Humans of UNAC/UHCP: Desiree Nack, RN

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.

It was a Tuesday. There were really strong winds in Altadena that morning, so strong that they knocked out our electricity. My wife works from home, so she was worried. I was down at my office at Kaiser Pasadena when the power came back around noon. Then, not long after that, we got the message that the wind would pick back up again that evening. The power company turned the electricity off early.

Pursuing a Business Administration degree was instrumental in enhancing my understanding of healthcare management—providing the tools to analyze data-driven decisions, advocate effectively for clinicians, and assume leadership roles that influence positive change in our workplaces. READ MORE  

Providers have made me feel like I couldn’t go to them to ask questions because they already assumed the negative. I am a nurse and know how to navigate the system, but I wonder about other Black moms. I wish more medical providers were aware of their own biases and how they are coming off to the patients they care for. READ MORE