It's surprising how tides can turn in just about any second. One day you feel so proud about a person's feat and mourn for one's death the next. That is exactly what happened to one of our beloved professors in the UST College of Nursing, Asst.Prof. Zenaida Famorca, RN,MPH.
I fondly remember the day when she first spoke about having the big C in class. I was in first year back then, taking up Fundamentals of Nursing. She was our facilitator for that subject and had been on leave for several days already. When she finally returned, that was one of the saddest days we had in class. As a jolly and light natured person, that day was an exemption. Before we ended the class she told us that she had to undergo some diagnostic tests since she felt a lump on her chest while taking a bath. It flowed like a regular class discussion, introducing some basic nursing concepts here and there, while she was narrating her experience. Of course, we were in first year back then so we weren't able to follow the train of thought that much,not expecting that it was what it was. Then she proceeded in lecturing us about breast self examination.
What passion this teacher has, I said to myself after thinking about that day again when she tried to lecture us about a topic using herself as the example. It's like the book Tuesdays with Morrie on a different scale sans the daily personal visits to their home and the sappy life learning blahs. She continued to break it to us slowly with tears starting to build up in her eyes and those much needed pauses to collect herself again. Wiping her tears after telling us the whole story, she said that she needed to take another leave of absence for her own personal fight with cancer.
A year or so came and we were all jubilant about the news that Maam Famorca was already cured of cancer due to some foreign experimental drug that seemed to be effective. A few weeks after, we saw Maam Famorca teaching again with her new hippie curls (see picture above).
Fast forward to a couple of years, she became one of my reviewers for the local board exams. She was teaching Community Health Nursing (CHN), the admitted waterloo of UST Nursing graduates. Some of our batchmates for some unknown reason didn't attend/arrived late during the review sessions with her. So she spent some few good hours in expressing her frustration with our batch's attitude toward the review. She was so frustrated that not attending seemed like a personal fault to her.
The following day was the other instance that I saw her in tears. Before the review started, she told us how she felt so bad yesterday after the review having wasted some time sermoning those who didn't deserve to hear such a speech intended to those who weren't attending. She told us that she should've appreciated those who came since she was focused too much on those people who weren't there. She kept on saying sorry to those who attended. It was a perspective changing experience. I saw Maam Famorca's clarity of thought and humility in that seemingly commonplace experience. That is probably the most important lesson I learned from Maam Famorca, which is to appreciate whatever God gives to you and mind less those what you do not have.
Roughly after year I took the licensure exam, I heard that her cancer recurred and has metastasized (spread) to other parts of her body. On the 4th of May, she suffered complications and then shortly passed away. Maam Famorca is one of the humblest and most inspiring people I know. May she rest in peace with our Creator in heaven.
****
Maam Famorca authored a community health nursing book entitled Nursing Care of the Community by Mosby Elsevier. As Sir Loa would put it, "This
textbook provides a comprehensive set of concepts, cases, trends, and
issues in community health nursing, as well as new public health
programs. Exclusively distributed by C&E bookshop."
After months of intensive review with bouts of caffeine tolerance, I, along with approximately 70 thousand other nursing graduates, took the Nurse Licensure Examinations last June 30 and July 1,2012. I was assigned to take the test in J.Zamora Elementary School in Pandacan, just a few blocks past Nagtahan bridge.
It was quite a unfair for us who were assigned in a classroom where the ventilation is au naturale,.assisted only by a lone electric fan which hung on the opposite side from where I sat. I don't know if anxiety went into play but I think the humid atmosphere actually worked on my advantage since I have this tendency to spend almost 15 mins of the time allotted to take a quick nap. The wooden chairs, which seemed to have withstood the test of time and countless vandals, were all we had as our desks. Basically, it's like one of those classrooms that you see in most elementary schools.
As I entered the examination room, I can't help but notice the different uniforms of the people form various schools. More so, the age range of the examinees which was highly variable. Some of them looked young enough to pass as my batchmates while a few seemed to be in their 30's or 40's. Seeing them made me smile though, it made me realize how some people give importance to education even in their latter years.
The entire exam was generally okay. One thing about the nursing board exams is that it doesn't seem to measure what you know per se but more of how you should think as a nurse. There were a handful of challenging questions, particularly in the third part of the test which I think was the most difficult of the five parts. But I think the exam was pass-able.
My classmates and I meet up every break time. To an extent of weird humor, instead of reviewing for the next set, we rather amused ourselves with the bizzare questions that situations that appeared in the exams. I do not know why we still afford to be a merry bunch while everyone is either staring blankly or walking aimlessly along the hallways.Probably, UST had instilled in us the value of finding humor in the most difficult situations. Or maybe it was just reaction formation.
