On February 20, the Hilo community pulled together to deliver vaccines to 2,000 people at the Edith Kanakaʻole Tennis Stadium. Among the many volunteers who organized the event, employees from the Hilo Medical Center (HMC) spent their day off vaccinating educators and those in the airline and service sectors. Among those fueled by a commitment to public health service was Arthur Sampaga Jr., chief nursing officer at HMC where he’s been on staff for 32 years. An alumnus of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Sampaga was in the very first nursing cohort, graduating with a bachelor of science in nursing in 1994.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted Sampaga’s job at the hospital.
“Since January 2020, almost all of my focus and efforts have been COVID-19 related,” he said. “As an active member of the executive planning committee, we have prepared our medical center and community to deal with the active threat of this virus.”
Sampaga has played an integral role in planning, obtaining necessary equipment and supplies, providing updated infectious disease training, and implementing all evidence-based practices in Hilo.
“From the start we have been taking a proactive approach in everything we do, such as ongoing surveillance testing of all employees, proper personal protective equipment use, opening up a COVID-19 unit to care for patients, and now providing the COVID vaccines for our community healthcare workers, essential workers and kūpuna,” Sampaga explained. “I am also the East Hawaiʻi Medical Center’s liaison actively participating with Civil Defense and Department of Health daily operations.”
Sampaga is grateful to the UH Hilo nursing program which he claims helped expand his knowledge base in a variety of sciences, community outreach services and leadership development. While completing his degree, nights were spent working full-time in the intensive care unit at HMC caring for critical ill and injured patients. On top of a packed schedule during his days at UH Hilo, Sampaga also worked as a part-time soldier in the National Guard. He retired as a lieutenant colonel, chief nurse and deputy commander for the U.S. Army Medical Command or Medcom after 30 years of service.
- Related UH News story: UH Hilo pharmacy students assist with on-campus COVID-19 testing, September 3, 2020
Sampaga is now an active member of the UH Hilo nursing advisory board and a community workforce leader who employs many university graduates.
He advises UH Hilo students, “Choose your career path wisely. Know what you want to do. Be competent, educate yourself and others, provide safe, quality care through evidence-based practices.”
For more go to UH Hilo Stories.
—By Lauren Okinaka, who is earning a bachelor of arts in communication with a minor in English.
