Humans of UNAC/UHCP: Desiree Nack, RN

Both of my parents were born in Mexico. When they came here to the United States, my mom was pregnant with me. They came here for a better life and that's exactly what they accomplished for their lives and the lives of their children. There are five of us. My parents worked hard; they sent us to private schools. They made sure my siblings and I got a great education and reinforced the importance of getting a college education and not just stopping at high school.

Nursing is my second career. I was born and grew up in Bangladesh. When I came here to the United States, I was in a different field, working in the hospitality industry. But I had family members in the medical field, and I saw the respect and satisfaction they got from doing such rewarding work. Unlike other fields, in nursing you feel rewarded inside when you can help someone else. READ MORE

I fell in love with the patient population in the pediatric unit after I floated there. I’m kind of animated. I like making my pediatric patients smile even when they’re sick—because they will. Little things will make them smile and giggle even if they don’t want to. They can’t help being little kids. They bounce back. On our unit now, we see a lot of oncology families. I have a special place for those kids. I get to know their families and everything about them, tolerate their grumpy little attitudes. They’re so tough, those little guys.

I saw on social media Sunday night that our Maui workers were going on strike the next morning. Maui is very dear to me, like a second home, and I have family here. So without thinking twice, at midnight I booked a flight first thing in the morning on Monday and I got here to the strike line at about 2 in the afternoon. I felt like this was the right place to be with everybody—to support our family here. It just brings me so much joy knowing that we’re all in this together in solidarity.

I put in my hours here at Maui Memorial. I was a single parent. I needed to work. I’ve given 20 years of my life here. It hasn’t been easy, but I love working here. I love helping the patients and my coworkers. We’re one big ohana. I enjoy what I do, otherwise I would not have been here this long. You need to have aloha to work here. Aloha is like showing love, always helping, giving back.