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Philippines 2013
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Philippines 2013
By Sara Pugh and Kayla Stirr
Kayla, Brandy, Sara, & Lindsey
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Lindsey, Kayla, Sara, Brandy, September, 2012
Lindsey Rask, Brandy Rousson, and the authors of this Blog (Kayla Stirr, and Sara Pugh)
were fortunate to be chosen to participate in the International Study Abroad Program
and have our final nursing practicum in the Philippines. We all embarked on this great
adventure on the morning of January 3rd, and after an extremely long trip over, arrived
in the Philippines on the evening of January 4th.
Since our clinical experience did not begin until January 14th, we were able to do some
traveling around the Philippines before hand. It allowed us to adjust to the culture we
would be emerged in for the next five weeks. We were able to see some amazing
sights, but before we knew it our vacation was over and it was time for our final
practicum to begin.
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We flew into Manila on January 13th, and were greeted at the airport by Joy Molo, who
would be our community preceptor, and Belinda Capistrano, our hospital preceptor.
After an hour and a half drive to Antipolo we arrived at our home away from home for
the next three weeks, Saint Michaels Retreat House.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Immaculada Building, our new home for the next three weeks
Monday January 14th
The first day of clinical was “nerve racking” for all of us because we were not sure what
to expect. The day began by being introduced to our partners, which were fourth year
Filipino nursing students from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay (UERM). The
girls, Hannah, CD, Kim and Marian were all very nice, and we immediately got along
with them.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
The four Canadian nursing students with the Filipino nursing students
From left to right: Kayla, Hannah, Sara, CD, Lindsey, Marian, Brandy, and Kim
Immediately after being introduced, we went to the main City Hall in Barangay Dela Paz
to meet the city and health officials. A Barangay is a small unit or division of society.
Every Monday the city officials, health officials, senior citizens, and volunteers from each
Barangay in Antipolo meet at city hall for a meeting and flag ceremony. We were
required to meet the city officials in order to gain entry in the community where we
would be working over the next three weeks. Everyone was expecting our arrival and
was very pleasant to talk to, but the language barrier became a problem earlier then we
expected.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Town meeting at City Hall
While at City Hall we met the Captain of the Barangay named Hon. Serafin M.
Alvaran. We asked him a lot of questions about the community and health found
in the surrounding areas.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Us with the Captain of the Barangay, Hon. Serafin M. Alvaran
After City Hall, we went to the local health clinic. The clinic is much like a walk in clinic
at home, where people can visit to receive free services. There they were doing
immunizations, vital signs, medication administration, Tuberculosis diagnosis and
treatment, animal bite treatment, Dengue fever treatment, and health teaching all in a
confined space. A nurse named Mary Anne gave us a tour and told us about what
happens in the clinic as well as introduced us to other health care workers, dieticians
and nurses.
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(Permission granted to take picture)
Mary Anne providing us with tour of local clinic
We then had time to ask them about major health conditions in the Antipolo population
and any statistics they could share. We learnt that a lot of their main conditions and
mortality rates were due to the same conditions as Canada. For example, prostate
cancer is the most prominent cancer in men, and breast cancer the most prominent in
women. We also learnt that malnutrition in kids under six years old is a major problem
in the Philippines. We were told that Antipolo is number two in the Philippines for
having the most malnutrition.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Picture with staff at local clinic
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Antipolo Church exterior
Following the clinic, Joy wanted to show us a historical place within Antipolo. This place
was the “Antipolo Church”. It was incredibly big, and inside contained beautiful stained
glass windows. It was definitely worth seeing, and became a landmark for us to know
when traveling out on our own time.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Antipolo Church interior
After leaving the church, Joy had us come back to St. Michaels to get to know each
other better. They had us try fried bananas, which is a traditional Filipino snack.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
The four of us tasting fried banana snack, with the Filipino nursing students and our
Preceptor Joy
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Blog #1 part 2
Tuesday January 15th
The second day was the day of orientation. We got picked up earlier than the usual set
time because we had to go to Manila to spend the day at the University of East Ramon
Magsaysay.
(Permission granted to post picture)
Sign welcoming us to the UERM
When arriving at the University everyone was so pleased to meet us. We got
introduced to the Dean Carmelita Divinagracia and her husband Romeo
Divinagracia who is the President of UERM. Both were very kind and many
pictures were taken with them.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Meeting Dean Carmelita Divinagracia, and President Romeo Divinagracia at UERM
We were honored to meet the Vice Chairman of the University named Wilson Young.
