Hawaii Care Choices, formerly Hospice of Hilo, announces the hiring of Chenit Ong-Flaherty as director of clinical services, a position that entails strong leadership and management oversight of all clinical team services for the organization’s palliative, hospice and bereavement programs.
Ong-Flaherty comes to Hawaii Care Choices with 30 years of nursing experience spanning public health, inpatient, ER care and most recently academia. Before nursing, Ong-Flaherty studied pre-law and worked in Washington, D.C., but quickly realized she wanted to “care for people and touch people in a literal sense.”
After receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from San Francisco State University, Ong-Flaherty continued her education, completing a doctor of nursing practice degree in 2012 at the University of San Francisco.
“Only 1 percent of nurses in this country have a doctoral degree,” said Hawaii Care Choices CEO Brenda S. Ho. “Chenit brings decades of field experience to not only her leadership role, but also a depth of education and teaching skills that will support our care team as they work to continue providing the highest quality care through proven best practices to our patients and their families in need.”
“Living and dying with a terminal illness has always been very much part of life in my culture, and I have been able to help many of my patients, especially in the ER, to overcome the fear of moving on from this life that we know,” said Ong-Flaherty when asked how she became interested in hospice and palliative care. “It has both fascinated and saddened me that in the United States there is such an intense fear of the next life.”
She said her most profound hospice experience was taking care of her father during the last six months of his life.
“He had Parkinson’s, and with the combination of dementia and, eventually, the inability to swallow, it really was my duty and privilege as his daughter to give him the love he deserved, and to support my mother and siblings through a delicate time.”
Ong-Flaherty sees hospice and palliative care as a vital part of the health care continuum for any community.
“As a society, we have been groomed to think medicine and health care have all the answers,” she said. “The fact is that we are still learning every day about how our minds and bodies work.”
Ong-Flaherty expressed sadness at the fact that she has frequently witnessed much suffering and pain, physical and emotional, from false hope and procedures.
“Nothing hurts more than to have to resuscitate, with broken ribs and other injuries from CPR, an elderly patient with less than 20 percent chance of survival,” she said. “Our health care system also rewards futile care regardless of survivability because we get paid by doing more not less. I would recommend that everyone watch the documentary film ‘Escape Fire,’ available online, which captures why we need to change our health care approach.”
Ong-Flaherty thinks it is vital to provide hospice and palliative care to the community because “it is a privilege that so many in our society are not aware of, that there is a graceful option for our journey on earth.”
As the new director of clinical services, Ong-Flaherty’s focus will be on the care team.
When working for the best interests of the patient, Ong-Flaherty sees her role as one who will guide the clinical team through the complexities of the health care system so “we can continue to provide the strong, compassionate care our patients deserve.”
Ong-Flaherty thinks Hawaii is such a special place, with patients and their ohana just as deserving of the best care available as anyone on the mainland.
“But it takes a community to bring about the change,” she said. “It is my hope that we can come together to work towards what is best for this special island and its people.”
For more information about the palliative, hospice and bereavement services provided by Hawaii Care Choices, call 969-1733 or visit www.hawaiicarechoices.org.
