Ranie, my husband, knows that tulips are my absolute favorite flowers. So, it was no wonder then that when we planned for a once in a lifetime European Sojourn in honor of our 10th Wedding Anniversary, the first destination was Keukenhof in The Netherlands! I was so ecstatic seeing hundreds of varieties of tulips, alongside daffodils and hyacinths in what is popularly known as the Garden of Europe. My college friend now lives there and having a local guide made…
As the title implies, this post is about gratitude. It is timely in the sense that it is the end of the year, and I have so much to be grateful for. Particularly, this will be a reflection on my whole DNP journey at Illinois State University, and to express my gratitude to the multitude who got me to the finish line. This story was a little over two years in the making. Well, even longer if the researching of…
I’ve always had my way with words. I can write anything about the heights of ecstasy and the depths of despair. However, for whatever reason, I could not accurately put into words my amalgamation of emotions regarding this journey. While today was the culmination of this two-year doctoral educational sojourn, this process started a few years back! I earned my Master of Science in Nursing – Informatics specialty track during the peak of the Covid 19 pandemic. Before finishing my…
It’s been a while since I last blogged! Life, with all its ebbs and flows, sometimes has the power to push you forward or make you feel like you are in a rut. That is exactly what happened to me. I felt like I am a bystander watching my life zoom by before my very eyes. I lost the joy of writing for a moment. Hopefully, this is my personal renaissance…picking the pen up where I left off! My original…
Cliche as it may seem, when people ask me what I did for Christmas, I unashamedly say: “I slept and watched TV.” My line of work requires the use of many brain cells at a time. For that reason, sleep and the opportunity to be idle are blessings that are often overlooked. One of the movies that Mico and I watched was Dreamwork’s Kung Fu Panda. There, Master Oogway stated: Quit, don’t quit… Noodles, don’t noodles… You are too concerned…
Filipino nurses have been stereotyped as bedside nurses, especially in Western countries. This may have been one of the reasons why despite comprising only 4% of the total healthcare workers, it is estimated that at least 25% of the COVID-19 mortality among the nursing profession in the United States (US) are Filipinos. The majority opt to remain in that role as they can work overtime and make more money that way. For this reason, fewer from our ranks are pursuing…
This year marks my and my Fidelis Christi Mariae 1993 college classmates’ 30th year as Paulinian nurses. Maybe for that reason, I am a little bit introspective and reflective as I think back on our years in the storied halls of St. Paul College of Iloilo. Those four years were never walks in parks. In fact, they were hard, challenging, and at times, maddening. Nevertheless, I appreciated every skill, knowledge, and attitude (values) I learned from the sisters and our…
“Why did you come home? Don’t you have a nursing board review class tomorrow?” Nanay asked me these questions when I got home at 6 pm on April 22, 1993. She asked those questions because it was unusual for me to come home in the middle of the week. We lived an hour away from the city and it was so uncharacteristic of me to leave the dorm for home on a school day. I answered: “We have a review…
This year marks the 30th year since we left the storied halls of St. Paul College of Iloilo. Molded in the Paulinian way of caring, we have proudly carried on that torch daily in our respective practice settings. Despite the challenges that came along our way, we continue to count our blessings both professionally and personally. For this reason, please allow this grateful nurse to reminisce and reflect on how we have touched lives. Here are the links to the…
First off, let me start with an apology since I have not posted anything lately. For whatever reason, I am going through writer’s mental block. For those of you who personally know me, you may think that I always have something to say, yet I cannot articulate it through an article. So uncharacteristic of me, right? By the way, here are the podcast links: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/DdrxyNi5Sxb and https://open.spotify.com/episode/6JtHGPF0qoXrRyec0OPexI?si=9bb2079f3d1148e3 Well, I have started writing about a variety of topics lately. Yet, I never felt…