In an interview with Dr.

Teresita Tumapon, dean of the Graduate School of Liceo de Cagayan

University, she discloses: In the past two years, there has been a dramatic increase of enrollees
for the masters program in nursing.
Although Dr. Tumapon was not conclusive that nurses pursued graduate studies to make them
more marketable, she did notice that for the past years, graduates of masters in nursing are
getting younger compared to the last decade.
It must be emphasized though that not all training programs for nurses are abusive in nature.
There are trainings that really require a nurse to take out money like trainings in the hemodialysis
or intravenous trainings and these trainings really train nurses and not just for pecuniary interest.
In a random interview done to discover the future plans of graduating nursing students, Nicole
Valdehueza of Xavier University said shes thinking about volunteering after earning her license
as this is the practice, this is the status quo in our country.
The concept of volunteerism may be insidious and subtle. But it can be compared to a piece of a
shinning coin.
Like the two sides of a coin, volunteerism has both the negative and positive sides.
On one side, being a volunteer would help a novice nurse capture the skills needed to become a
good clinician, which is an indelible mark of a Filipino nurse worldwide.
Volunteerism also brings back nursing to its very root, which is a vocation, a calling to serve the
sick.
On the other side of the coin, there is a thin line separating learning from abusing. Nurses may be
abused in the process of volunteerism.
As of writing, the coin is tossed and still flipping on air, waiting
I know you have been waiting and praying for this moment. Congratulations for passing the
teeth-gnashing and knee-buckling National Licensure Exam for Nurses!
Youve worked hard for four long years. If there is a course that is literally earned with blood,
sweat and tears, this is it!
Now, you can party all night without feeling guilty. Join your alma maters torch parade. Take a
grand vacation if you must. And when all the congratulations have faded and the parties have
ended, I welcome you back to the real world.