiring and assignments of many operating personnel. For me, you remain the gold standard," wrote Dr. Rick Mills of Kaiser Woodland Hills in California.
"They say in parenting, it takes three kids to train a good parent and in the Army, it takes 10,000 soldiers to train a good general. I don't know how many nurses it takes to train a good orthopod, but I am sure if they were like you, it would take only one," wrote Dr. Sam Wilson from South Bend, Ind.
On Tuesday, Shriners Hospital will hold a celebration to present Faith with Hawai'i's "Older Worker of the Year" award. It's part of a national program and Faith is the state winner this year. Faith isn't too happy about the fuss. If left up to her, she'd rather it be just a regular day where she can focus on her work. But she acquiesced when she thought about the attention it would bring to the hospital.
"What I'm happy about is more publicity for the hospital. Then we can find more kids in need. We can take care of more kids."
Just as long as no one congratulates her on her retirement. She's not retiring. Not any time soon.
Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.
