School of Hope
My students taught me humility…
Turning withered buds into bloom…
Entering through the gates of San Pedro College (Davao City, Philippines) for the first time as a Community School instructor (June 2006), barely two months after my graduation from Bachelor of Science in Nursing made me anxious on what kind of world I am about to encounter in my job. As a previous student nurse in this institution, I seldom recognize the existence of the Community School and had poorly understood the nature of the department. Ironically I have found my self applying for the job on post for the Community School and have been accepted. Most of us if not all may have not given a thought about Community School, hence this article to give light to it. Included are excerpts from my own experiences for the past two years of service.
The Community School is a department under the Community Extension Services division that provides technical/vocational courses to marginalized students who lack financial capability to acquire Baccalaureate Degrees as well as to college graduates and working individuals who wanted to earn health care skills in addition to their professions. The Community School is currently offering a Caregiver Course and the Nursing Assistant Training Program. Students were divided into two categories: the Regular Class are those high school graduates or college level students with less than 72 units earned in academics and the Weekend Class also known as the professional group whose classes fall on weekends.
The first time I entered the office of the CES-Community School, I was warmly greeted and welcomed by the staffs and in no time felt comfortable with my fellow colleagues. They made me feel at home in the department. I believe one of the unique characteristics of the CES-Community School that have developed among the staffs is the strong sense of family bond as a community, probably because of the nature of students that we encounter in our everyday lives as mentors and counselors. In return we have learned to value life and relationships better.
The spectrum of our students is extreme basically because of the varied backgrounds that they came from. If one wants to experience life in the Community School he or she should be equipped with a lot of patience and understanding to cope up with the demands of mentoring students whom most are lost on tract in the direction of their lives. We encountered students that entered the school out of desperation to rise above poverty, hoping to turn around the seemingly hopeless situation of their families. We have students who were victims of inappropriate treatment over the course of their lives that greatly lowers their self-esteem. We have students who came in the school forced by their parents hoping that their children will turn away from questionable lifestyles. On the other hand, we have students despite their low socioeconomic status in life were the motivators of others to continue pursuing better lives by getting good grades in the Community School. We have working students ranging from being a house helper, gasoline boy, fast food crew, security guards, and tricycle drivers to name a few.
Learning in the community school is clearly in both directions. While I taught them knowledge and technical skills, my students taught me humility. I am humbled because of the privileged to influence a lot of seemingly lost hopes only to be surprised that one day a student will give you a letter with a message of how grateful they are from the bottom of their hearts. Others are bold enough to say to you that because of their teachers their lives have been better from yesterday. However, the truth is we cannot take all the credit because in the real sense nothing that happened was left to us alone. Human effort is a futile attempt to brag about this kind of transformation from our students. But this is what I believe, everything happened through the works of God through us that made it possible to turn withered buds into bloom - full of promises and hope. I have proven that I have done right in the Community School to allot time with my students to share to them the Word of God, giving them encouragement, but at the same time corrections and discipline which at times hurts. As it has been told, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” - Hebrews 4:12. If anyone desires real change from everyone, it should start with oneself using His Word, for no one can give what he or she doesn’t have received. Some of the greatest wisdoms that I have learned were contributed partly from my experiences with my students.
First, hurt people will always hurt people. Deal with the wounded first by showing compassion and they will do the same.
Second, people do not care what you know, unless they know that you care. Win their hearts first to trusting, consolidate their lives into bonds, disciple them to the ways of the righteous, and in just the right time we will be sending them as agents of change into their communities and into the nations of the world.
And third, with the right process the product is always guaranteed. It means that with the right way of mentoring and teaching we can assure success.
With these wisdoms that I have learned and applied in the two years of service I have finally understood what it means not to underestimate small beginnings. Truly, all greatness started small.
In the end, I can therefore conclude that in the Community School it is not only surface knowledge that we share, more than that but wisdom. Not only technical health care skills, more than that but love for God and for people which brings out the drive to do our best. It is true that our students are far from perfect, yet we gave them hope that competence is possible even to the most challenging student we have. Now the time has come for me to leave the Community School which honed me to be a better person. I will always remember to look back in time when I was a teacher as I move forward in my career. I can now proudly say that the purpose of my life is to become a missionary - who happens to be a nurse - properly trained and equipped in the “School of Hope.”
