“Hello — Office of the President. How may I help you?”
A group of women had gathered excitedly around the shiny black PLDT phone with its rotary dial while Patti Page crooned “Tennessee Waltz” on a neighbor’s scratchy radio.
Members of University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) School of Nursing Class of 1961, they had heard rumors about the scheduled release of their Board of Nursing exams the next day, and, in those pre-FB Messenger times, dialed a classmate’s friend in Malacañang Palace to discreetly inquire about the results. At that time, the Board of Nursing was under the Office of the President by virtue of Republic Act №546 (1950).
A couple of months before, after their pre-graduation bonfire along Taft Avenue had gone a bit too wild, the School’s stern faculty had banished the entire Class from the 1915 Neo-Renaissance Nurses Home designed by Cornell-trained architect Tomas Mapua, forcing them to review for the licensure exams on their own.
The young Nightingales-to-be were understandably nervous.
“PGH, you say? Oh… I see here you all did very well!”
After their wide-eyed classmate got off the phone and relayed the unofficial, back-channel message, the women squealed and jumped up and down. For, as newspapers all over post-War Philippines would indeed announce a couple of days later, all members of the Class of ’61, representing all Philippine Congressional districts, passed the Board exams!
And not only that. Five classmates were even in the Top 10: Evelyn Perez (Top 7), Leticia Simon and Purita Espinola (Top 3), Hilda Julian (Top 2), and their Cadena de Amor Lakambini and senior year class president Luzviminda “Minda” Baisa (Top 1).
Recalling the day of their vindication in her narra-paneled South Forbes home today, alumni class president Minda (Baisa Laman RN) says, “Number one! I thought, it couldn’t be me. I couldn’t believe it. On the day of the exam, I was very nervous because we didn’t get a decent review.”
Yet their journey had just begun.
Having overcome major challenges in the University, they now faced others in the “real world”: they now had to look for jobs, perhaps travel the world if they could afford it, and many of them hoped to start a family.
In 2018 millennial-speak, it was time for the classmates’ #adulting.
Back at PGH today, Alumni Association President Leonila “Leonie” Alcantara-Faire RN recalls, “Even after we had passed the Board exams, we felt our professors still couldn’t accept us. As part of our punishment, we were banned from working in PGH for a year.”
Retired UP Nursing professor Rosalinda “Rose” Pangilinan-Roque RN adds, “Normally, after graduation, board passers would be employed by PGH.”
Their year of exile was therefore lonely, yet turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It gave the new registered nurses- many of whom had gone straight from the provinces to the cloister-like arcades of PGH Nurses Home — even more opportunities to be independent and modern working Filipinas and thereby discover their unique purpose in life.
Minda, to take one example, at first worked as a clinical nurse of Pacifico Marcos MD and, after a year, studied and worked as a nurse in the US and the UK. Then, in the Netherlands, she worked as a liaison officer helping newly-arrived foreign nurses adjust to the new culture.
Using the leadership and networking skills she developed in her alma mater, Minda has become a successful businesswoman, with an award from Malacañang to prove it. Her human resource companies Sealanes Marine Services, Manpower Resources of Asia, and Manpower Resources of Asia Offshore help match Filipino professionals- including nurses, engineers, accountants, and IT specialists- with credible employers abroad.
Ofelia “Ofie” Mecenas-Javier RN says, “In our year of exile from PGH, many of us left the Philippines and found work abroad. Minda was great with PR and developed contacts with potential employers who she introduced to many of our classmates.”
It was thus because of necessity and an adventurous spirit that around half the Class ended up practicing their profession and raising families abroad.
Two of them even became directors of nursing in the US: Marina Ebreo-Perez RN at California Polytechnic State University Health Services and Nelia Agbada-Cahinhinan RN at Guam Department of Public Health. Those who returned to the Philippines or chose to stay here likewise became leaders in their respective fields.
Those who became chief nurses or directors of nursing in the country include Leonie (chief nurse of PGH Operating Room Complex and director of nursing, Perpetual Help Medical Center); Rose (chief nurse of PGH Division of Clinical Nursing Operations); Leta Gabay-Montana (chief nurse of Romblon General Hospital); and Irene Angeles-Escobar (chief nurse of the Philippine Refugee Center in Bataan).
In their search for knowledge, many members of the class pursued graduate and post-graduate studies. Rose, for example, became a scholar of World AIDS Foundation and finished courses in senior nursing clinical management and infection control at Brown University in Rhode Island. At least ten of them have master’s degrees. And two received Ph.D.’s: Nieves Ofiaza-Rana RN and class orator Estrella Ferrer-Dungog RN.
Do nursing students who finish their studies still suddenly go berserk like in the good ol’ days of Gloria Romero and Pat Boone? Ask the Class of 1961’s three Deans: Eufemia Faciolan RN (Riverside College of Nursing), Angelina Aniban-Lin RN (Centro Escolar University College of Nursing), and Nieves Ofiaz-Rana RN (STI-De Los Santos College of Nursing).
Proving that one night of raucous revelry does not character make, many members of the Class became presidents of nursing associations, UP alumni groups, Filipino associations abroad, and other socio-civic organizations.
Browse through Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World and don’t be surprised if you find some of their names there. Their shining humanitarian awards and accomplishments, as well as those of their spouses and children, are chronicled in their golden jubilee coffee table book, Gintong Alaala: Tanglaw ng Paglingap at Pagmamahal (Manila, 2011).
Most poignantly for the once-ostracized Class, Eufemia Faciolan-Octaviano and Leonie reached the pinnacle of the nursing profession and were appointed by Philippine Presidents to serve as members of the Board of Nursing. Leonie feels these appointments are great honors since “not all Alumni Classes have had their members appointed to the Board.”
The Board of Nursing regulates the practice of the profession, disciplines seriously erring nurses, and- Ofie is quick to remind her lifelong friends with a twinkle in her eye- “administers the Board exams.”
After suffering public humiliation and other Odyssean challenges in the world, Class of 1961 has come full circle.
This essay was commissioned by the Nursing Class of 1961 and written by me in 2018. Its publication on Medium is dedicated to the memory of my aunt, Amelia Veneracion Labrador RN, a cherished member of the Class, who helped care for me as a baby and suddenly passed away in Chicago last year. The article is shared with the intent of preserving history, as the hospital practice-oriented UP-PGH School of Nursing, where the Class thrived, no longer exists. It was merged with UP Manila College of Nursing, a more bookish academic institution which held classes on the first floor of Diliman’s UP College of Law, my alma mater, from 1949 to 1979.
