2011 - 2012 Issue

CERTIFIED REGISTERED NURSES. The 6 Top Notchers, together with Batch 2011, solemnly had their oathtaking as lead by Hon. Leonila A. Faire, PRC-BON member, last September 18, 2011 at the FEU Auditorium. (Photo by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda)

FEU-IN bags 6 places in July 2011 NLE Clarissa Kristen V. Secerio

FEU-IN exemplified excellence as the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) released the results of the July 2011 Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE), producing six topnotchers and posting an 80.54% passing rate. The national passing rate was 48%, with 37,513 successfully passing the NLE out of 78,135 examinees.

The 6 Tamaraws who dominated the topnotch list were Angelo V. Coronado and Eirene Joy Louise N. Ocampo in the 10th place with 85.80%; Josephine Ann J. Necor ranked ninth with 86%; Dee Zyrie A. Divina grabbed the seventh spot garnering 86.40%; Johnel Carlo C. Estrella snatched the 6th place with 86.60%; and conquering the sole position on the 3rd place is Ivy Grace C. Lim with 87.20%.

Held last July 2 and 3, 2011, the NLE prepared by the Board of Nursing was taken by 78,135 examinees. The exams were given at the following areas:

INTAC Uno lands first runner-up in Acalitmus; Pamela Mae Ortiz, a champ

Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Nueva Ecija, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, and Zamboanga.

A total of 2,013 Tamaraws took the board exam wherein 1,799 were first-time takers. 1,449 out of the 1,799 first-time board exam takers passed (80.54%), giving Far Eastern University – Institute of Nursing an overall passing rate of 77.50% (1,560/2,013), well above the national passing rate of 48%. Compared to the July 2010 NLE which posted a passing rate of 66.39%, this year’s passing rate had an 11.11% increase.

FEU-IN Dean Rosalinda P. Salustiano takes this as a sign of things to come. “Better your best; there is always a room for improvement. This year’s passing rate is truly commendable but I still believe and am confident that FEUIN can present better output in the coming years.” she said.

Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza

Tams join blood letting competition Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza

FEU participated in Madugong Paligsahan organized by the Far Eastern University Institute of Nursing – Red Cross Youth Collegiate Council (FEUIN-RCYCC) and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Manila Chapter last August 24, 2011 at FEU Pavilion 1. The humanitarian activity was spearheaded by the National Blood Services Committee (NBSC) of the FEUIN-RCYCC. Madugong Paligsahan is an inter-university blood letting competition participated by different colleges and universities in Metro Manila. For the said competition, the participating schools must schedule a date for a one-day mass blood donation. The total collected bags of blood will determine the standing of participating colleges and universities. The university with the most number of collected bags will then be announced as the winner.

With the theme of “Be a hero: Share blood, extend life”, FEUIN-RCYCC aimed to collect blood that will accommodate the arising demands due to dengue outbreaks by encouraging students to volunteer and donate blood. “Actually, pang third year na ‘to [Madugong Paligsahan]. Nagsimula ‘to nung nagkaroon tayo ng dengue outbreaks noon. Hanggang ngayon continuous pa ‘rin (Actually, it is Madugong Paligsahan’s third year. It started when we had dengue outbreaks before. Until now, it’s still continuous),” Junior Red Cross Youth Chapter Service Representative Liwanag Nuque stated.

Volunteer students from different Institutes of FEU who registered to participate underwent screening before the blood donation, including weight and vital signs monitoring, blood typing and consultation with a physician. Only qualified students were allowed to donate. continue to page 3

IN welcomes new Dean

The Institute of Nursing Theater Arts Committee (INTAC) Uno won first runner-up and Pamela Mae K. Ortiz won as the champion in the dance exhibition and extemporaneous speech respectively in AcaLitMus last October 1, 2011 held at the FEU auditorium.

Academic, Literary and Musical (AcaLitMus) is an annual universitywide competition of different organizations in FEU. The purpose of the competition was to recognize the excellence and skills of FEU students in the three fields represented by the coined term ‘AcaLitMus’. The said event was spearheaded by the Institute of Accounts and Business Finance (IABF) Student Council, in cooperation with Negotiorum Lex (NegLex), the official academic organization of Legal Management continue to page 2

Harold James E. Doroteo

The New Dean of IN. Dr. Rosalinda P. Salustiano during her speech to the Batch 2012 students (Photo by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda)

Far Eastern University – Institute of Nursing warmly welcomed its new dean, Dean Rosalinda P. Salustiano during her speech in the first semester’s batch 2012 orientation last June 13, 2011 inside the FEU Auditorium.

The students were very vibrant as majority just saw the new dean for the first time. Her wit, charm and wisdom easily captured their confidence and trust.

She finished her bachelor of science in nursing at University of Santo Tomas and became the Best in Clinical Performance and garnered a leadership award. She then pursued her master’s degree and doctor of philosophy in the same school and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She has been a professional nurse – midwife, an educator and a graduate school professor, national board reviewer (NLE, NCLEX-RN, CGFNS, MLE), research consultant/adviser and at the same time, an independent researcher. Conversely, she has been also engaged in the writing field – a nursing and health allied published author.

With outstanding credentials following her name, big hopes and optimism

What’s

Inside:

were posed unto her leadership not only by the faculty but also by the students.

During her speech, Dean RPS mentioned about the institute’s theme for this year. “Last two years, this institution had ‘The New Journey’ as its theme.

But for this coming year, our theme will be ‘Towards Journey’s End’. We are now getting closer to the end of the road and it’s almost time for us to reap what we had sown”, said Dean RPS. The crowd became even more excited as the dean hit bull’s eye, as she laid down student’s concern regarding the E-learning. She affirmed that the hours allocated for the NOL will be chopped down. Conversely, she shared some of her plans for the institute and she also informed them that there will be 15 faculty members coming from Region V (Bicol Region) that will tour the university and the institute itself which will serve as benchmarking of university activities.

Finally, she finished her speech leaving the students with this inspiring statement, “The future is now; if you input quality today, you will have an output of quality tomorrow.” page 10

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IN’s DEAN RPS page 6

I SURVIVED!

An anecdote of a cancer survivor: Her pains, her hard-ups, and her brave steps toward recovery

CHAT with the TOP

page 7

ANSAVEEEEH? (What did you say?)

Tips on Memory Improvement and Stress Management

News

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The Lamp

June - October 2011

Batch 2014: A Step towards the Nursing Profession Agustin B. Corro III

IGNITING THE LIGHT. Batch 2014’s 58th Capping and Pinning Ceremony, Batch 2014’s As they took a little step higher, the sophomores received the light and responsibility to go through another chapter of their nursing journey.

(Photo by Jonalet A. Delos Reyes)

Batch 2014 pierced through another wall of their undertaking with the 57th Capping, Pinning, and Candle Lighting Ceremony (CLC) held last July 30, 2011 at the FEU Auditorium. With the theme “Illuminating the Path towards Nursing Vocation”, three hundred and eighty-eight students of Batch 2014 were officially inducted to brace themselves as they enter the road to the nursing profession.

FEUIN - RCYCC enhances leadership through LDP Mary Margaret B. Galut

Empowerment of leadership was reinforced through the Leadership Development Program (LDP) of Far Eastern University Institute of Nursing - Red Cross Youth Collegiate Council (FEUIN - RCYCC) held last August 28 and 29, 2011 at the Red Cross Manila Chapter.

The said event was headed by Jessica Gagarin, Committee on Special Affairs (CSO) Head, and Hazelline Leslie Buenaventura, CSO Officer-in-Charge and Vice President on Internal Affairs. A total of 73 participants attended the event – 60 students were from FEU and the remaining 13 were from Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST). Most of the participants from FEU were nursing students from the level

INTAC Uno...

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and Human Resource Development Management students.

There were different categories included in the event; Academics, a Clash of the Lex Titans was exclusively conducted for NegLex members only; literary, composed of extemporaneous speech, debate and essay writing contest; and solo singing contest, battle of acoustic bands and dance exhibition for the Musicals.

Participants who represented IN for the solo singing competition, the battle of acoustic bands, and the dance exhibition were chosen from those who passed the audition of the Institute of Nursing Music Ministry (INMM) and Institute of Nursing Theater Arts Committee (INTAC) respectively.

Two IN prides namely Angelica Tresha Raon and Vina Lomerio battled against 10 other contestants in the solo singing contest.

Two bands were formed to represent IN against 11 others for the Battle of the Acoustic Bands namely Vernix band and Vertigo band. For the dance exhibition, INTAC formed two separate dance troupes: the INTAC Uno and the INTAC Dos. Both troupes have executed their routine swiftly with quite similar concept and twist - shifting from intense strenuous steps to feminine and jolly routine.

INTAC Uno landed first runner-up for the dance competition while East Asia College Dance troupe grabbed the championship.

“Hindi namin akalain na magfi-first kami. ‘Di naman namin habol ‘yung ganoong place. Gusto lang talaga namin mag-perform at ipakita ang aming talento,” INTAC Uno dancer, Mark Renz Ruiz, stated.

Conversely, Ms. Pamela Mae K. Ortiz represented the Institute of Nursing in the extemporaneous speech competition.

She successfully bested 12 other contestants with her incomparable speech of Bayanihan in relation to Filipino culture, and the importance of Bayanihan to the youth. “My premise is that bayanihan, or the spirit of camaraderie, is inherent in every Filipino. Since it is something that is deeply ingrained in us as people, it is always seen whether in the past or at present,” she stated. With emphasis, Ms. Ortiz added, “If we become united as a nation, then nothing is impossible.”

Ms. Ortiz was also grateful for the chance of representing

Dr. Maria Teresa P. Tinio, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs conferred the opening remarks wherein she highlighted the idea of nursing as servanthood and caring for others.

The guest speaker, Dr. Eufemia F. Octaviano, a nurse, a teacher, an author, and a doctor of education, offered her warmest congratulations to the Batch 2014 students for passing the rigid way to Level II. She affirmed that the event was a tradition to honor and celebrate the entry of the Level II students to the nursing profession.

The cap, pin, and candle are of substantial elements that

pinning ceremony facilitated by Ms. Monica L. Anonuevo, Program Coordinator – Related Learning Experience (RLE) External, Ms. Moira G. Uy, Academic Program Coordinator, Ms. Judith J. Sugay, Adviser, Batch Government 2014, and the IN Dean, Dr. Rosalinda P. Salustiano.

The singing of the batch song “Make Me a Servant” laid further emphasis to the significance of the occasion, and was led by the Institute of Nursing Music Ministry (INMM).

The closing remark was given by Dean Salustiano. “How can I close an event like this?” she enunciated, stressing that

symbolize the profession which the event would not be complete without. The cap symbolizes humility and integrity. “A nurse should always smile and not be conceited,” Dr. Octaviano emphasized.

The pin that contains the emblem of FEU speaks for the university and the institution’s philosophy, aims, and mission-vision. She accentuated that the cap and pin must be worn with pride as these are not just pieces of jewelry but symbols to a nurse. Lastly, Dr. Octaviano elucidated that the nurses are the candles who illuminate and serve as the light to the right path.

The much awaited part of the event were the capping and

the CLC is just the beginning and the opening of the gate to the profession. She asserted that the Batch 2014 must live up to the values of Florence Nightingale and furthered that the profession is more than tender loving care, for it is also the giving of one’s self and one’s very being. She emphasized that the nurse should have the head for the knowledge, the heart for compassion and the hands for executing, to be able to give holistic care to people, whether they are wounded or not, well or ill.

“Go and excel,” Dr. Salustiano concluded.

II and III. The Leadership Development Program is held semi-annually usually every August which is organized by FEUIN - RCYCC and by the Red Cross Manila Chapter every November. The purpose of LDP is to empower leadership especially among students in the lower batches. According to Buenaventura, “You are an effective leader if you are able to inspire others; and also, we want them to get out of their shells. We are here to inspire and develop their leadership skills.”

The highlight of the event was the last activity on the second day – which is deliberately kept concealed so as not to spoil the excitement of future participants. “Sa last activity kasi namin sa 2nd day, ‘dun lahat nagamit ‘yung mga tinuro namin sa kanila.

Dun nila inapply lahat ng natutunan nila sa LDP”, Buenaventura added. “Para sa amin, successful ‘yung event kasi wala naman sa quantity ‘yun, but sa quality na nabigay namin sa kanila”.

Academic Committee

the institute. “I feel humbled by the opportunity given to me. Of course, I feel honored that I became the champion and that I have brought glory to the IN community.”

Champions will represent the university in the upcoming interuniversity level AcaLitMus that will be participated by different colleges and universities in the Metro in January next year. (See accompanying table for complete and official list of winners) IABF-Student Council President Jayvee Badile called the event a success. “Yes, [the event was a success because the] objective of uniting most academic organizations in FEU was met. And most importantly, the participants enjoyed”.

AcaLitMus Winners Per Category ACADEMICS CLASH OF THE LEX TITANS Champion - Melissa Fabian 1st Runner up - Ma. Innah Adam 2nd Runner up - Janelle Tuazon LITERARY EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEECH Champion - Pamela Mae K. Ortiz (IN-SC) 1st Runner up - Bryan Isaac F. Yu (ECESS) 2nd Runner up - Sheena Claravall (JPIA) DEBATE Champion - JPIA 1st Runner up - NEGLEX ESSAY WRITING CONTEST Champion - Arjean Banting (BSED-Math)

Batch 2011 heeds Thanksgiving Mass

John Kevin E. De Vera The Institute of Nursing Student Council 2011-2012, together with the Spirit-Civic Committee and Batch Government 2011, organized a Thanksgiving mass held last September 6, 2011 at the FEU Chapel for the successful result of the July 2011 Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE).

The mass started at 12:00 noon and ended around 1:00pm. It was presided by Father Albert

1st Runner up - Donna May Imperial (IARFA-SC) 2nd Runner up - Jake Danduan (Polis Society) MUSICAL SOLO SINGING CONTEST Champion - Ma. Renalene L. Javier (JPIA) BATTLE OF THE ACOUSTIC BANDS Champion - Institute of Education Band 1st Runner up - UAPSA Philippines (IARFA) DANCE EXHIBITION Champion - East Asia College 1st Runner up - INTAC 1 (Institute of Nursing) 2nd Runner up - Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (source: Negotiorum Lex)

spearheads Lumen in Excellentia Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza and Viaddylee P. Maducdoc

SMALLER AND CLOSER. Exceptional lecturers brought learning closer to students in small group discussion. (Photo by Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza)

Far Eastern University - Institute of Nursing Student Council Academic Committee conducted its first small group discussion entitled “Lumen in Excellentia” for school year 2011-2012 last September 16, 2011 at Science Building 201.