Womb to Tomb
Life is a matter of fulfillment…
Life is a matter of fulfillment of one
It was just an ordinary lazy summer afternoon of mid-May and as usual I was looking forward for my afternoon nap. Lying in the bed I reminisced about school when I remembered the words of my clinical instructor who accompanied me during my first duty days as intern student nurse. Maam Guanzon as what we call her, once said that being a nurse is special and wonderful because of all jobs in the world nurses have the privilege to experience almost every phase of human life; that nurses are there from the time of birth in the delivery room to the last breath of a dying person in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). She taught her students which includes me that nurses are there to provide holistic care, prolong life and maintain the dignity of the client even in the face of death. As far as I can remember her very words, she quoted “kaya nga ang mga nurses may kasabihan, tayo ay nandyan - from womb to tomb” (That’s why nurses have this saying, we are always there, from womb to tomb). As for me those words dug deep into my being and slapped me into reality for at last I began to understand the real essence of Nursing. A thought echoed in my mind saying, “Nursing is a privilege, not a mere passport to US or other countries”. I then began to dream that someday I would be able to fulfill her words.
Going back last October of 2003 from the start of my first duty as a student nurse in San Pedro Hospital, my hands were sweating and heart pounding. Pushing through the emergency entrance door; it was almost 6:30 in the morning. Climbing several flights of stairs to fourth floor; walking past numbered doors; then I stopped. Suddenly, I found myself standing in front of a Nurse Station with staffs preparing for the morning’s endorsement. At least I was not alone in this rather amusing experience for I am with my fellow student nurses and our dear Clinical Instructor. At first I had some difficulty adjusting to the work; maybe because that was my first time but somehow with my friends’ support and a guiding C.I., I was able to made it on the first day. The second day was moving for I was assigned to the cancer room with four beds. Reverse isolation was implemented. A sorrowful bliss enveloped me to see children as young as 10 months old suffering leukemia and so I did my best to take care of them — it was the least that I could do. I really wish that I could do more to help them and hoped that I could be a real “angel”, the one with wings and a halo on top of my head, comforting the patients in the sick room. Finally, third day came and we had our morning’s endorsement when room 425 was assigned to me. Inside the room was a dying man 68 years of age and suffering from liver cirrhosis. I’m a new intern and really don’t know what to do in such critical situations, my knowledge and skills were still limited. At 8:30 in the morning the doctor pronounced my client dead and I was ordered to take care of him. I can’t believe it in my ears as I heard the order - I will be the first student nurse in my batch to have my client dead! As I was preparing myself to perform post-mortem care, I uttered a prayer in front of my client’s body to release my tension and then started on my work. My hands were cold, knees trembling and mixed emotions were felt. I told myself that this is the real thing, not a mere return demonstration on a dummy so I must do all my best to maintain the person’s dignity. Thanks to my C.I. who was with me all the time, I was able to finish the job. I really felt sorry for my client and to his family crying at his side. It made me think that death can also happen to me knowing that it is sure though the timing is unpredictable. Experiencing the final phase of life in the eyes of another person made me value life better. I then expressed all my condolence to the family after turning-over the body to the morgue.
Several weeks passed by and now I had found myself sent by the school in the delivery room of Davao Regional Hospital at Tagum City. Now its time to apply all those knowledge in Maternity Nursing. The first challenge for me was to locate and hear the fetal heart tone of an unborn child. I had a difficulty at first but with practice I got used to it. It was really amazing to hear the beating heart of a fetus and I felt so much love knowing that sooner or later an angel would emerge. In there I saw how babies are born and how they come to life. Babies come out with closed eyes; some are a little bluish and seems so lifeless but in just a fraction of a second after birth, a magical event happens. Instantly they turn pink, eyes start to open, limbs wiggles and then they shouted their first cries. Mothers after seeing their babies turned their agony of labor to smiles and laughter. Some of the mothers were primas (first timers) as young as 16 years old while most of them were multis as old as 49 years old. I was there to handle and assist their deliveries. I was there to clean their newborn angels. Thinking all those experiences in the delivery room made me love and value my mother more for I finally understood her sacrifices in giving birth to me. Yes, work in the delivery room was not that easy but always the same, my clinical instructor was there to guide, this time it’s Maam Perez. It made me so proud to really do something that helps other people without expecting anything in return. I promised myself that I’ll be back again.
But as for now, I am still lying on the bed, finished of reminiscing. Now its time to do some work putting those thoughts into words. Hours had passed and it was already 11:20 in the evening and I’m done typing. “Haaaay… inaantok na ako (”Haaay, I’m sleepy”). I better go to bed.” As I was brushing my teeth, I realized something. “Hey! Wait a minute… I think I’ve done it! I lived my dream! I was there - from womb to tomb.”
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