Me, Patrick and Kariza. Photo taken as soon as we went out of our examination room. :)
It'll take a month before the results are out so I can't help but feel anxious about it every now and then. I'm very optimistic about the results though. Please pray for me and all the deserving people who took the test :)
Last week, I submitted a list of my thoughts to the Assistant Dean who was asking for feedback regarding the new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) curriculum which was mandated by the CHED Memorandum Order No.5. I may not be the best person to talk about curriculum development as my qualifications would present, although I think that thoughts from a humble product of the said curriculum might just help in its implementation.
My thoughts might deviate a little from the prescribed curriculum but rest assured I try to line them up with the same goal of producing globally competitive nurses. Since the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is an autonomous institution, meaning it can design its own curricula, implementing some modifications to the prescribed BSN curriculum isn't impossible.
Here are my thoughts:
NURSING RESEARCH
Expanding
the subject into two semesters allows the students to be more immersed in the
field of research. Since the subject ends on the 1st sem of the senior year, I think the decreased load is very welcome for the students since they can concentrate on their graduation requirements on the 2nd semester.
RESEARCH APPLICATION
As
part of the role of the nurse as a research consumer, I have this idea of adopting a more substantial method of doing Nursing Care Plans (NCPs). I suggest that we adopt a more evidence-based NCP by
having the interventions supported by academic articles, internationally
published journals, DOH/WHO recommendations, books, and other evidences aside from the NANDA.
This practice does not only promote evidence based practice but it may also help the students in
identifying the grey areas of nursing practice. Once they identify these areas, these can stand as the basis of their researches in their senior year. The findings of research can then be directly applied to the clinical area by using the best practice methods to date.
SKILLS FAIR
The
skills fair really gave us the opportunity to practice our skills in the
clinical area although I think the time isn’t enough for us to practice all of
the skills included in the manual so I think additional time taken from the RLE
is needed. To further stimulate the students to become better in the skills
fair, I suggest that we have a Skills Fair Competition which will be open to all
RLE groups. The RLE group who will get the highest score after performing all the skills will be then given
an award or recognition.
PRC ORIENTATION
There must be a formal orientation regarding the PRC and the different forms to be submitted for graduation at the sophomore level. This is to avoid confusion among the students regarding the requirements. The redundancies in the forms must also be addressed (see Intensive Nursing Practicum checklist and Green Book Checklist) so that the students would not be hassled by the different forms that I think are not really necessary.
COMPETENCY APPRAISAL
The Competency Appraisal (CA) is one of the new subjects offered by the new BSN curriculum. It serves two purposes: to measure and develop our competence and to review the basic concepts in all the areas of nursing practice. In UST, we had several case scenarios which were discussed in class, adopting a participative type of student directed learning. The CA teaching style really developed our critical thinking skills although it did not become very effective in reviewing us in all the aspects of nursing subjects. Neither did it compensate for the lecture classes similar to the review. With this issue, I suggest that the case discussion method in CA be reverted back to lecture classes. I have two ideas on how we will proceed without removing the much needed case discussions:
(1) CA will be integrated in the respective subjects in the lower years. For example, after we take our CHN subject in 2nd
year, we would be given a case scenario similar to the one in CA and the case
would be discussed in class. By then we would have had the needed exposure in the case scenario, giving us more time to review basic concepts in the 4th year.
(2) Another suggestion is to integrate CA in the RLE during
their exposure to the respective related area. For example, after we have our
OR exposure, we will be given the case scenario which shall serve as the case
presentation to assess our competence. This may lessen the burden in finding extra time in the classroom.
MEDICAL SURGICAL NURSING
I
feel that the case scenario per system is quite a heavy load for the 3rd
year students. As they are already busy with other requirements form different
subject, it does very little to encourage the student to immerse themselves into the core of the subject as the students
focus more on “finishing the requirement”
rather than reviewing for the subject. Well, this was my observation when I was in third year. Also, there isn’t ample time allotted
for feedback in the classroom so the students do not really know if they get
the correct answer.
The
expansion of Medical Surgical Nursing up to the 4th year 1st
semester is one of the good provisions of the new curriculum. However, I think
that it does very little to decongest the load of the MS in the first two
semesters as it discuss solely both
Emergency and Gerontologic Nursing. I think that some systems should be moved to
MS3 so that the students can focus more on these systems as well as to lighten
the load of the two semesters of MS.
I
think that the gerontologic nursing can be downgraded into an elective course
since it has a limited content while the elective Critical Care can be included
in MS3 to allow more time for discussion as it has a broader scope.
ELECTIVES
Mother and Child – some topics overlap with
OB and Pedia, probably we can have a well defined scope so that the discussions
would not be repeated.
TQM –good to have as a subject
so that we become oriented with the concepts of quality care. Although I think
that the concepts in the subject can already be easily comprehended and can already be included in Nursing Leadership and Management.
Spiritual Care – a good way to increase
awareness among the students. Adding a cultural care component to the
subject would make it more interesting.
Critical Care – a very useful and
practical subject; I think it can be integrated in MS3
Suggested Electives:
Cultural
Care Nursing – This is in line with Madeline Leininger’s theory. This may help in developing culturally sensitive nurses, making them more globally competitive.