Aiming to empower academic excellence among FEU nursing students, the Academic Committee organized a small group discussion in areas where students commonly have difficulties in. For their first offering, the discussion was divided into two sessions - pharmacology in the morning and psychiatric nursing in the afternoon. Dr. Jose Eduardo Mamaat discussed the vital points in Pharmacology while Mr. Michael Jimenez imparted the gist of Psychiatric Nursing.

A total of 120 nursing students for both sessions attended the small group discussion. “It was a lot less than we [Academic Committee] expected pero the attendees appreciated the seminar so we can call it a success,” Kaycee Yee Lin D. Chan, Academic Committee President, stated.

“Yung seminar is very effective kasi very timely siya kasi yung mga topics na diniscuss like yung pharmacology and psychiatric nursing, ito yung mga topics na madaling nakakalimutan, at saka effective talaga yung nagtuturo kasi alam na alam nila talaga ‘yung dinidiscuss nila (The seminar was very effective because it was timely and the topics that were discussed are often forgotten by the students, the lecturers are very effective as well because they have mastery on their topics)” 4th year nursing student Axcel Dean G. Palomo remarked.

Orillo. The said event was attended by Dean Rosalinda P. Salustiano, IN faculty members, alumni from different batches, nursing students and Batch 2011 NLE takers.

The Institute of Nursing was the sponsor of the campus mass. Mrs. Joycelyn Filoteo, faculty member and adviser of the Spirit-Civic Committee in charge for the Campus Ministry Mass commented, “It was [the thanksgiving mass] a very nice event to see and celebrate with the NLE topnotchers and passers from FEU.” She also said that it was a way to thank God for having 6 topnotchers and for the 80% passing rate. “Let’s give back the glory to Him,” Ms. Filoteo added.

In addition, Fr. Orillo left a message addressed to the Batch 2011. “Passing the board exam is a big feat for those who succeed, but together with that is a great responsibility.”

The Lamp

June - October 2011

News

IN hails Outstanding Students

IN savors Buwan ng Wika 2011

Harold Renz D. Roaring For the past years, the FEU – Institute of Nursing has been consistent in producing exemplary students not only academically but also in extra-curricular aspects. In the most recent awarding of Outstanding Students of FEU by the Office for Student Affairs (OSA) for school year 20102011, ten students from IN were included and recognized.

Included in the Ten Outstanding Senior Students (TOSS) were Edward Bravo, Anna Karessa Quinto, Melissa Ramiso, Ramon Victor Roxas Jr., and Janine Marie Uy. For the Ten Outstanding Junior Students (TOJS), Hazelline Leslie Buenaventura, Harold James Doroteo, Nikki Marie Mata, and Axcel Dean Palomo were chosen. As for the Ten Outstanding Sophomore Students, Jenelee Ann Aganus made it to the cut.

“I feel privileged that I was chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Junior Students of FEU among all the students who applied for the search. Student leadership has transformed me into a better person. Being awarded and recognized because of my passion to serve brings me nothing but joy and fulfillment,” Nikki Marie Mata, one of the TOJS stated. “Inspiring and influencing my fellow IN students can simply give a big impact in honing and molding their personality to bring out the leaders in them, thus, these students can contribute for the betterment of our institute,” she added.

The Search for the Outstanding Students is an annual program intended to commend exceptional students for their excellence in academics, outstanding leadership, extensive community involvement, and exemplary moral values anchored on fortitude, excellence, and uprightness.

Roxanne Austine R. Estrella

With a theme of “Ang Filipino ay wikang panlahat, ilaw at lakas sa madilim na landas”, Far Eastern University - Institute of Nursing (IN) joined the university in commemorating the Buwan ng

Palarong PiyuNoy: IN triumphs at third spot Agustin B. Corro III In line with the celebration of Buwan ng Wika, a flash from the past in the form of Palarong Pinoy was executed by the Far Eastern University Central Student Organization (FEUCSO) as part of the year’s theme “LEVEL UP: Leading Excellence through Values, Education and Leadership towards Unending Progress”.

With selected students representing the different Institutes, the event was held at the FEU quadrangle last August 26, 2011.

Palarong Piyunoy, as part of the series of events for Buwan ng Wika, intended to bring back the Filipino culture and tradition.

The event recalled and relived traditional Filipino games which, in the course of time and with technological advancements flooding today’s generation, were somehow forgotten. Included in the event were the games luksong tinik, luksong lubid, tumbang preso, patintero, and kadang-kadang.

The Institute of Education (IE) was the overall champion, the Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (ITHM) landed in second place, and the Institute of Nursing (IN) grabbed the third spot.

The nursing students who brought victory to the institute were Rommel Sunga and Iraki Askri who played for luksong lubid; Napoleon Gavino III and Iraki Askri for luksong tinik; Napoleon Gavino III and Iraki Askri for kadang-kadang; Eloy Manguba III, Napoleon Gavino III, Iraki Askri, John Samuel De Jesus, and Jett Arney Figueroa, played for patintero.

The winners of the games were awarded certificates, medals, and trophies.

Building excellence, leadership, unity and faith among IN student leaders Anna Bianca G. Pereyra

With the theme: “It’s IN you, Instilling IN pride among Tamaraw Leaders”, the Institute of Nursing Student Council had their Team building last October 21-22, 2011 at the Nursing Building room 701 and at the Forest Club Eco Resort Club in Laguna.

Participated by chosen representatives from the council’s committees and flagships, student leaders imprinted their marks

around the university in full costume featuring Dr. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere’s Chapter 7: Ang Suyuan sa Asotea.

The celebration of the Buwan ng Wika started early August with a series of

Wika last August 19, 2011 at the programs and contests that FEU quadrangle. recognized the importance The university-wide celebration of our own language and was headed by Far Eastern culture.

The contests REVIVE THE SPIRIT OF NATIONALISM. IN students take part in the University Central Student parade of the inter-institute Buwan ng Wika celebration. Photographed were varied from speech, essay Organization and Institue of Arts the fourth year students of BSN208. (Photo by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda) and oratorical contests, to and Sciences officers. Different interpretative dance and singing contests.

A feast was also institutes hailed the celebration by wearing different costumes that portrayed and signified Philippine culture and literature. organized at the promenade of ARH Building featuring different Not only did the participating students exert effort on their Filipino food.

The essence of celebrating Buwan ng Wika is to rejuvenate costumes, professors and faculty members likewise dressed the nationalistic side of the Filipinos. “It brings out the old fire up with unique costumes that depicted their support for the that was diminished by our crab mentality. It reminds us how celebration of the Buwan ng Wika.

IN, spearheaded by the Creative Productions Committee great and awesome our culture is,” furthered by Stephany (CPC), complemented this advocacy by joining the parade Zamoras of BSN 208, CPC President.

Tams join...

(From Top, Left to Right) TOSS: Edward Bravo, Anna Karessa Quinto, Melissa Ramiso, Ramon Victor Roxas, Jr., Janine Marie Uy; TOJS: Hazelline Leslie Buenaventura, Harold James Doroteo, Nikki Marie Mata, Axcel Dean Palomo; TO2S: Jenelee Ann Aganus

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Being a hero through participation and involvement Registration started early morning with numerous number of student hopefuls with various reasons for donating and a common cause for helping.

“Gusto ko magdonate para makatulong ‘tsaka para marestore, mapalitan ang luma kong dugo (I want to donate to help, and to restore and replenish my blood),” 4th year nursing student from BSN217, Catherine Ann Ea, said.

“Masaya ako kasi by simple bloodletting nakatulong ako sa nangangailangan (I am happy because by simple bloodletting, I was able to help those in need),” 4th year nursing student from BSN207, Lester Alfonso, stated.

“I am an avid supporter of Red Cross and an advocate of health as well. I wanted to donate blood to be able to help other people who need blood services from various diseases,” FEU alumnus, who also donated that day, Ramon Victor Roxas, remarked.

FEUIN-RCYCC President, Ryka Torres, stated “Ang goal kasi natin ay to collect more blood kasi ‘yun ’yung pinaglalabanan pero syempre to involve na rin students sa mga activities na ganito (Our goal is to collect more blood because that’s what we are competing for but of course, to also involve students with activities like this).”

Sharing blood with spirit of volunteerism “Malaking tulong ang pagdodonate ng dugo kasi we all know that, in the Philippines, two agencies na lang ang authorized magsupply ng screened blood which are the DOH (Department of Health) and Red Cross (Blood donation is a great help because we all know that, in the Philippines, there are only two agencies authorized to supply screened blood which are the DOH and Red Cross),” Nuque said.

According to Nuque, the program’s goal is to develop the spirit of volunteerism among youth and at the same time, to help the Red Cross achieve their objective which is to respond to the needs of blood in the Philippines.

Nuque also stressed that blood donation is what real community service is all about. “Pag nag-donate ka ng dugo, for 15 minutes na effort mo, it’s a long term effect. Habang nabubuhay ‘yung taong nagbenefit sa dugo mo, community service ‘yun (For 15 minutes of effort in blood donation, it’s a long term effect.

While your beneficiary is still alive, it’s community service),” he added.

Philippine Red Cross Manila Chapter, Chapter Administrator Crisanta Cayetano remarked that the competition is very timely with the recent outbreaks of dengue in the country.

“I appeal to all students of FEU to be vigilant in helping on the memorable and lesson-filled 2-day team building activity.

The first day highlighted the inspirational messages coming from Mr. Kurtz Rasos - FEU-IN RCYCC Adviser, Dr. Marcon Espino - Student Leadership Development Head-OSA, Mr. Danilo Talusan, the Institute of Nursing Guidance counselor and Ms. Rachel Laxamana, Adviser of the Institute of Nursing Student Council, regarding Initiating Excellence, Integrating Leadership, Intensifying Unity and Inculcating Faith among the student leaders.

The second day was held at the Forest Eco Club at Laguna where the physical outdoor activities such as log crossing, bamboo rafting, forest canopy walk and mud crawl, all designed

our community particularly on health care by donating blood in response to breaking demand of Red Cross and all other organizations healing victims of dengue who are suffering and congesting in all government hospitals and the answer to this lack of supply is by the spirit of volunteerism by the students who have young blood na ika nga ni Rizal, pag-asa ng ating bayan,” PNRC Manila Chapter Board of Director Atty. Marcial Magsino asserted.

Extending lives with 239 bags Last 2009, FEU was able to collect 129 bags of blood and landed first place on the competition. In 2010, FEU also took the spot with 254 bags of blood. With higher expectations this year, FEU was able to collect 239 bags of blood.

The results of the competition will be relayed and winners will be announced in December of this year. With high hopes of winning ‘three-peat’ despite a 6.12% decrease compared to last year’s collection, Torres stated “syempre, we’re still hoping to win but it is not actually winning the competition ‘yung pinakaimportante.

Bonus na lang siguro ‘yun. Ang importante nakatulong kami at pati kami may natutunan through our experiences (Of course, we’re still hoping to win but it’s not winning the competition that is important. It may just be a bonus. What’s important is that we were able to help and we learned something through our experiences).”

SPIRIT OF VOLUNTEERISM. Student volunteers from different institutes donated blood in Philippine Red Cross’ Madugong Paligsahan.

(Photo by Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza)

to foster perseverance, trust, teamwork and healthy competition.

The student leaders were divided into four teams— Green, Yellow, Red and Blue team. The green team bagged the first place followed by the yellow, red and finally, the blue team. The students were accompanied by four faculty members — Mr. Kurtz Rasos, Dr. Willy Quijencio, Ms. Barbara Michelle de Guzman and Ms. Rachel Laxamana.

At the end of the day, the student leaders realized that synergy, unity and communication are really important ingredients in making an organization/committee stronger and intact. Kudos INSC!

Opinion

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The Lamp

June - October 2011

Editorial Quality on Quantity

IN’s Quest for a Greater Height

For the past years, the Far Eastern University – Institute of Nursing (FEU – IN) stood as an icon of quality nursing education. It is considered as one of the top caliber schools of nursing in the country, producing competent nurses servicing not only our motherland but also the international community.

Since the boom of nursing, it is one of the few schools of nursing that accepts thousands of enrollees; and it is among the audacious few that let thousands of graduates take the nursing licensure exam and still manages to get a good result.

There are noteworthy changes in the institute such as the new curriculum, new leadership care of a new dean, and of course the tremendous decrease in the number of enrollees.

Many have expressed optimism on such changes envisioning improvement in the institute’s level of performance holistically.

Such changes paved way for higher expectations of both students and faculty. Dean RPS, with all her might, has been making moves here and there, getting the institute into full gear towards regaining its glorious years. The big question now is this: Will the institute perform better academically and in the boards? Considering the fact that we have a hands-on dean, the ratio of faculty to students is lesser and much more attention can now be given to the student’s performance and mentoring?

IN caters, to the best of its capability, to the needs of the students in both theory and practice. It boasts of a Virtual Integrated Nursing Education Simulation (VINES) laboratory, the first in the country. It also has a computerbased lecture - Nursing Online (NOL), competent lecturers, clinical instructors and has already tapped the best reviewers in the land, all working hand in hand to reach the institute’s goal. I then remember an alumna who once said, “Magaling kung sa magaling ang Tamaraw student nurses, kaso ang problema eh hindi talaga kami natutukan noon. Walang nag-alaga samin kaya ‘yun, kinapos ang batch namin.”

Is the issue here all about the number of students and quality time with quality instructors? Or is it the lack of motivation and discipline among the students? Can we accord the lack of motivation or discipline, to the quality of teaching?

It must be remembered that an institute like ours has, for its primary aim, the generation of quality nursing graduates, who are scholarly, well-rounded and forward looking members of the health discipline. Conversely, we, the students, are not without responsibility. The resources have already been provided; the task has now fallen upon us to utilize these resources in order to turn out good results. That means we have to work, work, work!

Let us all prove to ourselves that we are good enough to contribute in regaining the IN pride. The stakes are now higher, for if before, we were able to produce quality amidst great quantity; now, we should be aiming for supreme quality on account of less quantity.

The Lamp

Harold James E. Doroteo

Limelight Leaders “A leader is someone who works hard in front of many people; a true leader is someone who strives harder when no one is around.”

Limelight leaders… Leaders who literally love the limelight/spotlight; who truly enjoy the blinding illuminations of pride, marvelous praises paired with great amount of self-righteousness. They are all scattered around; they may be a group mate of yours, an org-mate, a political party-mate, a friend, or maybe – you yourself.

So, what’s the issue? For limelight leaders, that’s all there is – limelight; no sharing of labor, no sharing of credits.

Before one becomes a leader, one should first be a follower. However, some people, after graduating from their role as followers tends to forget the teachable heart and open minds they had when they were still followers.