This man is the second highest up in ranking at the university, so we felt very special to
have had the opportunity to meet him.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Meeting with Vice Chairman Wilson Young
After our tour around the university, we were fortunate to have Pizza Hut waiting for us
before beginning our orientation.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
During our clinical orientation we learnt about the activities we will be partaking in for
our clinical experience. For the community portion of our practicum we will be working
directly with families in the community, in a health clinic, elementary school, and
geriatric center. For the hospital portion of our rotation we will be working in pairs on
two separate units, the Critical Care Unit and the Operating Room, for one week each.
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Blog #1, Part 3
Wednesday January 16th
The third day started with “Team building Activities”. These activities consisted of
challenges in order to utilize each other to accomplish end goals, build trust, and help us
learn to work together. The first team building activity was a game called spoons, which
involved a tiny circular object being passed from one spoon to another, except the
spoons were held in our mouths. Therefore we had to get very close and personal early
on in the day.
(Permission granted to post picture)
Lindsey and Kim during team building activity
Secondly we had a race called “The Caterpillar”. This game was physically draining, as
you had to get very close and sit on the knees of person behind you and walk around a
huge bay. Our legs definitely took a hit with that activity, but it did teach us how to
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work together with our group. Next we had to construct a tower with clay and
toothpicks, the only catch was that two of our partners were blindfolded and the other
two had their hands tied up so could only use one hand. This meant as partners we had
to direct the people blindfolded on how to build the tower.
(Permission granted to post picture)
Building tower during team building activity
The last activity made trust the main component. Each of us was paired with our Filipino
partner and we had to do various activities under their direction while being blindfolded.
This activity allowed us to believe our partner wouldn’t put us in any danger and we
could trust their word. After the team building activities, it was visible that we all
seemed closer. This was a good beginning as we were about to head into the
community where we would be working with our designated partner.
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Guiding our partners during the last team building activity
We arrived at the community in Antipolo where we will be working for the next couple
weeks. We visited the health center, as well as made some home visits to families we
would be working with during our community rotation. All of us are paired with a
Filipino nursing student, and will be working with three families in the community each.
Joy assigned us each families who are a part o the “4 P’s” program implemented by the
Philippine government. “4 P’s” stands for the Pantawid Panilyang Pilipino Program, and
was developed in order to address the issue of poverty in the Philippines. The poorest
of the poor families are selected to participate in the program in order to make them
more stable.
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Blog #1, Part 3.5
In order to be a part of this 4 P’s program certain criteria had to be met such as: a low
income, children below a certain age, and they need to abide to the program by
ensuring their children go to school and seek health services when due.
(Permission granted to post picture)
Health Center in community we will be working in
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(Permission granted to post picture)
Community we will be working in
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Barangay Health Center
We were able to meet the families we will be working with, and they were all incredibly
nice, but unfortunately could not speak any English. This was a challenge for us as we
could not speak directly to the families in the community. We are fortunate to have our
Filipino nursing student there to translate and ease communication.
Being in the community was a real eye opening experience, as we had never been
exposed to that level of poverty before. We now have more insight on how people in
the community live, and look forward to being in the community more.
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Thursday January 17th
The fourth day we were excited because we were able to do physical nursing skills.
Although minor, they gave us a good review of things we haven’t done in a long time. In
the clinic we got to do prenatal care, therefore we got to do the weights, blood
pressures, and Leopold’s maneuvers for the pregnant women. We also got to do some
health teaching on the proper foods to eat, vitamins to take and answer any questions
the pregnant women had.
Once again, our Filipino partners had to take charge since the women in this community
struggled with their English. Luckily the nursing principles were for the most part the
same. After the work was completed in the clinic, we then returned to the community
to complete our assessments. We started first with an oral interview to decide what the
main priority focus should be, and then physically assessed those priorities. Being in the
community, interacting with the families, and experiencing more of the culture of the
Philippines has been great. We can’t wait to work more with the individuals in the
community!
Friday January 18th
Today was the last day of our first week working in the Philippines. First thing in the
morning we visited the main health clinic and assisted with taking the heights and
weights of school children in the community.
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(Permission granted to take picture)
Sara taking the weight of a school child in the community
In the afternoon we went back out to the community to perform further
assessment. We then combined all of our information in order to make a
program plan. When assessing the information gathered, we found that
malnutrition seemed to be the greatest health concern of the community due to the
poor income of the families. Based on this information we created the idea of gathering
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cheap foods and creating a soup kitchen with the mothers of the family so they could
learn the recipe and make it again for their families. This will be implemented next
week.
Overall, our first week working in the Philippines has been amazing. We have met so
many great people, and been able to experience so much. We can’t wait to see what
the rest of the practicum will bring.
By Sara Pugh and Kayla Stirr
Nursing students in the Philippines January 2013
NEPS, University of Saskatchewan