SOMETIMES I ask myself why there are students who would choose to study nursing in college especially how tough and demanding it could be.
It is true that nursing courses and their training require endurance and patience. But then again, it makes one a hero -- saving lives every day, providing energy to those who are powerless, and making a difference to people’s lives.
But what really motivates students to enroll in nursing? And when they finally become registered nurses will, they stay and serve the Philippines? Or will they choose to work abroad or proceed to medicine? Let me share with you the plans of some of the graduating nursing students in 2020.
Stephen Josh Lim, who is from Tacurong City, shared that his experience of being away from his parents to study Nursing here in Davao City made him realize that it is never easy to be away.
He realized that working abroad to earn a bigger salary is a wrong move and that he would rather work near his family and give service to Filipinos.
But Sharra Lei Potenciado’s insights are different. She said that almost all her nurse friends here in the Philippines say they are working almost 14 hours a day, not eating on time, and are poorly compensated.
The painful stories of nurses sadden her. Because of this, she considers working abroad after graduation.
Potenciado believes it guarantees greater opportunities, advance technology, fair nurse-patient ratio and high salary in the future.
She added she would be doing this for her own family.
For Trisha Junasa, taking up nursing is her preparatory degree for medical school.
She believes that since nursing embodies holistic care, it will be an edge for her to help alleviate or treat a suffering patient with an illness.
Junasa added that her exposure to the hospital and to patients with various cases will make her a better nurse and a doctor at the same time in the future.
Student nurses may have different plans after graduating and passing the board exam.
Their decisions may be affected by familial, financial or other reasons. But this does not matter because nurses, in spite of their struggles and heavy loads, remain to listen, cry and love, and are willing to go into the depths of their patients’ pain to make their lives better