Let us look at some points to consider lest we forget what leadership is really about.

Leaders as Laborers When one becomes a leader, should

they stop from doing manual labor? Most definitely not. They themselves are laborers in the field and must never forget that. If they quit, they will lose their prime teaching tool – setting an example for others to follow. Let us be very clear on this point – leaders are laborers, all the days of their lives, Leader Never Know It All Leaders who know their jobs know something else as well. They know they will never get to the point where they can say they know it all. Great leaders will continue to learn. One of the marks of good leaders is that they are teachable and eager to learn those things that will improve their performance of the task they have received from the Lord.

“The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” (Proverbs 15:14). Effective leaders are never selfsatisfied, but seek every means to become more proficient, more knowledgeable, and better able to do the job.

Servant Leadership The perfect example is the Lord Jesus Christ. He came not to be served, but to

MIND-BOGGLING

The Official Student Publication of the Far Eastern University-Institute of Nursing Office: Room NB 410, Far Eastern University, N. Reyes Sr. St., Sampaloc, Manila Editor-in-Chief : Harold James E. Doroteo Associate Editor : Kim Ian B. Tiu Managing Editor : Viaddylee P. Maducdoc News Editor : Roxanne Austine R.. Estrella Associate News Editor : Clarissa Kristen V. Secerio Features & Literary Editor : Jed P. Villanueva Head Layout Artist : Robby O. Mendiola Art Director: Carlyle A. Ramos Head Photojournalist : Arvie Desiree I. Miranda Circulations Manager: Harold Renz D. Roaring Chairperson: Jett Arney G. Figueroa Senior Writers ------------------------Agustin B. Corro III Robby O. Mendiola

INSEPARABLE VIEW

Junior Writers ------------------------Miguel Paolo S. Bugarin John Kevin E. De Vera Mary Margaret B. Galut Nelson G. Lacsamana Jr. Rhyss William M. Parguian Anna Bianca G. Pereyra

Senior Photojournalist: Jonalet A. delos Reyes Junior Photojournalist: Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza | Amilka Franciska B. Dumlao Senior Cartoonists: Robby O. Mendiola | Glen Richard A. Tan Junior Cartoonists: Nelson G. Lacsamana Jr. | Jamseen Dee V. Lumanta | Rhyss William M. Parguian Senior Layout Artist: Jay-R E. Razon Adviser:

Ms. Barbara Michelle B. de Guzman, RN, MSN

Kim Ian B. Tiu

Common Good Still vivid in my memory PNoy’s bid for the mass in his inaugural speech at Quirino grandstand. He bid the people to walk in righteous path. That invitation, which he used in his campaign, catapulted him to the highest seat in the land with landslide votes. The transition from GMA to PNoy’s administration ignited hope among the Filipinos. It was the dawn of new hope especially for the poor who long for a good or better life.

That hope is in sight. We see how PNoy implemented reforms in the government especially in restoring its reputation to the public. Many share the same vision as PNoy’s despite allegations of weak leadership. This is evident in the approval and trust rating which remained high in the latest Pulse Asia survey, 77% and 75% respectively.

Among his plan for national growth and development are the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. This means that private sectors will finance the construction, operation, and maintenance of infrastructures and development projects normally undertaken by the Government.

This will bring modernization and quality service to all.

PNoy’s health agendum is Achieving Universal Health Care among All Filipinos.

In the Department of Health, PPP is being initiated through DOH-E Health project, Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) as the premier center for bone diseases, trauma, rehabilitation, and commercial production of

limb prosthesis and Air Ambulance project, among others. Let us examine briefly the stated projects. First, DOH-E Health will collect health data and provide an easy access to information through the use of information and communication technology.

Second, the POC will be modernized and new equipments will be procured to ensure quality health care. Third, the Air Ambulance project will facilitate a fast and efficient transportation of critically-ill clients. There are still eight other projects in the initial PPP list.

At a glance, PPP seems to be a good plan. However, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Let us look beyond its tip.

The very nature of PPP is that it is privately funded, which means that it becomes a business. This implies that services will have to be paid. No businessman invests without a profit.

PPP is not new to us, and It is not always successful. Some of the projects failed and caused much yoke to Juan dela Curz’s shoulder. Though there are factors which may have contributed to its failing like for example the issue of corruption. But that is another story. Previous administration, say Pres. Ramos, also engaged in such economic plan. In 1992, there was a power shortage. This prompted the government to allow private sectors in power production.

Until now, we are still paying for it, which is why our electric bill soars high among

serve His people. If only we can follow His steps and lead righteously and accordingly, no hidden agendas and personal motives; then we can truly live by the title of “Leader” .

Leadership is Relationship Healthy leadership and healthy relationship are inseparable. When both the leader and subordinates enter into a relationship with an investment mind-set, a win-win relationship is often the result.

Such relationship adds value to both parties. As long as leader and members experience consistent wins in areas they value, they develop synergy and the relationship can become something truly special.

Leaders are not Credit-Grabbers No explanation needed.  Limelight leadership may seem satisfying on the surface, but because the main value is lost – that is, leadership, then one will find that the end of the road there’s only emptiness. It is like writing your name on the sand, tide or wind will eventually erase it, and you’re left with nothing – no mark, no legacy.

Let us separate our views; send me your thoughts at haroldjamesdoroteo@live.com.

Asian nations. Another example is the expressway projects (NLEX, SLEX). Although the roads have been modernized, this escalated toll fees. Bus companies traversing provinces hiked up their fares, and the prices of goods and commodities also increased. And probably, more couldn’t afford staple food.

PPP does not favor the poor.

In POC, for example, while modernization is a welcome venture, one cannot help but think of the trouble looming ahead. New beds equal higher room fees. Many of POC’s clients are financiallychallenged. It is already a challenge for them to afford the hardware needed for surgery or even the cheapest Paracetamol, now they would have to worry about hospital fees designed to cover for the cost of modernization. PPP is a ground to exploit the poor and the marginalized. The rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.

There is nothing wrong with improving the standards of quality care; in fact, it is the responsibility of the government to do so. But what is quality care if it is not accessible?

In this country, free health services remain to be few while the lowincome group relying on them continue to grow and swiftly.

Where is then universal health care if only the few could savor the manna?

Boggle your minds at kimiantiu@ live.com.ph.

Opinion

The Lamp

June - October 2011

On The Verge of Notion Viadylee P. Maducdoc

“I’m sorry I’m late. Traffic eh. “ How many times have you heard this excuse? Worse, how many times have you used it yourself? As they say, being late is innately Filipino. Always expect that any event or gathering will not start on time. Whether it’s guests who have not yet arrived, or performers waiting for other members, there is always an alibi. These causes of delays bring some irritation to those who heartfully and mindfully come on time. Admit it; you don’t like it when the professor is late, same as when your groutpmates or classmates are late.

Time is important. The essence of knowing time developed men to be time observant. However, rarely now can you find people who are time–conscious.

A man who observes time finds way of path of success. But what of those who do not care at all whether they are the causes of delays?

You’re Late!

Maybe, this essence of time can be somehow, at least somehow related to why examination scores have become problematic that it became necessary for some adjustments be made.

We are in school to learn, lessons are meant to equip students with knowledge, at least enough for a passing grade. Then what becomes of students who only come to class for the attendance’s sake and do not care, therefore, if they come to class fifteen, thirty or even an hour late? It’s not surprising that the lecturers’ efforts just end up amounting to nothing. For what use could it be for if the students will not be able to hear and process them?

Unfortunately, this practice of being late is more common than we may want to admit. It is basically the nature of students to come late when the professor is kind, does not seem to be bothered by tardiness, or when he himself comes to class late. It is one of the responsibilities of

a student to come on class on time, no excuses, no justifications. Sad to say, however, that a significant number of students do not pay attention to this responsibility.

Remember that you are soonto-be a registered nurse and there’s no room for tardiness when you are dealing with life. You cannot turn back the seconds that have passed nor reverse anything if something wrong happens to your patient because you were late.

What would be the sense of your hardships in the academe if you lose your license only because you don’t have a better grasp of the importance of time?

Punctuality is an attitude. So maybe it is time to take responsibility and change the attitude. What will it be? It is up to you which stream you want to follow.

Share and experience the verge of notion at viaddy_lee@yahoo. com.

Free your Mind

Roxanne Austine R. Estrella

(Student Nurse’s) Life as I view it To be honest, I am not entirely sure what this is or where this is going. Simply put, as you look inside my head, you would see a very vague prairie. It may seem alluring but it is empty of thoughts.

Henceforth, I will let my fingers wander off and route me somewhere – hopefully, somewhere appropriate and useful.

Analogous to being a toddler, everyone still struggle in every single step they take in life. We walk, foot after foot, down an unknown and obscure path – not knowing entirely where we are destined to go. Stumble here, stagger there. Not aware of the destination but compelled to keep moving forward. This is life. Life has its way to constrain a person to a rollercoaster ride. Infallibly, the journey is mostly steadfast and thrilling, yet all we highlight are the twists and turns.

Tantamount to the profession we are engaged in, every day is a struggle. Each day, we wake up to face another endeavor at school or in the area where we have been assigned. Each week, we brace ourselves for a plethora of challenges – quizzes, reports, recitation, etc. on lecture days and case presentations, drug studies, nursing care plans, evidencebased nursing, etc. on duty days. At the end of every concept, we deal with difficult exams. At the end of each semester, we face the nerveracking Revalida and the grueling

Comprehensive Exam. Consequent to all these are of course the sleepless nights and exhausting days. And, as if these are not yet enough, after braving all of these, we still have to go through that one last hurdle we all dread – yes, the board exam.

However, that is just the way we commonly view things. We recognize solely the distressing element. Either we are almost always too busy to notice what we are gaining in the process or we are just plain nonchalant to even bother. Constantly, we focus too much on using escapism to handle the stress and rely heavily on future chances that we forget that the present is the most substantial time in our lives. ‘Babawi na lang ako sa susunod na exam,’ is the new trend and everyone seems to be in style.

Why don’t we try to stop for a minute and see, not the hardships we have to deal with, but the bright side of everything we are enduring? Each quiz and exam, whether we pass or fail, compels us to learn more. Each reporting, case presentations, drug studies, evidence-based nursing, and nursing care plans we accomplish, makes us better critical thinkers.

And as might be expected, the Revalida and Comprehensive Exam, no matter how stressful they are, push us to a higher level of reviewing. In entirety, these gear us up for the next level. Hence, we are absolutely gaining so much, yet we

obviously appreciate too little.

We all go through different struggles in life. Life, in general, is just as hard for other students taking different courses as it is for us. Personally, I, too, have battled and strived through the nineteen years I have existed; however, I have also triumphed. And that is how I want to remember my life. I don’t want to graduate, work, grow a family, and tell my kids that college was nothing but stressful.

Instead, I want to share with them how much I enjoyed college in spite of all the stress that went along with it.

As I have said, we are compelled to live a life that is comparable to a rollercoaster ride wherein nothing is ever constant. Yet, to think that life would invariably be excellent – that everything would always be magnificent, great, and wonderful – could easily be what everybody would like their lives to be. But in reality, that is just not how things go. There would always be a point where we would battle and struggle with the yet unknown. But we have a choice - either to think of the battle as a hassle or to perceive it as a way to better ourselves. Thus, again, analogous to a toddler, with every single step we take, with every struggle we face, with every stumble and stagger, in the end, we all succeed.

Bespeak freedom at rarestrella@yahoo.com.

On Second Thought

response is to get agitated.

But the fact is, almost all venues of our work are toxic. If a hospital isn’t toxic, it isn’t good. It’s not suitable for learning. If a hospital isn’t toxic, the theories you’ve endeavoured to learn will dissipate.

The fact is, toxic is our battle cry; it should be. So, if we are planning to stay in this path for a long time, expect that it hangs on your ID lace for a long time too. Swallow the irony and be glad, because the very word is going to teach us and hone us on the very curves of the profession.

Let me end this with a story. But help me check my math because we’re going to measure the characters’ quality of care using the K-S-A (Knowledge, Skills, Attitude)

I’ll tell you something else. The toxic-expression can do magic.

What I knew about the word toxic back then is something deadly, poisonous, lethal, like an extraconcentrated excreta. Then came the nursing days and my usage of the word changed. I would say, “So many paper-works. Toxic!” “Exams, quizzes... Toxic!” “Graveyard shift.

Toxic!” “VS q 1, with drugs lined up.

Toxic!” “Charting. Toxic!” Even with only one patient to attend to, “gosh it’s T-O-X-I-C!” Minutes later after saying them, the toxicity will double, then triple, then quadruple, then [panting]. Yes, like amoeba multiplying; the case worsening with every millisecond.

Isn’t it magic?

No. It’s immaturity.

I know that nurses don’t like getting toxic (or to abide with grammar: getting intoxicated with work-loads). Myself included. That’s why we’ve trained our radars to recognize ‘red flags’- the q1’s, numerous drug administration, critical patients, septic cases, etc.

Then, when we encounter these red flags, more often than not, the first

5). But she always appears toxic.

Due to her preoccupation with her grades, she forgot what’s important.

At the clients’ bedside, her character is always low (3). So (5+5) x 3= 30%. Failed.

Imagine if Gina flunked her character to zero. The quality of her care would also be zero. What am I stressing here? That character is more than half of the game; certainly not a negligible fraction. It’s the stuff that nursing care is made of.

Toxic is already in our frame of mind. It’s inevitable. I’m not saying reject it. I’m saying: take it to a higher level, carry it with character!

Soloist of thoughts is boring.

Vent and share it with me at jedpvillanueva@gmail.com.

Clarissa Kristen V. Secerio

Batch 2012: Have you got what it takes?

The Far Eastern University – Institute of Nursing (FEU-IN) have been rigorously preparing Batch 2012 for the upcoming July 2012 Nursing Licensure Exam. As early as the first semester of our last school year, various programs have been developed and modified to increase the level of competence of the Batch to ensure an impressive performance on the forthcoming board exam.

The Nursing Online (NOL) Admit it. You learn from this.

Probably not at the same depth and magnitude of learning as when a professor is the one doing the teaching, but still you learn. It gives you an incremental amount of knowledge you would not learn from Black or Brunner since you do not even dare open your book.

Students have mixed thoughts about NOL. Students acknowledge the upsides of the NOL. They admit that with NOL, they gain added knowledge. In NOL, for you to go on to the next topic, you have to answer a post-test that forces you to actually read and listen to the topic you are currently in. Through reading and listening, you learn new things. So with NOL’s mandatory reading and listening class, students learn.

