WAIMEA — When Eileen Naka‘ahiki reported for work at Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital on Thursday, she planned to stay for just an hour.
“It’s going to be too sad,” Naka‘ahiki told a never-ending throng of people on Wednesday when her family surprised the retiring nurse with a surprise luncheon at the KVMH garden. “I’m going to start at 6 a.m., and be done by 7 because nobody is here at that time. Cheryl Tennberg, a member of the Hawai‘i Health Systems Corporation, Kaua‘i Region leadership team, wanted a meeting, but I told her, ‘I’ll be gone.’”
Naka‘ahikik, a surgical nurse manager at KVMH, is retiring following just more than 31 years of service, states a KVMH release.
A Hawai‘i State Senate certificate adds that following her tenure at the G.N. Wilcox Memorial Hospital, Naka‘ahiki has 45 years of nursing and serving the people of Kaua‘i.
Born and raised on Kaua‘i, Naka‘ahiki graduated from Waimea High School in 1965. She decided to pursue a nursing career in an effort to care for the people in her community, the KVMH release states.
Eileen worked as a scrub and circulating nurse in the operating room at Wilcox Hospital for more than 14 years before taking a job at KVMH in 1992. A year later, she earned the title of nurse manager.
“She did not want this,” a blue-garbed KVMH nurse said, trying to find a hiding place to surprise Naka‘ahiki when she arrived so her husband could check on why the KVMH refrigeration didn’t get cold. “She’s going to see the blue and know. She’s not going to be happy.”
The Senate certificate states that during her time as a health care worker, Naka‘ahiki consistently sought improvement in care for her patients’ physical needs and initiated a partnership with a cab company for the purpose of patient transportation to the hospital from rural neighborhoods.
She offered her patients constant emotional support and reassurance, as they attended appointments and procedures building trust and confidence in her abilities throughout the years.
In her 45-year career, Naka‘ahiki has garnered gratitude and aloha from those she served and worked alongside, and has created a lasting legacy of love and compassion in the healthcare field, and in those she has come to know.
“Dedicated to the delivery of quality care, Eileen has always put her patients first, and has inspired her staff to do the same,” the KVMH release states.
“She has worked hard to build a compassionate, competent, dedicated surgical team to carry on her mission of providing optimal surgical care for her westside community. A team that cares for you like family to make sure you have a positive comfortable experience. Eileen encourages her staff to never stop learning, and to share what they learn with each other — just like she has done her entire career.”
Senate President Ron Kouchi, HHSC Kaua‘i Region CEO Lance Segawa and a number of people from the HHSC, Kaua‘i Region leadership team were among those stopping by to add their personal well wishes on retiring from health care.
Stephanie Iona, of Kekaha Agriculture, and Kouchi arranged for the flowering dendrobium orchids that graced the lunch tables at the reception.
“These are all for Eileen,” Iona said. “She’s going to have time to care for them, now.”
