By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Medical professionals in an array of jobs from nursing home workers to vaccine researchers have been putting in extra hours and risking their own health to help people affected by the novel coronavirus.
We spoke with three Hawaii Catholics directly involved in the healthcare field to learn how they see the role of faith playing out in their pandemic work.
Nel Miyashiro, emergency room discharge nurse, Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, Honolulu
Nel Miyashiro, emergency room discharge nurse, Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, Honolulu
Nel Miyashiro jokes that she didn’t go into nursing for the right reasons. As a child she saw her older cousin wearing a candy striper volunteer uniform and decided that all nurses must dress like that so she wanted to be a nurse.
After she grew out of the uniform obsession, Miyashiro continued on her nursing path, and has been one for 30 years, working as an operating room nurse, cardiology nurse and now an emergency room discharge nurse.
“I look at the emergency room like Christmas when you’re opening your gifts, and it’s a surprise,” Miyashiro said of her current work. “You just never know what comes through.”
At Kaiser Permanente, where Miyashiro currently works, there’s been an increase in emergency room activity since the pandemic.
“Right now we’re seeing a lot of non-Kaiser patients,” Miyashiro said. There are also more homeless patients being sent to the hospital when other Oahu hospitals are at capacity.
“It’s been pretty tough,” she said of figuring out how to best discharge those that don’t have a permanent place to live especially since she’s not a social worker.
“It’s like my brothers and sisters I’m trying to discharge and ensuring they’re safe. And if this is a public crisis, certainly you don’t want them roaming the streets if they’re positive with COVID-19.”
The Resurrection of the Lord parishioner said that while she’s always had an active faith, the pandemic has brought her closer to God. She, her husband and their teenage son started praying the rosary together and she took part in a parish 40-day prayer session including a prayer journal that helped keep her centered.
“Prayer helped us cope significantly,” she said.
At work, Miyashiro and some other nurses and doctors also gather together at the start of their shifts for an informal prayer circle. Some are Catholic and others aren’t.
“It’s just a general prayer to protect everyone in the world … to protect ourselves, thanking God for allowing us to take care of our patients to the best of our ability,” she said. “It’s a good way to start the day.”
You can always tell who the Catholics are in the prayer circle though because they automatically make the Sign of the Cross before and after praying, Miyashiro laughs.
Dr. Scott French, emergency and family physician on Hawaii Island
Dr. Scott French, emergency and family physician on Hawaii Island
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has come to Hawaii, Dr. Scott French said he’s been struck by the reduction of people coming to the emergency room for things that they would have pre-pandemic, like potential heart attacks or strokes. Similarly, people are putting off routine medical care.
Dr. French said that people are so worried they will get COVID-19 at hospitals that they are falling ill, experiencing health issues or even dying. He wants people to make sure they aren’t afraid to access healthcare.
“We as Catholics know that there is something beyond our sojourn on planet Earth,” he said. “We all die, as long as we do the right thing, we can mitigate this.”
Dr. French says Catholics can take the proper safety precautions by social distancing, wearing masks, protecting vulnerable populations like the elderly, obese and medically vulnerable, and making sure they are taking care of their health by going to the doctor when necessary.
He says that he will pray with his patients if they ask him to because “part of what we do is comfort people.”
The St. Michael, Kailua-Kona, parishioner is not worried about working in the ER because he feels he and his hospitals are taking the right precautions and that he trusts in God.
“Just be good and right with God every day,” he said. “You never know when you’re going to go home. If it’s my time, it’s my time.”
“God’s the divine physician. Jesus is the divine physician,” Dr. French said. “We work with him, and sometimes we’re successful. Sometimes we’re not.”
“We will get through this.”
Ann Judilla, clinical researcher at a global pharmaceutical company
Ann Judilla is a senior clinical researcher for a global pharmaceutical company and a parishioner at St. Jude Parish in Kapolei.
While her work is not directly related to COVID-19 — she is a generalist who checks on the safety of drug trials in clinics and hospitals relating to oncology and respiratory diseases — Judilla said she is glad her background allows her to reassure fellow parishioners about things relating to the coronavirus like mask-wearing and social distancing.
Her own elderly mother wants to continue going to Mass in person, and Judilla thinks that St. Jude is doing an excellent job of keeping the church sanitized and having people follow social distancing protocols.
Ann Judilla, clinical researcher at a global pharmaceutical company, second from left, with mother, Stella, and St. Jude Parish priests.
But Judilla tells people there’s no shame in watching Mass at home, especially if they are in a vulnerable group.
“I don’t think they should unnecessarily expose themselves by attending Mass in person,” she said.
Judilla also has volunteered herself for a current COVID-19 vaccine trial. She sees how her fellow church members have been afraid to come to church or are worrying about the coronavirus.
“By helping out as a study subject, it puts people who know that I am doing this back into a more OK state,” Judilla said. “That’s how I see research and how I see myself as well, as giving back to the community.”
Judilla makes sure she attends church three to four times a week and especially likes to start the week off at Mass.
“It focuses me on my spirituality and gives me a good start of the week to balance myself and remember who I am spiritually as well as my purpose right now in my life with work,” she said.
Judilla said she believes in the work she does with pharmaceuticals and pointed out how the eight major worldwide pharmaceutical companies recently announced that they won’t be rushing out a COVID-19 vaccine without going through the proper safety checks.
“We’re not willing to sacrifice people, we are about healing people,” she said.