Gerontologic
Nursing – as suggested to be separated from MS3
Complementary and Alternative
Therapy Nursing - a lot of people are already welcoming new forms of therapy, nurses might as well be more familiar with these.
It takes thirty minutes to present a thesis you’ve
worked on for the last year. In those minutes, a panel of experts scrutinize
every move you do, every word you utter, and every step you’ve taken. And you
have no one to lean on aside from yourself and your research team who share the
same hopes getting this over. You are sleep deprived for days and the manifestations
from the caffeine overdose you inflicted upon yourself last night had become more evident. You could feel the
blood vessels in your temporal pulsating and those episodes of blank stares increase in recurrence.
By the way, our study is a True experiment that utilized the use of a video to educate young males about to undergo circumcision. We had two groups: one who received the conventional health teachings while the other group was asked to watch the video. Then we evaluated its effects on the knowledge and the pain perception using a knowledge assessment tool and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain. Based on our results, there had been significant increase in the knowledge scores and a decrease in the pain perception. Therefore, our intervention can be concluded as effective.
Although our group had a bumpy
start, we realize it is never too late to fix things and pave the way for a smoother, better road.
The benefits of delayed gratification just gets even more satisfying as it gets delayed. We have good results, plus we were able to carry on with having a true experiment and it is just up to us on how we will convey the information to the panelists.
Minutes before the defense, I suddenly had this
heavy feeling of the stress and exhaustion. Then I remembered a line from the Desiderata
which says:
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Indeed, those lines were very comforting at that time. We
started the presentation at around two o’clock. At around two thirty, the
defense started and I was just simply amazed on how eloquent and spontaneous my groupmates were. At some point, I feel that we are already professionals defending a full blown research, citing sources in our responses, justifying our choices in the research design. Indeed, no one knows your research better than yourselves.
After our defense, the panelists asked us to wait outside
while they deliberated among themselves. Personally, I was expecting a grade
maximum of 88 based from what we presented. But it turns out that the
panelistsdidn’t seem to agree with me
and gave us a score of Meritus (91%) for the manuscript and Bene Meritus (93%) for the oral defense.
The 4th year senior nursing students of UST College of Nursing invites everyone (nursing students and professionals) to a seminar on Total Quality Management with the theme "TQM: Going
Beyond Expectations in Health Care" which seeks to to enhance the
understanding of students and people directly involved in providing care
to patients regarding total quality management in health care and its
implementation in an internationally accredited health care facility. Registration fee: Php50 (exclusive of snacks and personal ID) Registration time: 7:00am - 8:00am Event start: 8:00am Event end: 12:00pm
Resource Speaker:
Annabelle Borromeo, R.N., Ph.D., CPAN, CCNS, CRNS Chief Nursing Officer and Vice-President of Nursing Services St. Luke's Medical Center Global City
After examination week, it’s just about time we once again cringe up on our thesis work. Our study involves the use of a video to decrease the pain perception and increase the knowledge of children undergoing circumcision. We were able to gather respondents during the summer break since that was the “peak” season of circumcision programs sponsored by the different local government units and private parties. We actually participated in two missions, one in St.Theresa’s College and another in Quezon City which gave us a handful of subjects.
Summer break ended and were still in need of 20 more participants. Our research professor suggested that we just organize our own "Operation Tule" program. I was half-convinced with the idea since school had already started thus adding to the difficulty of finding subjects.
Last Sunday, we took the risk of making a circumcision program materialize. We pulled together the resources coming from the community of San Jose Del Monte Bulacan, UST Hospital Operating Room, Medical Missions, Inc., Rotary Club Internationale, and other volunteers. I personally would like to thank Sir Gian Carlo Torres for helping us with the supplies, Maam Brenda Luy-Aragon for helping us find a volunteer doctor, Mrs. Neulaendner providing us with transportation and Dr. Pio Calma for joining us in this Operation Tule.
The circumcision program lasted from 10:00am up to around 5:00pm. We were very exhausted after the last operation but still very happy since we were able to give our service to the community. Aside form that, our group was also very happy since were were now able to satisfy the required number of participants for our study.
After packing up our things, we were led by one of the community leaders to the water refilling station donated by the Rotary Club Internationale from Korea. I personally believe that dole out giving of goods would only provide temporary relief so it's really a good thing that the Rotary makes projects like this which could help the community to be self-sustaining.
Before heading back home, we were led to the house of one of the community workers to eat. As we approached their house, we saw pink and purple cloths hanging as decorations in front of their house. Her daughter was celebrating her debut! It was the first time I went to a debut without even knowing or even meeting the debutant. Oh, gate crashers we were.
Although it was fun seeing how the community puts up celebrations like this. I like how everything was so simple in the place. From the decorations and the sound system, the party had a province-esque birthday feel to it.