However, the promise of NOL is tainted by much negativity. Some say that NOL has a very wide scope, and demands too much of a nursing student’s precious time because it is too lengthy. Also, they say that with NOL, students can do “teamwork” when answering post-tests. Then there are those computers which are way too long-standing that they freeze and delay the progress of the students. Some proctors, also, are unapproachable and haughty.

Nursing Online is one of the programs of the FEU-IN that is designed to benefit the students by relaying up-to-date and evidencebased knowledge that boost ones’ chances of passing the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE.) The NOL, likewise, is a good foundation that can be used when you intend to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX) since it is American-based.

This is a program intended to help

students and not to burden them.

If, particular adjustments are made, for example on the time schedule or the attitude of the people handling it, definitely the Nursing Online will be better appreciated.

Competent Professors Behind a brilliant student is an exceptional professor. The kind of professor you are defines how a student will be. Most of the time, a student holds his professor in high regard. Some, probably, think otherwise. In my 4 years in IN, I have come across different kinds of professors. Some are terrifically stupendous, some are terribly abysmal.

Students’ learning greatly depends on the professor’s efficacy.

Students assert that the ineffective teaching strategy of a professor hampers their learning. If, for example, the professor reads every single word in his slides without giving addendums, then how do you expect a student to learn? Also, the students have disclosed that some professors tend to be unenergetic and boring. A few students also divulged that some professors are not updated to new researches, for example, a better nursing intervention for a patient with a certain disease.

Good professors catch a student’s attention by their strategy, so if the problem is the teaching strategy, then modify and make it better. Point out what is the nice-toknows and the need-to-knows. If a professor incorporates both fun and substance, they can grab a hold of their students’ attention, and more learning will occur. Professors of FEU are regarded as competent educators. But being competent is not tantamount to being effective.

Board topnotchers would say they topped the board because they were listening from the first day of lecture to the last. So, the actual review starts in the IN, and not in review centers. To pass the board exam means having a stable groundwork on nursing, diseases, interventions, and the like. With this, greater and higher expectations are demanded from the professors.

The NCA and NCI On the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) memorandum order 14, the implementation of the Nursing Competency Appraisal (NCA) and Nursing Concept Integration NCI was incorporated.

Its purpose is the “application of the concepts, principles and processes basic to the practice of nursing”.

The NCA and NCI have been introduced to us on the first semester of our final year. It is a review of the subjects that we had during the previous years, including Fundamentals of Nursing, Maternal and Child Health Nursing, Community Health Nursing, Nursing Research, Medical-Surgical Nursing, and Psychiatric Nursing. With rigid lecture hours, and expert professors tackling the intricate task of “appraising” and “integrating”, the batch only got a (unofficial) 20% passing rate.

So what does this mean? That we haven’t got what it takes? Or was the bar set too high? After all, we aim to be no less than number one, right?

The Students A ship will sink or float depending on the captain. So whether the FEUIN hires the best reviewers in the country, or we use the most simplified textbook, if we, the students, do not do our part, we will still end up sinking and failing the board exam. So let’s stop pointing fingers and throwing blames. Instead, let us start studying harder for the board exam. While we’re at it, let us not settle on merely passing, let’s go for topping it.

Various resources have been bestowed upon us by the IN to help us prepare for the board exam. Not all may be effective, yet we should also show our appreciation for the effort our Institute has shown us. We can do better than 20%. Let us be focused and determined. Let us keep our eye on the goal. This is our final semester; let us show them what we got, and prove to one and all that we have got what it takes Have something shimmery to say? Be bold and glisten up. Share your ideas with me at www.tumblr. com/blog/misperpek

X+Y=Z

Harold Renz D. Roaring

Word of the Day: Toxic!

Voice 2: IDB, 5 drug studies, 3 NCPs, EBN Voice 1: I’ve been awake for 48 hours. Tonight, it’ll turn 60! then the clincher…

Voice 2: It makes me want to die!

I wasn’t startled, really. I was embarrassed. I was tempted to cover my Nursing patch. To tell you, also in the line were accountancy students, biology students, medical technology, architecture, and who knows who else? Attitudes like that, and we let those kinds of nursing-istoxic-attitudes be exposed to other people, are the very fragments of impression which will constitute the image of nursing students and, as a whole, the name of the Institute of Nursing. Unfortunately, that image will be taken from the perspective of other people, of those people outside our arena. I’ve named a few early in this paragraph but to enumerate more, they are the professors, the doctors and staff in the hospitals, your social hub acquaintances, your dorm-mates, your parents, your siblings, and the list goes on.

with a minor twist: Character (C) in place of Attitude to be more appropriate. The formula is: %Quality= (K+S) x C. Don’t Google this thing here because you’ll just tire yourselves; I coined the formula myself.

There are two student nurses on duty in a geriatric ward. Nurse Karen is average when it comes to theoretical (3) and tries her best in skills (4). But for her, patient care, though demands much of her, is a beautiful part of the vocation. She does the caring as caring should be done - with the ingredient of compassion (10). That will be (3+4) x 10= 70%. Passed.

Her friend, Gina, is academically excelling. She’s good in lectures (perfect 5) and also in skills (perfect

Word Vomit

Jed P. Villanueva

Let me go straight to the point here. You know the word, right?

Actually, you don’t only know it; you’re so familiar with it. When was the last time you dropped that expression? “Toxic!” It hasn’t been that long, I’m sure. Seconds ago, you say? At the nurse’s station while on hospital duty? In your classrooms while you face a darn load of requirements?

Sure that I can also understand if it’s been a part of your Facebook status or even your tweets.

It is no longer shocking.

However, it poses a concern.

One day, I was in a queue at the E-library. (It’s literally a queue, and I will not elaborate it.) Nonetheless, I was surrounded by a bunch of talkers, and I enjoy something like that. What’s amazing is that you can really recognize who are from your own institute and who are not—even with eyes closed, just by listening to them. In my case, I did eavesdrop; but the conversation is audible enough to make the task effortless. Sad. Voice 1: Toxic! (In a snarly voice, no less!)

5

Loud and Roar!

No amount of money can repay the hard work of a father providing for his family. No remuneration can equate to the sacrifices of a mother caring for her children. In fact, one of the regrets of parents when their children have to leave home is the loss of opportunity to serve them.

Change is never easy. You fight to hold on. You fight to let go. We think the stars are fixed in the sky, but they’re not. We need to give in to change, to learn new things.

The desire for a better education has left me a great distance away from home for almost four years now.

The typical college student story, I spent my youth back in the suburbs enveloped by the presence of love ones, and now embarking on my life alone. Living in a dorm provides some semblance of independence but still with a sense of security for your parents still provide for you financially. The thing is, to live in a dorm and to learn how to adjust to the newfound independence is a difficult and critical process.

George Bernard Shaw once said “There are two tragedies in

life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it”. So when the opportunity comes, don’t hold back. Grab it. Being apart from the people dearest to your heart is a struggle. In the province, it’s every high school student’s dream to attend college in Manila, but not everyone will have the chance to make that come true. When I was about to enter college, I really didn’t want to leave. That was my home and there is nowhere else I wanted to be. However, I realized that it is a part of growing up, and we all have to – grow up.

It would seem, though, that growing up happens in a heartbeat.

One day you’re in diapers; the next day you’re packing up your bags for college. Lucky there are memories of childhood and adolescence that can stay with you for the long haul.

Leaving may be difficult, but it is necessary. How else can we grow as a person if we are always in the same place, if we never challenge ourselves, if we never attempt to go beyond our comfort zones? I have enjoyed college, being a senior and

a class mayor; I could say I have been through a lot. I gain strength from my friends and classmates for they are my family here in the big city. More than that, nursing has taught me that the power to touch the lives of patients comes with greatness that is rooted in humility-to be the lowest of all and to desire nothing but to serve. In essence, you remove yourself from the center.

But there will always be a part of me that will wonder what my life would have been if I had chosen to stay. Life is unpredictable, you have to go with your heart and hope for the best. Still, even when all of life lay ahead, every road leads you back home. Only now, you are armed with mementos of your journey. After all, if growing up is war, then the people who stuck by you, supported you, inspired you, or touched your life one way or the other, deserve great respect and a special part in your life’s story.

Roar your thoughts roaring_lion@live.com.ph.

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Features

6

The Lamp

June - October 2011

A Casual Conversatiown with Dean RPS

By Harold Renz D. Roaring

A summa cum laude, a midwifery board topnotcher, a published author, a national inspirational speaker and a mother of four. The Institute of Nursing’s (IN) new dean, Dr. Rosalinda Parado Salustiano or Dean RPS as she wants to be addressed, candidly answers queries about herself, her new role and her vision for the IN.

9. What makes you smile?

The mere thought of my only grandson makes me smile, indeed, and his antics make me laugh.

Being with friends, greetings from students, show of appreciation of my hard work from staff, faculty and VPs, and “VGs” from the President make me smile. These wash away two ‘Fs’ at the workplace – fatigue and frustration.

1. What do you want the students to know about you?

What I want students to know about me is that I have the best of intentions for IN, its students and faculty. I also am a workaholic who works best under pressure. For any task or endeavor, I always start with the end in mind –accomplishing the desired outcome. This way, I am always motivated to seek excellence.

10. What do you do to relax after work?

Driving myself home is a form of relaxation. It takes away my mind from ‘the world of work.’

11. Who are your heroes?

2. What got you into nursing?

Mother Theresa, selflessly giving herself to others, is one of my heroes.

A perceived insurmountable goal - that of pursuing medicine tand becoming a physician - got me into nursing. Since three of us were in college at that time, and our parents couldn’t see us through if one would pursue an expensive course, medicine, I opted to take up nursing, instead.

12. What is your motto in life?

“Better your best.”

3. What do you remember best about your college days?

You should always strive for the best, be it in personal or professional life.

And once you attain your ‘best,’ the next step is to prepare to better it. There My college days were regular days in the life of a nursing student: classes, is no stopping to one’s development, and there should be no borders or limits six-hour duty rotations, nursing care plans, pathophysiology presentations, to one’s progress.

UST bus rides to affiliating hospitals, and the like, but with an 13. Who are your inspirations? emphasis on the fact that we were being taught to excel, to 6. What was your impression of FEU before assuming lead. Our lecturers and clinical instructors were strict with us deanship?

My father is an inspiration. He was such a hardworking on time, attendance, uniform, requirements and performance. father with mind directed only at a future where his children During our pre-board review classes, the faculty reviewers Honestly, I only have two clear impressions of FEU before are all well-educated. He didn’t live long enough to see that would say, “You are reviewing for the board not for you to pass assuming deanship,1) that Dean Lydia Palaypay was its former vision. His children are now living that future. because that is expected of every Thomasian, but for you to dean, and 2) that it has a good basketball team, the Tamaraws. top the examination.”

After I assumed office as Dean of IN last June 1, and after 14. Favorite lines in your favorite song.

AVP-HR Melinda Macaraeg provided the new deans and 4. What is your greatest accomplishment? administrative managers a guided tour of FEU, a very clear From Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”impression was added, that FEU is beautiful in its structure I don’t think that I have accomplished my ‘greatest’. I and people.

“And no message could have been any clearer believe that the pursuit of an excellent accomplishment is a continuing process. I feel more excitement in the ‘journey 7. How do you find your stay in FEU NOW? If you want to make the world a better place towards a destination,’ and my excitement level diminishes as soon as I attain a goal.

My 115 days of deanship in FEU have been full of Take a look at yourself and then make a change.” challenges spiced up with frequent trips to the office of the 5. What is your greatest failure, and what did you learn SVPAA Dr. Maria Trinidad Tinio and VPAS Dr. Miguel Carpio.

Indeed, change should start from each and every one of us from it?

And the reward? Ten pounds weight loss! if we want to better our world.

I thank God that at this age and time, I don’t think I have a greatest failure to speak about. But I must say, I have my share of small doses of frustrations which keep me grounded and motivated to better my previous performance.

8. What are your plans for the institute?

I have great plans for the Institute of Nursing, plans that will help us attain an earnest wish, that FEU IN be a Center of Development in 2016. With everyone – administrators, dean, faculty, students and support staff – contributing his best towards this goal, it will surely be realized.

15. What do you wish to share to the students as they pursue the nursing profession?

In the pursuit of the nursing profession, bear in mind that you are preparing yourself for one of the noblest professions – nursing. It is a profession of caring, of sharing a part of yourself, of giving a piece of your soul. Do it for the love of God and His people without counting the cost.

Photos by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda; Background and banner image courtesy of psdGraphics Life is full of expectations, of potentials, of challenges. The whole world is a place where everything happens; this habitat generates people to use their highest potentials to survive and make their stay worthwhile and prolific. Because the world is a dynamic place, everyone must learn to handle every situation, difficult as they may be. In most cases people manage to survive and continue on with their voyage.

For some, however, trying to fit into a mold becomes a struggle.

For some even, it becomes an agonizing existence that the only way out it is to take one’s own life.

Sad, but the fact is that every 40 seconds, a person dies because of suicide and every year, suicide mortality rate periodically increases. This is according to a news clip from Yahoo! News.

Suicide knows no boundaries; it crosses gender, racial and social groups.

So what drives a person to take his or her life? People through

the ages have asked why does one commit or attempt suicide, especially someone that has so much to live for. People who commit suicide don’t usually wake up one morning and just decide to kill themselves. According to Psychiatric Nursing by Sheila Videbeck, this happens when a person gets caught in a situation that increases his emotions and impairs his mental and problem solving ability. The inability to provide an effective solution to resolve the conflict becomes a provocation that the only key to escape the crisis is to permanently end one’s life.

Untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide in the world today. When one is caught in unsolved problems and unmet expectations, life becomes a difficult, unpleasant and stressful.

When life is enveloped in sadness and living is no longer pleasurable, the mind starts to think that, maybe, the struggle to go on living may not be worth it, and decides that it’s time to give up.

For most of us, deciding that

life is not worth living is absurd.

However, some may argue that it can be, in some situations, the only reasonable choice.

Rational Suicide?

Many health care professionals proposed that suicide can be a rational decision if certain conditions are met. In 1995, a study conducted by James L. Werth and Debra C. Cobia found that 88 percent of the two hundred psychologists they surveyed supported the concept of rational suicide if the person considering suicide is in terminal illness and is in severe physical or psychological pain, or is experiencing an unacceptable quality of life and freely chooses to die. The researchers also stipulated that in order for a decision to commit suicide be considered rational, the individual must have met with a mental health professional, weighed all the alternatives, considered how the act would affect others, and consulted with friends, family members, and

clergy.

However, other health care professionals believe that suicide can never be a rational choice.

