LIHU‘E — Fifteen lit candles in the darkened Kaua‘i Community College Fine Arts Auditorium heralded the achievements of the 14 graduates of the college’s Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) program during the summer graduation program held before an overflow audience.
The 15th candle is lit in honor of Florence Nightingale, “The Lady with the Lamp,” who is considered the founder of modern nursing.
The candles are lit as the final step to graduation following the graduates receiving their certifications and reciting the nursing pledge.
Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 in Florence, Italy, to a wealthy English family. Following an influenza epidemic where she nursed many people, she discovered her calling and wanted to become a nurse.
But her parents opposed, considering nursing to be for a lower class with little social standing.
Florence persisted and after nursing her great aunt through her final illness, her parents relented and sent her to nursing school in Germany, away from anyone her family knew.
Florence believed she could save patients from death often seen with conventional medical treatment of the time. She felt that caring for their basic needs, keeping them clean, well fed, rested and warm would improve their health. She was right.
Her common sense and wisdom were the basis for caring for people. She believed that hygiene, fresh air, cleanliness, clean water, proper drainage and lots of light would help patients.
In Istanbul during the Crimean War in the 1850s, Florence and 37 of her fellow nurses tended to soldiers in the barracks hospital. They improved hygiene, sanitation, and provided better nutrition. The death rate in the hospital dropped with their care from 42 percent down to 2 percent.
She made her rounds through the wards at night by carrying an oil lamp, becoming known as the “The Lady with the Lamp.”
Maureen Tabura, an instructor and program coordinator with the Kaua‘i Community College Nursing Program, said all of the Licensed Practical Nurse graduates will be working toward passing their LPN license and plan to advance to the next level class in the fall semester.
“You can have and enjoy your graduates for about a month,” Tabura told graduates’ family members that overflowed the Fine Arts Auditorium. “But when they come back in a few weeks, we’ll have them for two more semesters.”
Tabura said the graduates would not have been able to get to where they are without the help of Nicholas “E Z” and Pauline Street Nursing Scholarship, the Mokihana Club Kaua‘i scholarships and Good Jobs Hawai‘i.
The 14 graduates also spent the closing part of their semester working alongside the U.S. Air Force and other military professionals during Tropic Care Kaua‘i.
Graduate Naomi Ka‘auamo was presented the special Josefina Abava Cortezan Nursing Award for a student who demonstrates outstanding performance. They plan on pursuin their associates degrees in nursing.
Graduate Kiane Dalit earned the Jeanette Justice Memorial Award for her excellence in psycho-social nursing.
The graduating class consisted of Sean Reed Himongala, Rochelmae Agustinez, Shier Cassandra Asuncion, Kimerly Anne Blanes, Mary Clair Constantino, Ma Victoria Cristobal, Kiane Dalit, Erika Faye Esposo, Veronica Udarbe Fernandez, Josey Jacinto, Naomi Ka‘auamo, Alexie Lane-Schwarze, Paris Tangelder and Elizabeth Taylan.