While we were feasting on the platter of pancit, menudo, lumpiang shanghai and morcon (I just had to put the entire menu in), one of the volunteers went up to the microphone and acknowledged the group's presence and contribution. We felt very appreciated at that time. It's one of those appreciations that you don't normally get in the hospital setting where people just seem to come and go. This makes me consider taking up a career in Community Health Nursing (CHN). I mean, even though you don't get much compensation for doing your work, the fulfillment you get from serving people is enough.
I even like the though of doing home visits, conducting health education programs at the barangay halls, and giving immunizations to babies and children. Economic matters aside, I don't get it why nurses have ironically no jobs in the Philippines and are struggling to pay hospitals for work experience while there are a lot of countrymen in need of their services. Choosy lang talaga siguro ang ibang mga nurses. I think CHN is still one untapped field currently unemployed nurses may explore.
One sentence from the volunteer struck me the most. He said, "Mas mabisa ang gamot kapag libre". Oo nga naman. Mas mabuti nga naman kung habang nagpapagamot ang pasyente wala na siyang iniindang bayarin. Sana maitanim ito sa kaisipan ng mga health care professionals na dapat hindi lang pera ang habol sa kanilang propesyon kundi pagtulong din sa mga may sakit at nangangailangan ng kalinga.
I actually wanted to study fine arts. You know, paintings, graphics, design, and other creative whatnots. As I am currently overloaded with the too technical nursing subjects this semester, I imagine if I did pursue with my plan of shifting to the College of Fine Arts and Design during my second year. Maybe instead of forcing a semesters worth of lessons of Obstetrics unto my brain, I would have been experimenting with a my colorful palette, mixing them colors, conceptualizing an artwork, working on my project until the wee hours in the morning. Maybe I would have grown my hair, wear the CFAD uniform in whatever style without anyone caring. (See photo on the left)
But alas, here I am struggling in my fourth year so shifting now would put my time, effort and my parent’s money into waste. Out of my frustration to become an artist, I decided to join my first design contest sponsored by the local student council. We were asked to submit entries of lanyard designs primarily using the colors green and yellow.
Here are my two entries:
Luckily, both of my designs were chosen by the Dean and the Regent as part the finalists. Then an online poll was done and for another lucky instance, my designs got the top two places and are now the official lanyard of the college for this school year!
Days after, me and the student council auditor met with the suppliers who showed us the prototypes of my designs. I was happy that they were executed very nicely in print and just needed minimal alterations. The next day the first batch of lanyards were out.
I get asked a lot on what I feel that a lot of people are wearing my work. Lemme answer it here: It’s really one thing to see your design worn by others, those people you barely know and those people who barely know you. I can say that there is that pride that goes like “Hey! I designed what you’re wearing!”. I get that sense that even though they paid 110 bucks for it, the thing that they wear on their neck is still mine. Maybe it’s my inner possessiveness taking over me but you can’t blame me because it’s still my work.
PS: Your copies will be sent soon. I’ll text you the code when I deliver them to LBC. :)
Binibining Pilipinas is airing on ABS CBN. Lovely ladies from all over the country shall compete again for the much coveted titles and the opportunity to represent the country in international beauty pageants. Being a pageant ignorant, I was just told days ago that it was in this competition where the reps for the Miss Universe, International, and Tourism are selected. Kill me now.
I wouldn’t really care who the winner turns out this year if not my batch mate from the UST College of Nursing who's competing. I’m talking about candidate no.9 Bernadette Aguirre. While she may not be the most beautiful among the candidates in my opinion, I could tell that she could devour them all with her confidence.
I happened to watch her previously when she competed twice but failed to get any of the top spots in the The Search for the Ideal Thomasian Nursing Personality. The first time I saw her, I thought that she was too big a built to join the competition. She’s even got a bulkier upper body than myself. But look at her now, joining the ranks of the Philippine’s most beautiful in a national pageant. Sometimes I wonder what defines beauty and who sets the standards for it.
As for The Search for the Ideal Thomasian Personality, our local inter-collegiate personality search in our school, I would always wonder why they have set height requirements for the candidates. Most often than not, the better looking candidate aspirants seem to get an advantage as they seem to be more preferred over the less better looking. I mean, it’s a personality search for heaven’s sake! Does a small glitch in height makes you less of a personality? Does face value equate to a stunning personality? I don’t think so. I believe the The Search for the Ideal Thomasian Personality does not live up to its name as a personality search, it’s more of a beauty pageant where the face becomes the trade of the game. Good thing they’re not having tree planting activities, if they do, I’d barf.
It was indeed a momentous day for the advancement Nursing research in the Philippines last March 9-10, 2011 as researchers from the local and foreign research arena gathered at the University of Santo Tomas for the 1st International Research Conference for Nursing Students (IRCoNS) with the theme of “Stimulating Creative Minds towards New Frontiers in Nursing Research” was held at the St. Martin de Porres building of UST. The two-day conference composed of talks from highly-esteemed researchers, oral and poster presentations from local and international based nursing students.
The activity started with the Opening Remarks of Fr. Pablo Tiong, the Vice-Rector of the university, whose talk focused on his appreciation for the nursing profession with slight delineation on the issues on the widely-discussed Reproductive health bill.