Leon R. Kass, an ethicist, physician, and outspoken critic of the right-to-die movement, argues that the determination to kill oneself is often made in response to feelings of guilt, fear, despair or rejection. Suicide in these situations may be understandable and even forgivable, he asserts, but it is still an irrational and emotional response. Furthermore, because death is unimaginable, Kass contends that one cannot accurately judge whether death would be preferable than life.

Therefore, he concludes, to choose death cannot possibly be a rational decision.

But how can someone rationally choose nonbeing? How can poor rationality contemplate nothingness, much more, accurately calculate its merits against continued existence?

Author Joyce Carol Oates

explains: “Rationally, one cannot ‘choose’ death because death is an unknown experience, and perhaps it isn’t even an ‘experience’—perhaps it is simply nothing; and one cannot imagine nothing.” Oates and Kass assert that the merits of other actions can be imagined because it is possible to discuss them with people who have experienced them; death, however, is totally unknowable.

The Real Thing Most people who contemplate suicide, however, will not openly consult with friends or family; much less rationalize on alternatives and how it would affect others.

Is it considered more honorable, manly or brave when you shoot yourself rather than take the heat for your own deliberate actions?

Or is choosing death as an escape from life’s troubles cowardly and selfish? If suicide be supposed a crime, only cowardice can impel us to it. If it be no crime, both prudence and courage should engage us to rid ourselves at once of existence, when it becomes a burden.

I believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping. For such is our natural horror of death, that small motives will never be able to reconcile us to it; and though perhaps the situation of a man’s health or fortune did not seem to require this remedy, we may at least be assured that anyone who, without apparent reason, has had recourse to it, was curst with such an incurable depravity or gloominess of temper as a drive to overlook all pleasure in living, and render him equally miserable.

Then again, there’s always the other choice, the brighter side. We may encounter problems, be stuck in a situation of remorse, or caught in a questionable decision. Still it is but a single piece of the entire puzzle that is life. Instead of focusing on the misery, look to the positive and find the inspiration to encourage you to cope and respond appropriately to the problem. Life has never been unfair to us, it’s just a matter of how we decide to deal with it.

A sinGle piEce oF tHe enTire puZzle

By Nelson G. Lacsamana, Jr.

Background image courtesy of psdGraphics

The Lamp

June - October 2011

I SURVIVED!

Features

7

An anecdote of a cancer survivor: Her pains, her hard-ups, and her brave steps toward recovery By Jed P. Villanueva

Ano ang natutunan ko, bottom-line? (What did I learn, bottom-line?) Live as if there’s no tomorrow!” Ms. Romero, level IV IN faculty – a cancer survivor.

Life is a gift. No matter what angle we view it from, we would realize that truly, whatever our experiences have been and whatever the future holds for us, one thing stays. That is the thought that we are lucky enough that we are all alive today. We are all given the chance to live, experience and discover the wonders of this world. More than the material things that our eyes may see and our body may possess are the love and joy that our hearts acquire over time.

Do you believe in second chances? We would never know enough, but as life is constant with its dynamicity, we have proven much of its miracles. It’s just a matter of when and how will it unfold in our lives. Most of the time miracles present itself it’s during our hardest moments, blossoming unexpectedly.

A survivor She would enter the classroom as if it’s a literal “Good morning!”. She would wear a smile, exercise the high and low of intonations of every sentence and navigate every corner of the classroom. Now she’s got every student’s attention. But more than the style, and the Oncology textbooks she carries in class, what’s more important is the raw information of her personal experience with cancer, which she’s more than willing to share, that students draw knowledge and inspiration from.

Looking young and feeling young for her age, her mantra is that life’s lessons can be to everybody’s advantage when internalized properly. With her positive point of view, her story tells of not just pieces of her history, but the battle of her life and how she endured. In the midst of her busy adult life, working to help sustain the needs of her family and most of all, playing the crucial role as a mother, she suddenly woke up one day in the bounds of cancer.

In a conversation with the THE LAMP, Ms. Susan T. Romero, proves, once again, how painful and inspiring a story can be at the same time.

“If I’m not mistaken, it was diagnosed at the age of 45”, she started to reminisce. “It was a surprise. I was caught unaware. It caught me by surprise because I never expected that there’s something wrong with me. Remember, cancer is traitor, and it does not show itself until the latter part of the disease. That’s why cancer, I always consider [it] a traitor disease”.

It is still clear in her mind. She was attending a budget deliberation in Congress during those times she was still working at the Department of Health (DOH). “Sabi ko sa aking director, “Para pong nahihilo ako. Lumilindol po ba?” (I told my director, “I think I’m feeling dizzy. Is there an earthquake?”)”. She was pale and had been bleeding profusely for weeks. Ultrasound showed malignant polycystic cells almost 4 cm. each in size. Several diagnostic tests after, it was confirmed - cancer of the uterus. There was no other choice but to undergo TABHSO (Total Abdominal Hysterectomy and Bilateral Salphingo-Oophorectomy), a procedure that costs a woman’s major organs of reproduction, a procedure she herself considered hard to take.

The surprise and denial “Before the stage of denial, ayaw ko nang magsimba. Bakit pa ako magsisimba? Ano ba naman ang kasalanan ko para magka-cancer ako at bigla na lang akong i-diagnose na mamamatay na? (Before the stage of denial, I didn’t want to go to church. Why would I go to Church? What sin have I done to have cancer and just be diagnosed that I’m dying?), she expressed.

The comfort room would literally be her comfort place where she would retreat when she felt like crying “. Kapag ako’y natatakot at gusto kong umiyak, I really hid my feelings (When I felt afraid and I wanted to cry, I really hid my feelings)”, she further shared. A day may mean three trips to the comfort room as she tries to conceal her tears from everyone at home and at the workplace.

Reasons for healing She admits that at first, she did not want to undergo the operation. She has an allergy to anesthesia and knew that her habits of drinking alcohol earlier in life will also take its toll; she needed a higher dose of anesthetic drugs. So, what made her do it?

“Sabi ng asawa ko, “Pag namatay ka, mag-aasawa ako… aapihin ng mapapangasawa ko ‘yang anak mo. (My husband said, “When you die, I would marry… and my would-be-wife will treat your son bad.”), she shared. That was it. She suddenly wanted to survive; she suddenly wanted to live. The words of her husband may be interpreted as a joke, but it was her wake-up call.

Hope: a gift from God “Ang source ng hope ko, nangyari one day. (The source of my hope happened one day”). She was looking over the window one afternoon when suddenly she just fell on the floor, blood gushing all over. She managed to call for her neighbor who brought her to the hospital. At the hospital, her palpatory BP was 90 and dropping.

“I don’t know how you would interpret it pero ang nakita ko puro puti. Nasa tunnel ako, I could not deceive the light. Umiikot ‘yong tunnel at sa pinaka-final no’n ay nasa puti akong lugar. At nakita ko ‘yong mga angels. Angels, the same height, the same face, they look like nine year olds. So dineduce ko do’n na siguro it means something na when

we die, we’ll become children of God. (I don’t know how you would interpret it but what I saw was pure white. I was in a tunnel. I could not deceive the light. The path is an spiral tunnel, and at the end of it, I was in a white place. And I saw angels. Angels, the same height, the same face, they look like nine year olds. So I deduced from that that maybe it means something, that when we die we will become children of God.),” she said.

The one she met at the gate was St. Joseph, in contrast to the popular role of St. Peter as the gatekeeper. She talked to him, and bargained. “ Kung kukunin mo ako, kindly promise me that my 3 sons would not experience any financial hard-ups… Kung maipapangako mo sa akin na they would not be affected, pero kapag hindi, let me go back. (If you will get me, kindly promise that my children would not experience any financial hard-ups… If you can promise me that they would not be affected, but if not, let me go back.)”

She woke up then. The moment she opened her eyes, she knew a miracle had happened. “Kung dati depressed na depressed ako, no’n hindi na . Because to myself, I was given a guarantee na mabubuhay ako kasi it’s a miracle.

(If before, I was so depressed, that time, I wasn’t so depressed anymore. Because to myself, I was given a guarantee that I will live; because it’s a miracle.)” she declared.

Opportunity in misfortune

“In the peak of my cancer, that was also the time that I was promoted to the position of Nurse VI in the DOH,” she said. In her most down moments, blessings weren’t hindered to come her way. Destiny has been kind, as later on another opportunity sprouted: the opportunity to teach.

“I don’t look at cancer as a dreaded disease,” she revealed. “I always look at it as an opportunity in misfortune.

I was contented working in the Department of Health. Even with my diagnosis of cancer, I was still promoted to the position of Nurse VI in the DOH. It’s really a good office, and it really serves people. Pero no’ng nagka-cancer ako, it entailed a lot of changes. (But when I had cancer, it entailed a lot of changes.) I think in cancer, it’s not only important to have determination to live, but much of it is money. You have to look for three doctors, one for radiation, a medical doctor, and a surgeon…a good surgeon. And the offshoot is, I found another good office which is FEU (Far Eastern University). I found new friends, a new lot of friends in the persons of Ma’am Lauro, Ma’am Dancil, then Ma’am Belza.”

But above all, the disease served as an opportunity for her to see her family’s unconditional love for her. “It really proved that my husband really loves me.

Malalaman mo kung mahal ka ba talaga ng pamilya mo, and that they will sacrifice for you. (You will know if your family really loves you, and that they will sacrifice for you.) At their sacrifices financially, physically, you thank them for that,” she added.

Living the best of her now “Live as if there’s no tomorrow!” she stressed.

“Kung may nakaaway ka, huwag kang matutulog hanggang hindi mo siya binabati. Kung may nakagalitan kang estudyante, kaya gano’n ako, after that inaakap ko na ang mga estudyante ‘pag pauwi na kami. So I don’t last the day without talking to somebody with whom I have simple grudge. Kasi nalaman ko na hindi mo pala hawak ang buhay mo. Think as if there’s no tomorrow, kasi kung wala ka na dito paano mo pa sila kakausapin?

Paano mo pa ipapakita ang pagmamahal mo, na pinatawad mo na sila?

(If you had misunderstanding with someone, don’t sleep until you’re not saying a word to the person. If you scolded a student, that’s why I’m like that, after that I hug my students after class. So I don’t last the day without talking to somebody with whom I have simple grudge. Because I learned that we’re not in charge of our lives. Think as if there’s no tomorrow, because if you’re not here anymore, how would you talk to them? How would you show your love to them, that you’ve granted them forgiveness?)

People would say that life’s trials are there for us to learn from, to grow, to have the opportunity to see life’s hidden messages and meanings, to know what the journey is worth. These are the lessons of life, the lessons that helps us survive.

As Ms. Romero’s experience have showed us, it’s best to…

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. --- Maori proverb

Photo by Harold James E. Doroteo; Background image courtesy of Flickr © Francesco Carta Fotografo; Pink ribbon image courtesy of Google images

If you walk along the Technology Building, you might have caught sight of the enormous tarpaulins where the names and pictures of board topnotchers are inscribed. Then, you have seen, for sure, the most recent badge of FEU-IN excellence personified by the 2011 Nursing Licensure Exam (NLE) topnothers.

One of them was the class salutatorian, Top 2 of NCM 103 B (2010), 2nd placer of Institute of Education Mind Challenge (2009), University Academic Scholar from first year to 4th year.

Magna Cum L a u d e .

The most recent feather to her cap is placing 3rd on the July 2011 N L E with an

Through a call from a friend, Ms. Lim found out that she was ranked third in the NLE. At first, she didn’t believe it, thinking that it was just a prank call. So she asked for the website where the results were posted. “To my nervousness, my hands in tremors hindered me from easily typing the site she was talking about,” Ms. Lim said. At that time, there was a service lag that encumbered her to see the results at the site due to numerous people who were trying to access the account. So her friend posted a screenshot of the results on the Facebook account of Ms. Lim. “When I finally saw it, I started to cry. The funny thing is, my brother was capturing that moment on a video. I was like crying and laughing at the same time!” she said.

A conversation with Ms. Lim revealed more of her personality and her strategy for acing the NLE. 1. Were you expecting to top the board exam?

I have always admired the board topnotchers. Whenever I pass by the tech building before and see those big tarpaulins, I always tell myself, in a not so serious way, that someday my face will be posted in one of those tarps.

BUT, never did I imagine that it would be a reality. It was just a dream before that I did not believe would come true. Hindi ko talaga ineexpect na I would be able to make it kasi para sa akin sobrang imposible ko ‘yun magawa. Para bang panaginip lang na kahit kailan hindi ko matutupad kapag gising ako.

2. How did you prepare for it?

impressive mark of 87.20%.

She is Ivy Cuadra Lim.

Grace

To tell you honestly, that is the most difficult question to answer. I myself do not know how I did prepare for it or if I was really prepared to take the board exam. The thought of taking the board exam was the most dreaded before.

Maybe, that would also contribute to my

late enrolment to a review center. I was afraid to face the preparations for the NLE because I knew that the next step would be taking it. But time flew so fast that one day, I just found myself enrolled at the review center and attending every review class.

These

are

the

things

I

did:

a) I attended every class religiously.

I listened carefully to every lecturer; I answered all the questionnaires given.

Whenever I was at home, I never touched any of those review materials because I felt so exhausted with the 8-hour lecture plus the 1 hour and 30 minutes travel time from Morayta to Caloocan. b) I also bought a CD containing review questions—more like the critical thinking exercises in E-learning. Those questions have test taking strategies and rationales that made me understand concepts I had a difficult time dealing with. I answered those in times I had a free day without lecture. It really helped me a lot because it honed my skill in analyzing questions. c) I eliminated the stress and pressure as the idea of the exam itself is stressing.

So, I went to the mall when I wanted to and watched a movie or ate. It helped me forget about every stressful idea connected to the board exam and to relax my mind after a week of lecture. d) Sa totoo lang, bumili din ako ng manila paper and markers because I planned to post the normal values on my wall, pero hindi ko na yun nagawa eh. Kasi pakiramdam ko kapag nagpost ako s wall namin, lalo ako kakabahan tuwing gigising ako sa umaga. e) Pinaka-importante sa lahat, nagdasal ako. Pero hindi ako nakabisita sa iba’t ibang simbahan noon eh. I just prayed to Him directly whenever I sleep or whenever I feel anxious about the exam. But I brought a bracelet and did

a 9-day novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus for intercession. Kasi para sa akin, may plano si God, kung ano man ‘yun, pumasa man ako o hindi, handa ko tanggapin. Pinagprapray ko lang noon na May His will be done. Kasi alam ko He has great plans ahead of each one of us. I did my duty to the best I can, kaya pinaubaya ko na kay God kung ano man magiging bunga nung mga efforts na ‘yun. Salamat sa Youth for Christ dahil mas nakilala ko si God dahil sa kanila.

Despite these steps I took, there were times that I felt that I was not yet ready.

