Eye Opener
First Three Graduate Nurses of the Philippines
(Fourth of a series)
(Editor's note: This is a reprint of the booklet published by the author)
Laundry Women Joined Hospital
In 1904, patients kept on increasing as incidents of stabbing, typhoid fever, dysentery and tuberculosis became prevalent. Another American nurse, Miss Elizabeth Brinton, later Mrs. John Bordman, arrived on June 3, 1906. Mrs. Bordman was incharge of both the nursing services and also the training school for nurses as Superintendent and Principal of nurses. She also took care of the patients. After so much persuasion and ardent prayer, two yong ladies who were doing the laundry work at the hospital finally joined as student nurses.
In 1906, the hospital was ready for the opening of the training school for nurses. Dr. and Mrs. Hall were able to get Miss Amelia Klein, an American government nurse to boost them medical team. Dr. Mackle, an American surgeon joined the hospital and who later on carried the medical responsibility when the Halls went on six month furlough in the U.S. Four young girls, namely Felipa de la Peña of Panit-an, Capiz; Nicasia Cada of Oton, Iloilo, Dorotea and Basilia Caldito both of Leon, Iloilo, joined the hospital and they comprised the first class of the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses in the Philippines. Mrs. Mary Hall, Elizabeth Brinton, and Amelia Klein, all trained registered nurses in America composed the training staff. The first epoch in the unfolding of the nursing profession in the Philippines got its humble historic beginning at the Union Mission Hospital Training School for nurses on Iznart Street, Iloilo City, 1906. After months of intensified training of the pioneer nurses, Basilica Caldito quit and only three young women left to blaze new trails for the nursing profession in this country. The Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses was administered by the Presbyterian doctors and nurses of America.
Four Ladies Pioneered in Nursing Profession
Four young girls pioneered in patient care by providing comfort and support in times of anxiety, loneliness and helplessness. They assisted patients in understanding their health problems and thus be able to cope with them. Felipa related to this writer how rigid her hospital duty and class hours. She would wake up as early as six in the morning to do nurses chores - bathe the patients, administer medicines, dress wounds, attend child delivery, assist in operation and care of the sick. In between work, she would report to class three hours, and during break time, she would make a round of the patients assigned to her. "Sometimes, I reported late to class as I had about to 20 to 30 patients under my care. But our American nurse instructress Hall, Brinton and Klein, including the doctors, were considerate and understanding," the hardworking student nurse enthused. In the evening, Felipa would tell us that while the patients were sound asleep, she would browse over her notes and books and literally burned the midnight oil especially when there was an examination, either oral or written. "I sometimes fell asleep inside the classroom as I was dead tired and our nurse instructresses would just manually push the ringer and I woke up suddenly thinking that my patient had an emergency call," quipped Felipa. Miss Brinton was the strictest among our teachers. Oftentimes, she would let us recite the whole one hour class period of our previous lessons and if we failed, a deduction in our grades was made. When three of us complained to Mrs. Hall, Miss Brinton would give us a little dispensation considering that only three of us student nurses were assisting in caring for over 50 patients aside from the out-patients. In one of our class recitations, Miss Brinton and Miss Klein would ask us why we joined the hospital. Felipa would recite first. She said that out of gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Hall for saving her mother from near death, she decided to stay as there were no other helping hand at that time who would assist the hardworking Americans whose purpose in coming to Iloilo was not for money but to save lives and bring lost souls to Jesus Christ. Nicasia Cada and Dorotea Caldito, hospital laundry women, said that they pitied Dr. Hall, his wife nurse Mary and Felipa for working hard with so many patients to attend to.
(To be continued)
(Part 5 on Thursday, May 3, 2007.)