The opening remarks, which seemed like a sermon to me, was followed by the speech of the Keynote speaker, the Hon. Carmencita Abaquin, PhD, RN - the current Chairperson of the Board of Nursing (BON) of the Professional Regulation Commission and Chairperson of the ASEAN Joint Coordinating Committee for Nursing. In her talk, she thoroughly explained the functions of the PRC and BON, major nursing concerns such as the several nursing schools’ poor performance, and nurse migration.
w/ Prof. Watson
A plenary session was then called at the UST Medicine Cinematorium for the talk of Prof.Wendy Cross, PhD, RN from Monash University in Australia. In her lecture, entitled “Collaborative Investiagation: Research Beyond Borders”, she emphasized the role of the nurse in the research team and discussed about the basics of conducting collaborative researches.
The second plenary session came from a local professor at the UST College of Nursing, the dynamic and highly energetic, Prof. Allan de Guzman,PhD. His presentation, which I highly applaud for having very interactive rapport with the audience, talked about the importance of appraising a research study, emphasizing on the idea of the research’s implication as public domain, subject to constructive criticism to find the value and worth of a paper.
A talk from Prof.Teresita Irigo-Barcelo,PhD, RN entitled “Bridging the Gap, Building Links between Nursing Interventions, Research, and Practice” explored the importance of evidence-based practice and the thought of developing a culture of research in the Philippines
w/ Angee and Jay Jay
The fourth plenary session was from Prof. Roger Watson, PhD, RN, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Nursing who talked about his forte, writing for publication. Here he discussed the use of international guidelines, legal issues on plagiarism, and the general process of publication.
The second day of the conference was started again by a plenary session from Prof.Erlinda Castro-Palaganas, PhD, RN, president of the Philippine Nursing Research Society who talked about qualitative researches, exploring a person’s feelings and impressions and noting phenomena among the populations. Her speech actually convinced me in doing a qualitative research instead of the quanitative onethat I’m currently working on. Regrets really come at the end, too bad for me.
The 6th plenary session came from Prof. Lourdes Marie Tejero, PhD, RN, head of the UP Manila Research and Creative Writing Program. She emphasized thinking out of the box in terms of developing new practices and inventions helpful to nursing practice. Personally, I really would like to comment on her youthful vibe as she talked on the stage, the pleasant appearance, confidence, and poise I would not forget.
After the plenary sessions, concurrent sessions on Nursing Therapeutics, Health Promotion, Maternal and Child Nursing, Administration in Nursing, Nursing Education, Oncologic and Gerontologic Nursing, and Caring for Special Population and Care for the Chronically Ill Patients were participated by student nurses from various institutions namely: University of St. Lasalle- Bacolod, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Holy Angel University, Far Eastern University, Aklan State University, Trinity University of Asia, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasig, University of the Cordilleras, Arellano University, Bicol University, Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau, Southern Luzon State University, Cavite State University, Monash University, Saint Louis University, Asian Social Institute, Our Lady of Fatima University, and Universidad de Santa Isabel.
I know I may be accused of bias because of what I’m going to say but I would just like to give my praises to the following studies:
Samsara: The Lived Experiences of Patients with Osteoarthritis Undergoing Yoga Therapy by Cuadram Cuarda, Cuartero, Cucueco, Cuevas, Cunanan and Custodio from the University of Santo Tomas. I personally like the idea of the prism used to illustrate your study. It was ingenious.
Speaking the Unspeakable: The Lived Experience of Incest Victims by Ramirez, Ramos, Ranera, Rapisura, Raymundo, and Rayos del Sol from the University of Santo Tomas. Tackling a sensitive topic must have really been difficult, especially finding respondents for your study. Also, I would like to commend the guy presentor since he actually memorized the study. Man,it must’ve taken pure hard work.
Concurrent sessions by Prof. Roger Watson and Prof. Carol Huston talked about “Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing” and the “Leadership Journey”, respectively.
The last plenary session was once again called for the talk of Prof.Carol Huston, MSN, MPA, DPA who enjoined the audience in topics such as thinking on a global perspective, using technology to facilitate mobility and interactional process, exercising political will, ensuring leadership succession among nurses.
The conference ended with a candle lighting ceremony led by the organizers of the event, participated by the different institutions, schools, and universities. Of course, I would like to extend my congratulations to my co-organizers, staff, faculty, and to our student council, the Nursing Central Board of Students for having this highly-commendable feat. More power and I’m looking forward for the 2nd International Conference for Nursing Students!
* This post will not and shall not be published in the any publication and is not representative to the UST College of Nursing students. Opinions and comments expressed are the personal views of the author.
Election period ended even without me realizing it at UST. The reigning party, LAKAS TOMASINO candidates got all the spots in the Central Student Council again albeit the disbanding of their political party (courtesy of the Comelec) which means that they ran as Independent candidates.