Sabi nung iba ganun daw talaga ‘yun.

Yung pakiramdam mo na kulang pa lahat ng naaral mo. Yung feeling na dapat buklatin mo ulit sina Kozier, Pilliteri, Maglaya—na hindi ko na nagawa in my 2 months of review. But I found out after taking the exam that the 4 years of training in FEU-IN is more than enough to let you pass the board exam, or even top it. We just need to trust our Alma Mater and do our best as a student to learn everything we can. The 2 months in the review center indeed helped in simplifying different concepts, but the content you need? It is your 4 years of life as a student nurse.

3. What advantages did you acquire upon getting into the top?

Being in the top three opened so many doors for me. The difficulty of being employed is somehow lessened as FEU offered us to work in the leading affiliated hospitals such as St. Luke’s and Makati Medical Center. More importantly, it made my dream to continue my education possible despite the financial constraints of our family. I am not from a wealthy family. We have debts because my parents needed to pay for my tuition fees. Now, by God’s grace, there are scholarship grants open for those who topped the board exam and my dream to become a doctor is somehow within my reach.

CHAT WITH THE TOP

By Clarissa Kristen V. Secerio

4. What tips would you want to share to those who will take the exams?

I would just like to share things that I learned from different people and from my experiences: a. While you are a student, love nursing, as well as the difficulties and sleepless nights that accompany it. These form your ladder to success. Kahit gaano pa kahirap, I tell you, it is all worth it. Wag lang susuko, matuto. b. During your years as a student and even during the review, do not memorize. Rather, understand each concept by believing that each lesson is a key toward the ability to care for more people. c. Take a time to pamper yourself. Go and do what relaxes you. Our brain needs rest for it to be ready to absorb more. Do this every after a week of review and a day before the exam. d. I learned this from our review center and I actually did this. On the exam day, do not listen to those who are still recalling what they learned. It will just add up to your anxiety. Instead, say to yourself: “Hindi lalabas yan.” And “Mag-eexam na ang topnotcher”. Just believe in yourself. e. As one of my lecturers said, believe that you are already a licensed nurse and treat each exam question as a patient that you must take the best care of. By programming that in your mind, error is less to happen because a life and a license are at risk. f. During break time after an exam, eat and take a nap. g. Pray. Trust the Lord and thank Him for whatever it is. Just believe in Him no matter what the result may be. Do not lose faith because in the end it is just an exam. There is more to life than that.

He has great plans ahead of each of us.

Just always remember that God gives us our heart’s desire, in His special time.

Background image courtesy of psdGraphics

8

IN

SIGHTS

9

Photos by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda, Jonalet A. delos Reyes, Rodley Desmond Daniel M. Carza, Harold James E. Doroteo, Robby O. Mendiola, Stephany M. Zamoras; Layout by Robby O. Mendiola

10

?

H E E E E V A

ANS

t di

(Wha

?)

say d you

Vector art by Robby O. Mendiola; Brain image courtesy of Brain Supplements Review Have you been in this scenario?

You are having a conversation with a friend when suddenly someone or something your train of thought. Then, you freeze and start to ask, “Ano nga ulit ‘yung sinasabi ko?” (What was I saying again?)

Here’s another one: You are trying to recall a word but all you could say is: “Nasa dulo ng dila ko eh.” (It’s at the tip of my tongue.) while scratching your head or snapping your fingers. Get the picture?

How about this? As you walk along the street, a person you meet suddenly smiles at you. At first, you pay no mind, thinking he’s just one of your fans, or maybe just one of those who have a crush on you (*clears throat*) or simply the person is just smiling for no reason or plainly being friendly. Then that all familiar: “Kilala ko ba ‘yun? Pamilyar sa akin ‘yun ah. Nakita ko na siya somewhere eh.

Ano nga ulit pangalan niya?” (Do I know him? He looks familiar. I’ve met him somewhere. What’s his name again?)

If you’ve ever been in any one of these scenarios, then, my friend, that only means two things: one, you might be at the age when you can now start to get 20% discounts; or two, you may probably be suffering from poor memory due to stress.

If you belong to the former, then, don’t fret. Memory loss is not an inevitable part of aging. Many however do gradually find it hard to memorize things. However, if you’re still way too far from the “senior citizen age” and you keep hearing this: “Kabata-bata mo pa, malilimutin ka na” (You’re still young and yet you’re already forgetful), then you might need to consider de-stressing.

Stress vs. Memory Studies show a link between stress and memory. Neuroscientists and researchers believe that moderate, short-term stress is actually beneficial to the human mind since it helps keep the mind alert and mentally-focused. Thus, allowing one to perform better in terms of memory and concentration. Chronically-elevated levels of

Features Tips on Memory

The Lamp

June - October 2011

Improvement and Stress Management

By Robby O. Mendiola

stress (and stress hormones) and years of chronic, low-level stress from situations such as an unhappy relationship, loneliness or depression, however, dulls the mind and promotes chronic diseases such as hypertension and coronary artery disease, as well as impairing memory, i.e. impair the ability to store new memories and even damage brain cells.

Gender Matters An old adage speaks of stress as: “A little sharpens the minds and memory; too much shrivels the brain and makes you sick.” Some research however, shows that this saying is only absolutely true for men. For women, it depends on the time of the month! Larry Cahill, a professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California at Irvine, observed that when women have high levels of estrogen (before and after periods), their recollection was fuzzed by stress. On the contrary, when their levels of progesterone were high following their cycle, stress boosted their recall, similar to what stress does to men’s memory. On the other hand, chronic stress works the other way around. Research showed that if you chronically stress males, they tend to get worse while women actually get better. Victoria Luine, a neuroendocrinologist at Hunter College in New York City, hypothesized that from the evolution context, while cavemen were out chasing ferocious animals to eat–and trying not to be eaten themselves–women were back in the cave toiling away at endless childcare tasks. In other words, cavemen became adapted to acute stress while the women became adapted to chronic stress.

Odd to Remember 1.

Put black ink at the end of your palm so whenever you see it, you’ll remember what to do.

2.

Need to memorize a friend’s number? Write them as words and use the first letter of each to come up with words (e.g.

117 – one one seven – okay okay sir).

3.

Write down your task immediately. If you don’t have a pen, change the time of your watch or wear it upside down so you’ll remember when you look at the time.

4.

Need to remember a name? Picture it written across the person’s forehead. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, famous for his ability to remember names, used this trick.

5.

Move or wave your hands when memorizing or looking for a word. Researchers found that gesturing activates the language and memory part of the brain.

6.

Move your eyes back and forth horizontally at least 30 seconds. It activates both the “spatial” right brain and the “logical” left brain, and together they can help you retrieve the lost word.

7.

Run through the alphabet in your head. When you come to the first letter of the word you’re looking for, it often triggers your memory.

8.

Fuggedaboudit. In a study, people who stopped searching for the right word were 30 percent more successful at remembering it than those who kept struggling. Trying too hard makes things worse by causing stress, which impairs memory.

In the long run 1.

Play mind games. Do crossword puzzles. Play Sudoku— What You Can Do games like these stimulate the mind, helping the brain grow new Whether you’re old, young, male or female, you could do neural pathways, improving your mental ability. something about stress. Just follow these tips I scavenged from the 2.

Be active! Hit the dance floor, jog, or do anything that gets Internet for a sharper and alert mind. your pulse racing. Physical activity rushes oxygen to the brain and builds new cells in the brain region linked to memory.

Study Ha-Bits and Tips 3.

Write in a diary or journal every day without fail. Even 1.

Engage your visual and auditory senses by using small issues should be written down - this is a good way to make drawings, charts or music to aid memory. sure you don’t miss anything.

2.

Repeat whatever you need to memorize – a name, an 4.

Try to get adequate amount of sleep every day. Good, address, a phone number – when you first hear it. Saying it out loud sound sleep means you are more rested than sleep-deprived or or writing it down helps lock it into your memory. stressed. Stress and lack of sleep can interfere with memory.

3.

If you’re trying to memorize something, do it on an empty stomach. The hormone that improves memory is highest when the Stress Busters stomach is empty.

1.

Relax. (See a movie, go to a spa, or stare out the window) 4.

When studying or trying to remember something new, try 2.

Exercise. to breathe slower and deeper. Deeper and slower breathing actually 3.

Sleep. (See how important sleep is that I didn’t bother to changes the way your brain works. remove this one, although redundant as it may seem.)

4.

Reduce caffeine intake. (Means limit visiting Starbucks or Feed your brain munching on Ferreros.)

1.

Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish) and vitamin 5.

Avoid “multi-tasking” (Need I say more?) supplements that contain Vitamin B complex, gingko biloba and 6.

Simplify life. (Delegate tasks, be organized and set goals.) phosphatidylserine are memory enhancers. Fuel on cruciferous 7.

Socialize. (Except with negative people or in stressful veggies (e.g.brocolli, cabbage and cauliflower) and green leafy situations.) veggies (e.g. spinach and kangkong).

8.

See a doctor. (When stress becomes difficult to handle or 2.

Both rosemary and sage improve people’s scores on you start to feel physical manifestations.) word-recall tests by stimulating the brain’s memory center. In fact, students in ancient Greece wore sprigs of rosemary in their hair on Remember, contrary to the idiom “You can’t teach an old dog test days. new tricks”, it is never too old to learn something new. Study.

3.

Melons and oranges are some fruits rich in Vitamin C and Explore. Feed your curiosity or as National Geographic would put it: were proven to improve memory.

“Live curious.”

4.

AVOID saturated fat, trans-fat and processed sugar.

Healthy grazing (eating 5 or 6 small meals, instead of 3 large ones) seems to improve mental functioning and memory by limiting dips in blood sugar, which have negative brain effects.

Trivia:The average person forgets 30% of what he’s heard after 20 minutes, and 50% of what he’s heard within half an hour.

Great Woman, Great Works

by Kim Ian B. Tiu

She invented the incubator. She was the first woman believed to be admitted at Harvard Medical School. She was the first woman to be named as a National Scientist of the Philippines.

Great works by a great woman, a Filipino, no less. Do you have an idea who she is?

She is a recipient of the prestigious Elizabeth Blackwell Award in 1966 for Outstanding Service to Mankind. In 1977, she was cited as Outstanding Pediatrician and Humanitarian by the International Pediatric Association. She was also awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in the same year. She was awarded the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Bayani in 2010.

You might be amazed, but there’s a lot more!

She authored the Textbook of Pediatrics and Child Health, and a good number of articles, reviews, and journals. She is a researcher and her work on infectious diseases made for better understanding of certain diseases, like dengue. Familiar of the BRATT (banana, rice, apple sauce, tea, and toast) diet? She devised it as a simple and effective treatment diet for diarrhea. It became famous and was adapted especially by pediatricians across the globe. She excelled not only in medical practice but also in medical politics.

She was the first Filipino Diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics, the first Asian president of the Medical Women’s International Organization, first woman president

of the Philippine Medical Association, founder and first president of Philippine Women’s Medical Association, and the first lady president of the Philippine Pediatric Society.

There’s a mini-museum in her hospital showcasing her achievements, awards, and honors. You could see there the incubator she made out of bamboo! She’s a celebrity in the medical field. Maybe like Anne Curtis for showbiz. Or RR Garcia for UAAP basketball.

Do you know her now?

This great woman is no other than Dr. Fe Del Mundo. Yes, Dr. Fe Del Mundo. The same one of the Dr. Fe Del Mundo Medical Center or what was earlier known (and still sometimes referred to) as the Children’s Medical Center of the Philippines. It currently hotuses the Thalassemia Center of the Philippines.

Footsteps of a hero Dr. Fe, as she is warmly called, comes from a wealthy family. She was born to Bernardo Del Mundo and Paz Villanueva on November 23, 1911 in Intramuros, Manila. Her father was a lawyer and served a term at the Philippine Assembly.

Dr. Fe was an intelligent student. She attended Intramuros Elementary School and Manila South High School, where she’s always in the honor roll. At 15, she entered the University of the Philippines and earned an Associate in Arts degree. She then went on to attend medical school in the same institution. In 1933, she earned her medical degree with highest honors. She was the class valedictorian. She was also awarded as the Most Outstanding Scholar in Medicine by the Colegio Medico-Farmaceutico de Filipinas. She ranked third in the medical board exam.

Unexpectedly, then President Manuel Quezon offered her a fellowship grant for postgraduate studies in 1936 and was admitted at Harvard Medical School, where she became the first woman to be admitted at then male-accepting institution. After Harvard, she went to New York to continue her postgraduate studies at Mount Sinai Hospital and Columbia University. At Boston University, she earned her Master’s Degree in Bacteriology.

After she finished her studies abroad, she flew back to the Philippines and asked to be in the government academe so she could pass to future doctors the knowledge she reaped abroad.

Unfortunately, there were no positions available. Pres. Quezon was certain that no matter where Dr. Fe works, she will always render service to the nation. She then took private practice, at the time when

Southeast Asia was becoming involved in the Second World War. When the Japanese forces invaded Manila in 1942, the University of Santo Tomas turned into an internment camp. Many children got sick. She rendered her service in the field where she is qualified and opened the Children’s Home with the help of friends and the Red Cross.

Dr. Fe’s intention to help every sick person was immaculate that she waived the personal ownership of the Children’s Medical Center to the Board of Trustees in 1958. The hospital then became a nonprofit institution. There she practiced medicine. Even at an old age, she continued to work as a physician. Her recent death last August 6, 2011 brought forth sorrow to many people, especially for those who have known her, and especially for those who have been touched by her healing hands.

Indeed, Dr. Fe Del Mundo lived by her name: Faith of the World.

She was the faith of every hopeless parent, of every hopeless patient.

When he was a transient resident at Children’s Memorial Hospital in 1959, Dr. Gary Villanueva remembers Dr. Fe as “a very intelligent, hardworking, and concerned for the well being not only of the children in the “Children’s Hospital” but to their parents by showing profound empathy.” Niña De Jesus, once a patient of Dr. Fe, shares her experiences with the great pediatrician, “I can still remember when my Mom and Dad would take me, my brother and sister for our check-up.

We would, while waiting for our turn, play on the rocking horses with the rest of the kids or run up and down a graded ramp which, at the bottom had a toy store. Visiting Dr. Del Mundo felt like visiting our Lola. She talks to us with a calm and caring voice.” Petite she was,Dr. Fe has a big, big heart. She was a hero to many patients. Rightfully so, she was interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Dr. Fe is so dear to FEU. She chaired the Department of Pediatrics of FEU Institute of Medicine for 20 years (1954 – 1974).

She was adopted as daughter of FEU by granting her an honoris causa degree. Truly, she possessed the core values of Fortitude, Excellence and Uprightness. She is phenomenal woman, an exceptional Filipino.

