Here at KKV, Pediatrics is located on the ground floor of the Wellness Center. Dr. Alicia Turlington is one of three pediatricians who works on staff. She started working at KKV in 2008 as a resident under Dr. Chris Derauf and joined staff in 2011. Now, she works as the Medical Champion for the Medical Legal Partnernship for Children Hawaii and is the Continuity Clinic Director for the Pediatric Residency Program, where Dr. Turlington has been teaching since 2012. The Pediatric Residency program currently supports six residents at a time. Dr. Turlington fondly shared that some of her students have even gone on to work in community health after their residency at KKV.

As does the rest of KKV, Pediatrics focuses on family, food, and connection, offering residents a broader community health education. In addition to conducting routine health check-ups, the residents are also trained to ask about social determinants of health, whether that means setting up the families with food to take home and/or sending them home with diapers on a needs basis. Over the course of the pandemic, Dr. Turlington and her team were given the opportunity to work with other programs at KKV to support our families affected by COVID-19. Through their inter-program referrals, families were able to receive food and supply deliveries, and rental/utilities assistance among other services. In her words, “We’ve just been connecting everywhere we can across KKV to get people whatever they need.”

Post-covid, Dr. Turlington hopes to be able to restart group visits. The group visits fostered a stronger sense of community than one would experience in a traditional exam room. Group visits looked like a group of women holding their children as they talk-story in a comfortable room, exchanging knowledge in a safe space facilitated by a pediatrician. “I’m just there if there’s anything they really need the pediatrician to answer,” Dr. Turlington shared. The women are given space to teach each other and learn each other’s cultures. She also hopes to build more connections with KKV’s Maternal Child Health to increase early childhood education and bridge the gap between kids and their homes.

Dr. Turlington and two of the six residents on her team share with us their thoughts on KKV:

“KKV is the place for me. This is the place where I feel at home.”

- Dr. Alicia Turlington, Pediatrician

“The staff here…is what I love the most…One of the things I’ll miss most when I graduate is the MA’s because they’ve added so much to my experience here at KKV. They’ve taught me things and I have a very special bond through my experience here.”

- Dr. Rachel Palting, resident

“This is an amazing place and I’m really grateful to be here…I can really feel the ohana kind of vibe here. Dr. Turlington cares about us deeply…checking in with us on how we’re doing, so we really, really appreciate that.”

- Dr. Barbora Kadecka, resident