What I find intriguing/weird about these set of candidates is that although they're running as Independents, their banners are still clustered into one area. Now, where can you find Independent candidates placing their banners together like one party sans their political party's name?
As for the Nursing local elections, Binuklod ng Isip Sipag at Galing (BISIG) - a member of the LAKAS Tomasino Coalition - managed to conquer all the eight Nursing Student Council positions, unopposed for the 2nd time.
I remember during the Miting de Avance, I was really looking forward in hearing the platforms of the candidates. Sadly, it didn't felt like one, Sir JV's description better fit the event - a declamation contest. A Miting de Avance should be an event where platforms are discussed and debated, but what happened was otherwise. The Nursing Comelec should really consider holding foras similar to ABS-CBN's Harapan for the benefit of the voters.
What I saw during the Miting was similar to our prepared speech activity in English, the only difference is that the whole college is watching. Plus, I found some of the projects mentioned in the platforms somewhat irrelevant to the college and some were even out of the scope of student leaders. Sure, some of the projects would be nice to have if pursued, but I believe that there could have been more purposeful and concrete projects that would benefit the nursing community.
In the end, being a student leader is not about what projects were done, but more so, the passion for authentic student service-ship.
Me featuringChristian Alipio as Rawr on UST Nursing Incoming Sophomore FAQ's.
DISCLAIMER: All statements shown below are just the views of the aforementioned authors. It does not intend to replace the announcements of the UST College of Nursing.
ANO NGA BA TALAGA ANG CUTOFF? 2.00 BA TALAGA?
RJ: Most of the time hindi naman nasusunod yang 2.00 cutoff na yan. Kaso it also depends on the performance of you batchmates. Kung puro uno ang grades nila, possible na tumaas ang cutoff, inaaverage kasi yan. Nung time namin, may kakilala akong 2.40 na nakapasok.
RAWR: ay kakilala akong mas mababa at nakapasok. Saka I think for me, another theory is that the cut-off is dependent kung ilan ang natanggal sa inyo for the whole year. Diba ang sinabi sa inyo ang kukunin lang is 400, at kunyari nawala si number 400, e di si 401, pasok sya tapos sya na kukuha ng slot mo. Ganun kasi kami, pinagdadasal namin na lahat kami sa class makakuha ng slot para masaya. So kung marami na sa inyong natanggal like ayaw magnursing, nagmigrate or namatay na sa exhaustion kaka-aral, Congrats! sure na kayo atleast may ilang percent nang makakapasok kayo for summer.
KELAN LALABAS ANG CUT OFF?
RJ: Ha? Saan ba pupunta ang cutoff? Baka nman ang tanong ay kelan lalabas ang list ng mga nakapasa sa cutoff. Depende yan, but definitely bago mag enrollment ay ilalabas din ang results. Pinopost ito sa may 2nd Floor bulletin board, ung malapit sa may bridge papuntang hospital. Dun mo narin makikita ung possible na magiging classmates mo since alphabetical na ang sectioning nyo next year.
RAWR: Ito lang naman ang cause na hindi ka makatulog for like two to three excruciating weeks. Natatandaan nyo yung paper na binigay sating paper about the dates to remember? At nakita nyo bang walang nakalagay dun sa paper? Akala nyo makakalusot na kayo nu! Kahit kami, walang idea kung kailan lalabas, sobrang nagtatawagan at nag-yym pa kami kung pupunta na ba sa ust or hindi.Tapos ilang araw din kaming nagsisimba at nanalanggin nung holy week na ipasa kami. nasa diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa kaya kung ginawa nyo naman ang best nyo. well then sure ako, bibigay sa inyo ni god kung ano ang dapat
RJ: Grabe ka naman! andame mo palang pinagdaanan para dyan. Pero advice ko sainyo, chumillax na muna kayo, get a diversional activity para mawala sa isip nyo yang cut off na yan. All the cards had been dealt, you just have to wait.
PAG BAGSAK KA SA ISANG SUBJECT, PWEDE KA PA BANG MAKAPASOK?
Hindi, hindi na talaga. Hindi ka rin marereconsider. Mag-shift ka na lang, baka iba talaga kapalaran mo.
PAG WALA KA SA LIST, ANO GAGAWIN MO?
RJ: Iyak ka na! =) Joke lang. First iconfirm mo muna sa office, wag magpanic agad. Pero usually kung wala ka sa list, di ka na pumasa. Pero i-try mo narin baka kasali ka pala tapos umeeksena ka kung saan ipinost ung list.
RAWR: hmm, kung ako sayo, kung katulad ko ikaw, hindi ka iiyak at nakahanda na ang backup plan mo. Nung mga panahon naghahanda na ako kung go or no ang sagot sa nursing, nagreconsider na rin ako ng ilang courses na sigurado para naman hindi para sa wala ang isang taon ko. Well, i've considered pharma, medtech, or the wonderful college of rehabilatation sciences. Drawback is the added year your gonna spent pero on the positive note, i think it will be less stressful considering the pacing since tayo MINAMADALI para magkasya yung 5 years dun sa ilang years na si-net.