Sources: www.rmaf.org.ph www.feu-alumni.com Photo and logo courtesy of Google images; Background image courtesy of psdGraphics

Features

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June - October 2011

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FiLM Review Childhood ends, this time forever, with tears and howls, swirls of smoke, the shock of mortality and bittersweet smiles in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” the grave, deeply satisfying final movie in the series.

A pop cultural happening and the extraordinaire, the Potter Deathly Hallows movies

took uncertain flight

Part 2` in 2001 with Harry, then an orphan of 11, home alone with his grotesquely unloving relatives. Times were grim, at least off screen — the first opened in November of that year — but Chris Columbus’s directorial touch was insistently light as Harry was initiated into a world alive with odd doings, strange creatures and the evil that would almost consume it.

After seven earlier films reaching back a decade, the Harry Potter saga came to a solid, breath taking and satisfying conclusion in Deathly Hollows part 2. The finale conjured up enough awe and solemnity to serve Nelson G. Lacsamana, Jr. as an appropriate finale and a dramatic contrast to

Harry Potter IT

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the lighthearted (relative) innocence of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, all those magical years ago.

Childhood ends It has been a decade since we were first drawn into the world of wizardry, remembering when we first entered the Private drive and witnessed Hagrid, a tall big man carrying a little boy with a lightning scar. The boy then delivered to his new home where his fate and story started.

We saw the fascinating and equally devastating world of magic. Every turns and corners seemed to have a spell. Then the boy became a young wizard then invited to Hogwarts, School of Witch Craft and Wizardry. There we witnessed his mastery together with his best friends, Hermione and Ron, his weaknesses and strength in fulfilling his purpose: seeking the Sorcerer’s stone, opening the Chamber of Secrets, talking to the prisoner of Azkaban, contending for the

Goblet, seeking meaning for the Order, probing for the Half-blooded, and foretelling the Deathly Hollows. We saw how he struggled to protect everyone from the darkest wizard Voldemort.

This time forever…

It was the last sequel, the end of Harry Potter’s journey, forever.

Harry caught on the spot, the final test to his bravery. It was time to face his greatest fear, a slytherin heir, the Darkest Lord. The question in everyone’s mind was who will emerge victorious in this ultimate battle between good and evil; the boy with a scar; or the wizard who came to be all fears. In Deathly Hollows Part 2, the answer was revealed. The question that lasted a decade was finally answered. Every single battle in this movie was astonishing, the perfect denouement that brings to light the destiny of the magical world.

With tears and howls The movie reunited the great wizards we’ve come to know and love over the years. It was wonderful and heartwarming, which only intensified the sense of sadness as to why it had to end forever. The struggle to stay on the good side and fight off the bad continued, serving to highlight how much Harry, Hermoine and Ron have grown better, stronger and braver. There were no shortage of magic filled scenes and captivating exchanges, casting spells, breaking rules, leaving everything to its fortune.

Swirls of smoke The movie was shaded in grey and black, all things were covered by darkness, the fear palpable all throughout: an unmistakable feeling that everything was at its end point. The Dark Lord dominated through outrage and terror and Hogwarts, a once peaceful place, was turned into a battle field.

The shock of mortality and bittersweet smiles It was a story that made everyone’s heart stop. Wizards died, wizards survived, a secret was revealed and an unexpected twist sent shivers down everyone’s spine. It broke the hearts of many who grew up and fell in love with the scarred boy named Harry Potter, left many shocked and shaken, laden with guilt and sorrow. But, after the dark cloud has lifted, it was the legend of his bravery and courage that is forever immortalized in our hearts.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. © 2011

Book Review

by Francisco Sionil Jose

Sionil Jose, one of the most widely-read Filipino writers in the English language (Wikipedia), takes us to PO-ON, a place in Ilokos.

From the black and white of the Spanish era to the red tinged war with the Americans, PO-ON takes us on a fictitious, but historical journey of how one man carried his faith with him. Intertwined within is a chronicle of the Ilokano culture.

In PO-ON, a man named Eustaquio took on life and the journey that came along with it. Testing his faith and his existence, he struggled through numerous hardships, in the process meeting local heroes such as Don Apolinario and Seňor General Del Pilar.

“We should stand bravely because we are citizens of a sovereign nation no matter how weak that nation. We are Filipinos now...” these are words uttered by Apolinario Mabini in the book, a phrase that epitomizes patriotism to our mother land, the Philippines. Our country was deemed inferior to those who are bigger than us, those with skin fairer than us. This phrase challenges us to stand tall and be proud of what we are and who we are.

The story may be a bit dragging for some readers’ taste, but it is rich in tales of faith, culture, and heart. I believe that this book should be read by every Filipino to ignite, sustain or rekindle the fire of nationalism. Also, as the saying goes “Mahalin ang sariling atin”. The book is sold in different countries and is translated into twenty-two languages, and well received by readers of different nationalities.

When I was reading the novel, I felt like I was one of the characters and that I could see what they are seeing. I felt the environment from the author’s description of long ago Ilokos and its nearby provinces. I felt the culture, the ways of our forefathers in the story, the diversion of groups, of families, and how they journeyed through life. I felt the adrenaline, as if I was taking part in the action during the Spanish times and the American war. I felt the pride of being a Filipino, up to the point that I turned that very last page. Indeed, Sionil Jose’s work has reached me in ways that made me ponder about what events had transpired in the past centuries, and how it shaped the present times.

Image courtesy of Google images

Miguel Paolo S. Bugarin on PO-ON

Background images courtesy of psdGraphics

Literary

12

Give this thru IV stat.”

fade to black

By Miguel Paolo S. Bugarin

anything. The last of the hits came and I was left on all fours, coughing, and spitting.

They finally took off my blindfold. Everyone was drinking like nothing happened, like it was just an ordinary house party, and not one that required an initiation.

That’s what I woke up to.

I can barely remember what happened. “Unnh…” I groaned.

My head really hurts. Wait, or maybe that’s my stomach hurting…or something else. I don’t really know. I see bright lights above me. People are moving around.

What is all this commotion? The lights above me start to fade.

I fell into a deep somber sleep.

I

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June - October 2011

woke up to a bright room. I hear a beeping sound from some machine. I blinked several times and waited for my eyes to adjust to the brightness. I tried to stretch out, but failed. I winced.

“Where am I?” I started to say, but it came out as a jungle of soundswhich no one would be able to comprehend. It hurt just trying to speak. Actually, I was hurting everywhere.

“You’re finally awake.” Someone said startling me in the process. It hurt when I reflexively turned to the voice. “I don’t think you should move very much yet.” The person with the voice appeared in my peripheral vision. The owner was a nurse. “You were badly beaten. Have you any idea what happened to you two nights ago?” She asked while fidgeting with the tube connected to me.

Two nights ago? Did that mean I’ve been asleep for two nights? I started to say something and still, no words came out. I groaned again.

“In case you’re wondering,” the nurse said, whose name pin reads ‘Jenny’, “You are in the hospital and you are very lucky that a man saw you on the street. He was the one who brought you here.” She smiled at me. “Now, what I want you to do is get some more rest, and when you can speak, you have to answer a few questions okay? Try to remember as much as you can.” She handed me a device. “I’ll be outside your door, buzz me if you need anything. Nod if you understand.” I nodded, then she smiled and left the room. I closed my eyes and tried to ground my mind in reality.

“You sure you want to do this?” Bob said, hip-hop music blasting in the background and a dozen people crowding around me.

“Yeah I’m sure. Stop asking me questions.” I answered back. He stepped forward and attached a blindfold over my eyes.

“Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you” He said. That was the beginning.

I felt the first blow on my stomach, cutting off my suction of air.

Then a blow to my jaw paralyzed me, preventing me from reacting to the consecutive punches all over my body.I felt a paddle hit me behind my thighs. I was able to withstand it -- until a second came. The third hit me just above the bend of my knees, bringing me down into a kneeling position. I punched wildly, blindly, but hit nothing but air. The blows kept coming in rhythm with the beat of the music. Some slapping me, punching, kicking -- until I was lying on my stomach on the floor, struggling to stand -- failing. I took it. My mind could take it but my body could not. Still, I tried to go through with it. Getting into this group would earn me a lifetime of connections.

Connections one cannot do without in the real world. There was a pause. I got to take a five second breather. One of the guys helped me up, but I knew what was coming next -- the paddles. One after the other came with the beat of hip-hop. My thighs could no longer feel

“Yo, go home to your mommy and get yourself cleaned up!” one of the members said.

I managed to get up on my feet, barely, and I scrambled for the door. I believed that once I got home, I would be fine. I just needed some rest. But as I was trying to walk straight, I fell face first on the cold concrete. I tasted my own blood mixed with dirt. With my mind aiming to get home, I started to crawl. The corner to my street was near, just a few more feet and I would be there.

I crawled pathetically. Then I realized, I was not getting any closer. I stopped trying and laid on my back, looking up at the midnight sky and the stars above me. One by one, the stars started to disappear.

In the blackness, I felt my body being scooped up.

I opened my eyes. A man was carrying me into a panel of doors.

“Help this kid, quick!” the man said. I closed my eyes.

Someone was reaching for my hand. I opened my eyes and saw the nurse. She was looking at her watch while she was feeling my pulse. I still felt weak and my chest hurt like hell.

“The chest X-ray is in.” A man’s voice said. “Oh, good, you’re up. That makes it easy for me to explain this to you.” He said when he saw me. He was dressed in long sleeves and looked at about 27 years old. No doubt he was my doctor.

He held up my X-ray in front of me and pointed at parts of my chest I could barely recognize.

“You see, you have a few broken ribs.” The doctor said while pointing at cracks on the sheet he was showing me. “Also, you have had some major internal bleeding and I bet you are hurting like hell right now.”

That explains all the pain I was feeling. I just looked at him blankly and nodded like I understood. The truth was, I didn’t understand anything he was saying at all. What I was feeling was something different. An actualization that I never should have done what I did or what I went in for. Adolescence was not good to me. The bullies in school pushed me to do this, but I was wrong, and I was stupid not to realize it sooner. I can’t blame them now. I only have myself to blame. I shouldn’t have been here. I should be at home watching my TV shows and being a good son to my parents. I now realize the mistake I had made and what it cost me. I’m hurting all over and God knows I have caused my parents grief. My guilt is making me nauseous. I deserved this. I let out a groan.

“You will be needing a surgery because we need to fix yourbroken bones. If not done immediately, it might puncture your lungs and it could be the cause of grave complications. We need to stabilize your vital signs as soon as possible or else…”

The doctor never got to finish what he was about to say or maybe he finished but I just didn’t hear it. Everything started to spin. It was harder to breathe. No, I couldn’t breathe at all. I gasped and coughed and that only made the pain worse.

“He’s going under cardiac arrest. I need a crash cart NOW!” I gripped the side of my bed until my knuckles turned white, then everything -- the room, the doctor, the lights -- all start to fade to black.

Everything was serene. The beeping went into a steady high-pitched sound.

Fallen

By Rhyss William M. Parguian

Once a seraph soared the heavens With wings dazzling its radiance shone Cruise did he along heaven’s endless corners His time limitless, frozen in a standstill

The seraph approached waltzing with adoration at every depth of his soul screaming, shouting his awe in silence with a smile worn proudly, unmindful of his defiance

Endlessly drifting through the skies one day At the world of mortals a glance did he A woman sublime emerged in his sight With beauty stunning even Goddesses lost light

God in an instant learned of this His wrath, mightier than the furious sea Smite did God the seraph of His creation Tore his wings and condemned to walk a mortal

Thus the seraph fell from grace Though he fell he still wore a smile on his face In an instant fell the seraph of heaven His heart and love pure of that cannot fade The womans sublimity captivated his heart and soul And thus began his sweetest downfall Destiny smiling mischievously made it be Without care breaking even God’s decree

Literary

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June - October 2011

13

I've Gone This Far With HIM

By Anna Bianca G. Pereyra I’m good for nothing, that’s what I think, They never cared, they never did.

Life is but an empty dream, And failed to let me feel the happiness within.

Filled with anger, pain and doubt Emptied in love, care and trust Deferred in hope and crippling in pain, Bitter from yesterday, crying in the rain.

I failed to find the courage and strength To fight when I found my life was about to end.

Till I finally realized that someone is still with me Waiting for I to come back with Him.

Father, heed my sinner’s plea Hear my prayers, my miseries.

I’m sorry for I have turned my back on you, I promise I won’t let it happen for sure.

And now I have gone this far, I thank you, for saving me from the hell of hour, Throwing my sins into the forgotten sea, And still giving me the chance

Tsubibo

By Harold Renz D. Roaring O, kay sarap mong masdan at panoorin Dulot ay ligaya sa aking damdamin Nananabik na muling makasakay Sa paboritong ride ng aking buhay O, sadyang ako’y natutuwa Excited na tila parang bata Paikot-ikot, paikot ng paikot Sige, ikot pa kahit masakit na sa kuyukot Taas baba mong paggalaw Tila ako’y napapasayaw Sa tsubibong ito puso ko’y nanakaw At dahil kasama kita, hinding-hindi aayaw Habang hawak ko ang iyong kamay Kilig ang dama kong tunay Kahit gabi na’t hanap ka na ng ‘yong inay Sa ride na to na-inlab akong habangbuhay Ang tanging hiling sana’y di na matapos Sabay sa paghinto nito luha ko’y aagos Dahil sa tsubibo ko lantg maipadadama Torpe kong damdamin at lihim na pagsinta .

to obtain the whole me.

Asin ng Sanlibutan

By Harold James E. Doroteo

Ang sabi sa Banal na Kasulatan Tayo ang asin ng sangkatauhan at ilaw ng sanlibutan Kasariwaan ating panatalihin Kahit ang mga tao’y galit satin Mundong ibabaw kay dumi Kasamaan ay ikinalulugod Sariling gawa hindi wari Mabubuting paniniwala sinusukol Pagbabago’y magsisimula sa iyo Tang-gihan ang kasalanan at itapon ang bulok Maging asin, uhawin at patabain Pagmamahal tumimo’y sa puso Nang adhikai’y maging kalugod-lugod

You MusT Be Happy

By Jed P. Villanueva Rampart so near, but there beyond is where my sight takes hold.

Feels nothing, needs nothing.

No, except one waiting wish.

The sidewalk is a train of walking pedals to the north or south. Me, in their oblivion.

They care no. They glance no.

Lids closed, tears flow in dwelled memories.

Whether memories were the ones been stolen by time or the ones destined to be forgotten.

My mind would hear; my heart would believe.

Start all over again. Future gripped.

If he’s here by now, he’ll know the world.

