As part of our Career Development Program, employer mentors host students in job shadowing. Kaikala had the opportunity to spend 3 days with Joshua Arquero, a registered nurse at Hui No Ke Ola Pono. Joshua showed Kaikala the importance of meal planning and how it affects your health; how to pull charts and how to check for high blood pressure, heart rate and pulse, all while talking to the patient and making them feel at ease.
Job Shadowing Mr. Joshua Arquero, RN at Hui No Ke Ola Pono
Hui No Ke Ola Pono is a community-based Native Hawaiian Health Care System organization that works within Hawaiian values to provide services for the people of Maui. This organization has many different services to offer, such as water aerobics, tobacco cessation (to help you quit smoking) and dental services. Keep in mind that these are only three of the many services offered to people who either choose to get help for themselves or get referred by a family member who cares enough to want better for their ohana. I thought this was a great chance to learn and to give a little for what got me to where I am today, so I decided to job shadow and to give a helping hand to others in need. My mentor who took me in and accepted to teach me things I never knew before was Joshua Arquero who works at Hui No Ke Ola Pono and is currently a registered nurse living on the island of Maui.
One of the different things that I experienced while I was a volunteer at Hui No Ke Ola Pono was the great meal planning that helps people to lose weight and not hate the food that they are eating. Hui No Ke Ola Pono creates these meals by using less salt and butter, and by using healthier substitutes like diet soda for regular soda. Some other things I learned while working with Joshua were how to pull charts, and how to check a patient for high blood pressure, heart rate, and their pulse while talking story with them at the same time. I learned that it’s important to make sure that you get a little connection with the patient so they feel like they can relax instead of being tense and tight.
I think that this job shadowing experience at Hui No Ke Ola Pono was really beneficial for me because one of my goals in life is to become a registered nurse. I knew very little about how to become a registered nurse until my mentor, Joshua, showed me the steps to becoming a nurse and gave me a little sense of what it is going to be like when I’m out and in the field helping people in need.
Hui No Ke Ola Pono is definitely a community in which I could picture myself working in the future not just because it’s a job and I need the income, but because the people who work there are just like your own ohana in a sense. Anybody in the world can work at a job, but if you don’t like the people you work with, then how long will that job really last before you say you’ve had enough? Not that long, I would say, and that’s why I could picture myself working at Hui No Ke Ola Pono in the future; everyone there treats each other and their patients with aloha.
I thank Joshua Arquero, RN for helping me and teaching me new things about nursing and caring for others. He answered my questions and respected me as a person who wanted to learn. I also thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to accept me as a student, teach me and get me moving closer toward my future goal. Thank you for your aloha, Mentor Josh, RN.