RJ: Ano naman ikina wonderful ng CRS?haha But yeah, mas maganda kung medical field parin pasukin po pag bumagsak na ng nursing.
GUSTO KO PARIN SA UST NURSING, KASO WALA AKO SA LIST.
RJ: Kung wala ka namang bagsak, I think the Dean's Office entertains reconsideration letters tapos tatawagan ka na lang nila kung may slots available pa. Pero kung may bagsak ka na, don't expect na.
RAWR: Most likely, marami parin naman for sure na namigrate, or nagpalit ng college, or yun nga namatay due to exhaustion. Pero KUNG may bagsak ka tulad nung classmate namin ng nagsayang lang siguro ng one year sa UST para lumipat sa mga asul ng ibon, well, yun. sana binigay mo na lang sakin yung tuition fee mo.
ANO ANG DADALIN PAGTITIGNAN ANG RESULTS?
RJ:Panyo, Pamaypay, PSP (optional), Ballpen, Tissue, at Anti-depressant drugs (in case of emergency), pwede ring bronchodilators kung may asthma ka.
RAWR: uhh, BRING YOUR FRIENDS. that's the best support system ever. at wag lalo ang parents, ayaw namin makakita ng hinihimatay na mommy. Saka maging alert lagi! Naloko kami nung secretary akala namin wala pa yun pala. NILALAGAY na! funniest day ever. And kung ako sa inyo, magdala ka na kayo ng pagkain since for me, kapag umalis kayo, at di nyo inantay, walang excitement.
RJ: Nakakatuwa nga maghintay! Para kaming mga squatter sa medicine building nun.haha
GANO KATAGAL ANG SUMMER CLASS?
RJ: Mga 6 weeks lang naman yan. Parang isang sem din yan, may Monthly's, Prelims at Finals din.
RAWR: Wrong. finals and prelims lang. two grading periods lang diba! walang monthly nun
RJ: Pwedeng magsorry? haha
PAANO YAN MAGBABAKASYON KAMI SA SUMMER? PWEDE BANG HIND MAG SUMMER CLASS?
RJ: Alam ko hindi, kasi pre-requisite ung mga summer subject sa 1st semester ng regular sem. Idelay mo na lang ang bakasyon mo next year. Ay mali, next next year na kasi may summer din pag second year. Or better yet next next next next year pagkatapos mo mag board exams. In short, wag ka na magbakasyon.hehe
RAWR:wag ka nang magnursing para maka-bakasyon ka.
ANO ANG MGA SUBJECT PAG SUMMER?
RJ: Health Assessment at Strategies in Health Education(SHE). Masaya ang Health Assessment, marami kang matutunan dyan, maraming sakit at kung anu anu pa. Syempre matututo kang mag-assess. Pustahan tayo, after ng class nyo dyan inaassess nyo na head-to-toe ung mga kasabay nyo sa jeep.HAHA.
Medyo boring ang SHE, para kayong teacher sa subject na to. Matututo kayong magturo at kung papaano kakausapin ang mga tao based on their age groups.Helpful to pag nag Community Health Nursing at Literacy Training Service kayo.
MAY DUTY NA BA PAG SUMMER?
Wala. Demo-demo lang yan, parang RLE nung 2nd Sem nyo. Magready ka na sa mga salitang, "Good morning po, Ako po si ____________, ako po ang magiging student nurse nyo po today. Ano po palang pangalan nila?"
Magready ka na rin sa mga return demo na classmate mo yung patient. Get ready to palpate you classamtes!haha Pero syempre guys lang ang patients lagi.
RAWR: THE MOST FUN EVER!! haha. sa sixth
floor clinical laboratory kayo magbobonding ng bago mong RLEMATES!! haha.
Syempre may group kayo composing of ten people which magiiba by third or fourth
year magiging 12 people. NO SILLY you can't choose your groupmates, kung papano kayo
alphabetically, ganun din sya aayusin unless na may madagdag or mabawas sa inyo
by second year 1st sem. Kung magiging C.I. nyo si mam evangelista, magpakabait
lang kayo ang you'll have the best summer class ever. Promise, Nami-miss na nga
namin sya e:( Oo nga pala, tandaan nyo lahat kung papano iaapproach ang patient
at lalo na yung mga tatanungin sa assessment dahil importante yan lalo na pag
napunta kayo sa OPD or kahit saang area . dyosko. mamatay kayo sa kakahanap ng
notes nyo. BTW. heart sounds means nosebleed.
ANO ANG MGA KELANGAN BILIN FOR SUMMER?
RJ: Wala pa naman gaano. Stethoscope at mga pang-VS ay essentials. The rest, sa pasukan na ng regular sem gagamitin.