The offers are hard, but pain enriches the catch.

He’d play, bruise his knees, cross the knuckles.

Smile will join his day, I sure would pray.

I did not grieve but died.

I ran thinking no of me. I lost him.

I lost my son. I lost all.

Illustrations by Carlyle A. Ramos, Nelson G. Lacsamana, Jr., and Jamseen Dee V. Lumanta, Robby O. Mendiola, Rhyss William M. Parguian; Layout by Robby O. Mendiola

EntertaINment

14

The Lamp

June - October 2011

anIMe QUiz bee

Parang kelan lang ng tayoy’ mga bata pa, ngayon mga college students na.. Ambilis talaga ng panahon. Kaya bago pa tuluyang sumabog ang mga utak natin na punong-puno na ng mga nursing interventions, theories, diagnosis at kung anu ano pang tungkol sa nursing… balikan muna natin ang isa sa mga nagpasaya sa ating childhood. Ang mga anime at cartoons. Naaalala nyo pa kaya?. Tignan natin.Game!

1. Saang bayan nagmula si Ash sa Pokemon?

2. Ilang araw bago muling nabuhay si Eugene sa Ghost Fighter?

3. Kapag binuhusan ng mainit na tubig si Ranma ½ , anong magiging kasarian nya?

4. Anong tribo ang pinagmulan at ugat ng paghihiganti ni Kurapika sa Hunter X Hunter?

5. Saang high-school team naglalaro si Sendo sa Slam Dunk?

6. Sino ang bestfriend ni Tom Sawyer?

7. Ibigay ang eksaktong dahilan kung bakit isunumpang maging bata si Zenki?

8. Anong kamay ni Hell Teacher Nube ang nagiging halimaw? Left or Right?

9. Hanggang ilang Pokemon lang ang pwedeng dalhin ng isang Pokemon Trainer sa paglalakbay?

10. Ano ang paboritong pagkain ni Doraemon?

11. Nakita pa ba ni Gon ang tatay niya sa Hunter X hunter?

Yes or No. 12. Ano ang tawag sa ulap na sinasakyan ng Batang Goku sa Dragon Ball Z? 13. Sino ang inspector na humahabol kay Lupin III? 14. TRUE or FALSE. Si Sensui ay isang Class B na halimaw?

15. Saang planeta nanggaling si Piccollo sa Dragon Ball Z? 16. Anong mahalagang kayamanan ang natuklasan nina Mojacko sa mga last episode nito?

17. Ilang taon ang kailangang hintayin upang muling makapagwish sa mga Dragon Balls?

BONUS: Ilang Dragon Balls ang kailangang makumpleto para makapagwish.

ENUMERATION: 1. 8 pangalan ng mga flame dragons ni Recca. (in exact order) 2. Pangalan ng 2 batang bida sa Let’s Go! 3. Magbigay ng at least 3 uri ng hunter sa Hunter X Hunter 4. Magbigay ng at least 7 badges na napalanunan ni Ash sa Pokemon 5. Magbigay ng 5 tagalog title ng mga episode ng Ghost Fighter 6. Ibigay ang 5 pangalan ng bidang gundam sa Gundam Wing 7. Magbigay ng 3 uri ng hayop na kasama ni Remi sa kanyang paglalakbay 8. Magbigay ng at least 6 na sandatang Hokage sa Flame of Recca.

(Answers will be given next issue.)

Background image courtesy of DeviantART ©2009-2011 ~BornAnimeFreak

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ACROSS 1. Examining the body by using sense of touch 4. Malignant disorder of the blood and the bone marrow 7. Noisy breathing due to laryngospasm 8. Presence of infection 10. Eye disorder that causes farsightedness due to hardening of the lens 12. Severe weight loss and tissue wasting due to cancer 15. Surgical removal of the eyeball 17. Uncoordinated movements

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18. Medical specialty that deals with the diagnosis, treatment and study of cancer 22. Dizziness 21. Inadequate urine production, less than 30 ml/hr or less than 500 ml/day 23. Absence or cessation of breathing 24. Localized, irreversible dilatation of an artery due to an alteration in the integrity of its walls 26. Decomposing necrotic tissues 27. A blood clot attached to the blood vessel wall

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DOWN 1. Extreme mistrust and suspiciousness, very private, uses projection 2. Reduction in size of cells in an organ 3. Cerebrospinal fluid leak from ear 5. Accumulation of fluids in between the cells (interstitial spaces) 6. Difficulty in falling asleep 7. The act or custom of talking to oneself or talking when alone 9. Faintness due to cerebral hypoxia 11. Uncontrollable craving for non-edible substances

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12. Bluish discoloration of the skin due to inadequate oxygenation 13. Eye disorder characterized by increase intraocular pressure 14. Ringing in the ear 16. A woman who has Never completed 20 weeks of gestation 19. An attempt or threat to touch another person unjustifiably 20. Defamation by spoken, stating false words by which a reputation is damaged 25. Monitors cardiac activity

Illustration by Carlyle A. Ramos

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June - October 2011

Nurses’ Station

15

NOSOCOMIAL PLANKS

Carlyle A. Ramos

OH C’MON!

STUDENT SPOOFS

ROMEO’S INSIGHT

Jamssen Dee V. Lumanta

Rhyss William M. Parguian

Robby O. Mendiola

News

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June - October 2011

IN initiates own ‘Greatest Weight Loser’ program Roxanne Austine R. Estrella

With a theme of “Lose weight today, gain health tomorrow”; Far Eastern University – Institute of Nursing, in collaboration with University Health Services, Physical Education Department, and the Institute of Education, aims for a healthier lifestyle as it officially launched Greatest Weight Loser program last August 12, 2011 at the Nursing Building “Atrium” 2nd floor.

LOSE WEIGHT TODAY, GAIN HEALTH TOMORROW. The faculty members were screened for the qualifications of the competition and they were able to form their own teams.

(Photo by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda)

The program, which was initiated by the IN with the newly appointed Dean Rosalinda P. Salustiano as its overall chairman, is intended to improve the health and lifestyle of nursing faculty and staff through, first and foremost, acquiring and maintaining body mass indices within the normal limit. “We want the faculty to set as role models when it comes to health and health practices,” Dean Salustiano stated.

FEU President, Dr. Lydia Echauz, who served as its inspirational adviser, also attended the event. She congratulated the Institute of Nursing for accepting the challenge of initiating the Greatest Weight Loser program in FEU. “I noticed that a number of our faculty and staff are now getting bigger. Even the nursing faculty and staff, who should be the ideal group to role model the right weight to the students, are also gaining weight so I thought, maybe the first institute that should do this is the IN,” Dr. Echauz furthered. She also encouraged the other institutes to adopt the same program and engage themselves in healthy living.

The Greatest Weight Loser started on August 08, 2011 through an initial weigh-in of the nursing faculty and staff who wished to join the program. Participants with Body Mass Index’s (BMIs) that exceeded 15% of the normal were qualified to enroll themselves in the competition. The competition is composed of two categories: the individual and the group categories. The groups, which must be composed of four members, were given the liberty to choose their own team names. Participants were also allowed to decide on any strategies for losing weight such as dietary modification, dancing, and exercises; however, surgical means like liposuction and mesotherapy are not permitted. The weights of the participants will be monitored on a weekly basis.

The pre-final weigh-in to determine the finalists for the competition will be on December 08, 2011. The final weigh-in of the finalists will be on the Christmas party of the university. Prizes, awards, recognitions and surprise gifts await the winners.

New RNs Vow for Change Robby O. Mendiola

“You are the seeds of change. Kayo ang binhi ng pagbabago.” This was the opening statement of Dr. Leah Paquiz, National President of ANG NARS, during her inspirational message addressed to the 1,560 FEU - IN board passers of the recently held July 2011 Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE).

The Batch 2011 Oath Taking Ceremony, with its theme “Restored Legacy, Regained Glory,” was held last September 18, 2011 at the FEU Auditorium. Due to the number of batch 2011 board passers, they were divided by section: BSNs 101 to 114, BSNs 115 to 129 and BSNs 130 to 144, took their part in the said ceremony from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, respectively. The ceremony was preceded by a thanksgiving mass that was held last September 16 at the FEU Chapel.

Seeds of Change Our very own dean, Dr. Rosalinda P. Salustiano, gave the opening remarks that highlighted on the importance of oath taking ceremonies to professionals such as nurses. She clearly pointed out that nobody could be a registered nurse without undergoing this ceremony. Afterwards, the guest speaker, Dr. Paquiz, declared how she was impressed by the bravery of the board passers who had just surpassed another phase of their lives. She asked them if they already have a vision for themselves, for our country, and for the nursing profession. She then emphasized the need to “hold a vision, pray, trust God, be confident, work hard, focus, and finish strong - start small but finish strong.” In her message, she rebuked Republic Act No. 9173, better known as, “The Philippine Nursing Act of 1991.” She expressed dismay at the current situation of the nurses which was a great contrast to the aforementioned Act, which declares that, “it is the policy of our State to assume responsibility for the protection and improvement of the nursing profession that will result in a dignified existence for our nurses and guarantees the delivery of quality basic health services through an adequate nursing personnel system

throughout the country.” She pointed out based from the Act, a nurse’s minimum salary should not be lower than Salary Grade 15 which was roughly Php 24,887. However, the minimum salary currently given to nurses is just Salary Grade 11 or Php 15,649.

She also laid stress on the statuses of the nurses, who were unemployed, underemployed or, if employed, have inadequate wages and are in poor working conditions (i.e. nurse to patient ratio).

“What you learned today will be your responsibility to reeducate nurses,” she continued. She stated that the eagle is a symbol for change because it must make a hard and painful decision in order to live longer and unlike other species who head for shelter when it rains, the eagle soars up above the clouds. “Let us soar like the eagle and fly above the clouds,” she asserted.

As Dr. Paquiz ended her message, she said, “You are our leaders of tomorrow. You are the seeds of change. Kayo ang mga binhi ng pagbabago,” and left this question, “Will you commit to be the seeds of change?” and everyone agreed in unison.

Challenge to the New RNs As the inductees were turned over by Dean Salustiano to Hon. Leonila A. Faire, member of the Professional Regulation Commission – Board of Nursing (PRC-BON) for the Oath of Professionals, Dr, Faire emphasized that the occasion marked the end of their basic instructional education and denotes the beginning of the professional chapter of their lives. She said that as registered nurses, they can now attach the letters “R.N.” to their name, not merely as a title but a reminder of their solemn vow. “Your license is not permanent,” she warned, “because the nursing profession yields responsibility and accountability”.

Dr. Faire also presented some initiatives from the BON to promote quality and safe nursing practice including the imposition of the National Nurse Admission Test and limiting the times that a graduate nurse can take the nursing board exams to 3 attempts.

She then put forward a challenge to the new nurses - to “make Philippine nursing the best and the choice of the world.”

REGAINING GLORY. Batch 2011 NLE passers as they take their oaths in the FEU Auditorium. (Photo by Arvie Desiree I. Miranda)

TAMARAW Nurses: Regaining Glory and Continuing Education The 6 top placers in the July NLE namely Eirene Joy Louise N. Ocampo, Angela V. Coronado, Josephine Ann J. Necor, Dee Zyrie A. Divina, Johnel Carlo C. Estrella, and Ivy Grace C. Lim, were given recognition for their exemplary performance.

Dean Salustiano reminded the Tamaraw nurses that alongside the initials “RN” are the initials “FEU” for Fortitude, Excellence and Uprightness that are attached to their names. She emphasized that the long term goal is for the new RNs to be leaders of the future and invited them to the FEU-IN program for graduate school as the first step.

Dean Salustiano also commended batch 2011, their Batch Government led by the president Ms. Hyacinth Luansing, as well as the help provided by the Far Eastern University Nursing Alumni Foundation, Philippines Incorporated (FEUNAF) and the IN community, for the successful oath taking ceremony.

The ceremony culminated with Ms. Lim, July 2011 NLE Top 3 Placer, leading the new RNs in the Nightingale Pledge. In closing, Mr. Martin Lopez, Director FEU-President’s Committee on Culture & Alumni Affairs Office lauded the FEUNAF for being one of the strongest alumni associations in FEU, encouraged membership, and reiterated the privileges of being an FEU alumni.

IN Holds Motivational Day Viaddylee P. Maducdoc and Mary Margaret B. Galut

Two days before the July Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) of Batch 2011, the Institute of Nursing Student Council organized a motivational day entitled, “Continuing the legacy, making our own history,” held last June 30, 2011 at the Nursing Building, Atrium. A mass was also celebrated the FEU chapel beforehand for the Tamaraw nurses who were scheduled to take the 2011 NLE. The motivational day was conducted to inspire and motivate the newly graduates in preparation for the upcoming nursing licensure examination.

Ms. Ferie Angelic Soriano and Mr. John Joseph Montalbo, July 2010 NLE 9th and 5th placer, respectively, delivered an inspirational talk to set astir the exam takers. “Ordinaryong estudyante lang ako pero sineryoso ko talaga ‘yung review,” Ms. Soriano stated.

“For Tamaraws, there are no difficult questions, only challenging ones”, Mr. Montalbo added.

Dean Rosalinda Salustiano also gave her inspirational message emphasizing the building blocks of excellence and success.

GRAB THE LICENSE 100%. The tamaraw future nurses will face the big challenge of their lives. (Photo by Amilka Franciska B. Dumlao)

According to Dean RPS, the first building block is directional, which refers to the vision. One must know where he wants to go.

Second is drive. “Have the drive to work hard and persistently at attaining the goal. Look for tomorrow’s opportunities today and start working on it now,” Dean Salustiano emphasized. Third is desire or will. Dean Salustiano implied that it is the vital key to success and wealth. Fourth is determination or conviction which

she explained as the strong determination to succeed, thus, moving one to prepare. Next is dynamism which refers to the mental, spiritual force, and power that an individual must possess with the inclusion of a cultivated mind and enriched spirit. Discipline as the sixth building block refers to self-command and control.

It addresses staying focused on the goal and consistently working on it. After discipline comes diligence that will keep one moving up. “Your attitude and aptitude determine your altitude,” Dean Salustiano added. The last one is dedication which conveys selfabsorption to the vision and the vision is to become successful nurses.

Delivering what she considers as one of her most empowering speeches of her life, Dean RPS emphasized the building blocks of excellence and success: having a vision

(directional), working hard to achieve it (drive), desire, strong determination to succeed (conviction), dynamism, self-command and control (discipline), diligence, and dedication.

After the inspirational messages, Batch 2010 gathered and took each other’s hands having Dean Salustiano at the starting point.

The event infused great motivation and challenge to the board takers as they try to soar high and give pride to the FEU-IN community.