RAWR: grabe talaga. napabili ako ng white
pants, akala ko magduduty na nung summer pera anyways, masyado akong naging
prepared pero kung ok lang sa inyo na bumili na nung lahat ng hihingi nila for
first sem, e di go, mayayaman naman ang nursing lalo na sa ust. sa mahal ba
naman per sem di pa ba kayo pedeng tawaging mayaman? haha.
KELAN KAMI MAGWHI-WHITE PANTS?
RJ:Kung babae ka, never ka magwhi-white pants. Pero kung lalake ka, sa regular sem na kayo mag-gaganun.
RAWR: wag masyadong excited. ang hirap ng
nakawhitepants. hindi ka pwedeng umupo kahit saan
KELAN NAMIN MAKUKUHA NAMEPLATE NAMIN?
RJ: Matagal pa yun, usually weeks before kayo magcapping. So mga November pa, wag ka excited.
RAWR: YUN!!
isang malaking kakulangan sa mundo. Feeling mo hindi ka pa nagfifit-in sa ust
community since para kang outcast dahil wala kang pangalan malapit sa iyong
puso! haha. Pero kapag nakuha mo yun, worth it na naman. Siguraduhin mo lang
umabot ka ng second sem second year para makuha mo yung minimithi mong
namelate. Although pampadagdag sya sa mga dinadala atsaka hassle kapag nawala.
PAANO ANG SCHED NG SUMMER CLASS?
RJ: Syempre everyday parin yan, kaso mas late ng onti. Mga 8 to 3 ata kami nun at pareparehs ang subject araw araw kayo medyo nakaka-umay. Di ko na masyado maalala. Pero hindi kayo matotoxic, masaya mag summer class!
RAWR: Yes, no summer fun dahil everyday at
8 to 3 parin, minsan nga nageextend kasi may ibang araw na hindi namin
natatapos yung H.A. lab at kailangan bago exams matapos na yung mga return demo
kaya mapipilitan magextend. Depende sa C.I. kung mabusisi or mabilis lang
magturo. Pero yun nga, kung ako sa inyo wala ding kayo time magmall after dahil
ang problema kung pare-pareho ang subject nyo araw araw is kung discussion
ngayon, the next day e magqu-quiz na kayo kaya kailangan umuwi na kagad kayo.
at mag-aral Tapos the the fact na ang S.H.E. namin ay puro presentation kaya
kailangan namin magprepare kagad for the next day. I-plan nyo na lang after the
summer class ang lahat ng swimming, partying and bonding para walang problema.
MERON BANG PE PAG SUMMER CLASS?
RJ: Oo, pero araw araw kayo may class. Usually 2 hours a day yan. Pero masaya naman daw. Naubusan kasi ako ng PE slot nun eh.
RAWR:oo. GAWD. korfball ang napili namin
at yun yung time na sinisira na yung eng complex para ilipat na sa present day
location nya. ANG INIT. Upside is puro nursing lang kayo kaya parang batch
bonding narin yun. Malas nyo kapag di kayo nakakuha ng slot dahil mahirap
magbalanca ng sched sa second year second sem kung dagdag pa yung pe subject
nyo.
ANONG BOOKS ANG KAILANGANG BILIN?
RJ:Ung Health Assessment book lang. Ung SHE kasi di ko man nagamit eh.Sayang sa pera.
BUKAS BA ANG MED CAFE PAG SUMMER?
RJ: Oo. Same operation hours parin naman.
KAILAN ANG ENROLLMENT?
RJ: Mga two weeks before start of classes. Hindi ko pa sure ung schedule eh.
KAILAN ANG PHYSICAL EXAM?
RJ: Bago magstart and regular semester. Bibigyan naman kayo ng guide ng mga professors nyo regarding the schedules. Mahirap lang talaga pag Urinalysis at Fecalysis na, hirap kumuha ng specimen eh.haha
RAWR: Bago magstart, Ang pagkaalala ko mga
first sem ata yung e. mga third or second week. Oo nga, ang hirap nga nung
fecalysis at Urinalysis. Kailangan kasi minumum mga one-two hours viable yung
specimen (alam ko mas less pa nga dun e) Kailangan kasi fresh so kung hindi
kayo nakadorm or malapit dito sa ust. MALAS nyo dapat dito na kayo sa ust
kumuha ng specimen. hahaha. goodluck sa maduming public bathrooms.
SAAN PWEDE MAGPATAHI NG UNIFORM?
RJ: Aling Ising forever! =) I suggest pagpatahi na kayo ng bagong set, as in pati ung base. Kasi baka hindi magpantay ang kulay ng naninilaw mong base at bagong pants mo. Panget tignan. Wag magpapagawa sa iba, trust me, mahahalata yan.
To all incoming sophomores, if you still have questions, just leave a comment and I'll include it in this post ASAP. Thank you! =)
Maam Famorca authored a community health nursing book entitled Nursing Care of the Community by Mosby Elsevier. As Sir Loa would put it, "This
textbook provides a comprehensive set of concepts, cases, trends, and
issues in community health nursing, as well as new public health
programs. Exclusively distributed by C&E bookshop."
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