1

The Lost Soul of Filipino Nurses and How it Affects Their Connection with Patients

Fuentebella, Jemina E.

San Beda University College of Nursing

NCM 100: Theoretical Foundations in Nursing

Rudolf Cymorr Kirby P. Martinez, PhD, RN

October 16, 2020

 2

The Lost Soul of Filipino Nurses and How it Affects Their Connection with Patients

Nursing has evolved with time, as it became versatile with the growing development in the
society. We’ve evolved from focusing on some parts of the patient, to looking through the patient as a
whole that works together with the changes in the environment. From focusing on health alone, we have
adapted the art of caring, and even made it as a necessity to truly understand the patient. And since nurses
are individual beings who are capable of being flexible to change and time with the environment since
both works together as one, they have also changed their ways of approach. Ever since the introduction
of new technologies to the world, nurses firstly have used this as their advantage to be able to heal the
patient as quick as possible. Then when the nurses have come to realize that art of care and to focus on
unitary-transformative is what’s important to happen, they have instead used technologies to know how
they are to take care of the patient. Nurses themselves are the first people to be alert about the patient,
and not technology. With this transformation in Nursing, there is a bright future to the many capabilities
that nursing has to offer, since nursing is unique from the other medical professions because of the ground
that nurses hold to know why they have created that action and feeling towards that patient. Boykin and
Schoenhoffer (2001) has stated that everyone is capable of caring from every moment and that
participating in developing relationships with others who are capable of caring enhances personhood. The
connection between the nurse, who strives to be with the patient despite the long periods of time of the
suffering of the patient, and the patient who holds on to life with the help of sincere care of the nurse, is
always a unique experience that no one could ever experience again aside from within that moment.
However, I see, and feel the lack of sincerity in care, connectedness, and the ability to use technology to
be with the patient in this society, specifically in the Philippines. It is not that I am incompetent to feel
anything towards the nurse, but with every experience and encounter with the nurses and being inside
hospitals, how would one lie about the experience that they’ve felt as a patient or a relative of the patient.
Now that I’ve come to know how they do nursing in which they’re able to do it at nearly full potential of
nursing, It has been clear to the question why I’ve never felt that sense of contentment and hope with a
nurse. After reading the provided sources, it had opened my eyes on how much the essence of sincere
care within the human-connectedness, and the capability of technology to enhance that connectedness
is important to be done in nursing. Sadly, I see the lack of it with Filipino nurses.

It is apparent that the nursing that is being practiced here in the Philippines is like one is trapped
inside a 50’s world, where the physical aspect of the patient is their focus alone, and that new efficient
technology has just been starting to rise in nursing. Patients see our nurses come and go, checking the
 3

vital signs of the patient with the basic instruments, then report it to the doctor. Sometimes, the patients
rarely see their nurses, and when they do, it is to change their IV bag and see if the patient does not have
any negative behavior at the moment based on their physical expression. They’re acting as robots who
knows how to do their action, but they internally don’t know why they do it, nor do they know what they
should be feeling towards the patient and how that patient truly feels. It is surprising to know that there
are Filipino theories that were created, and yet almost all Filipino nurses are not theoretically grounded
to know what it means to “care” for the patient. It may be the effect of the lack of persistence to teach
the student nurses to know what it means to apply theories in nursing action and it is truly a problem
once they face a serious and fatal situation of the patient. As stated by De Guzman et. Al. (2009), To impart
solid theoretical and practical know-how about nursing to undergraduate nursing students solidifies their
success in their profession, and that failure of universities to prepare students with proper substantial
academic information could possibly lead students to experience the sink-or-swim syndrome. However,
the nurses in the Philippines have been provided enough information on how they may use the introduced
technology, but in the sense of using them to treat patients. Filipino nurses may be competent enough to
know the basic tools in the nursing field, and that the practice to heal a person is already embodied on
them, but the lack of deepening their purpose by not applying any theoretic foundation to their action
and depend on technology for health alone, makes the nurses lose their meaning of the importance of
their role.

Another problem which is worse than how nurses use technology for health purposes alone
without thinking of how they may use it to take care of the patient and connect with them, is the lack of
facilities that does not help the problem of nurses not being theoretically grounded either, may it be in
school clinics, or hospitals. Unlike other countries like Japan, America, and other flourishing counties who
have more than adequate number of instruments and technologies for nurses to use for the patients, only
some parts of the Philippines have enough technology to be used for the patients. Often times that when
a patient is sent to a hospital, and that the hospital does not have enough equipment to help the patient,
then they are transported to another hospital. With the lack of background in theories to apply to patients,
and the lack of instruments to know what the patient needs, then there is a little to no chance that the
nurse may be able to understand the patient, and to slowly build a relationship with them. Because of
this, the rhythm of the human-connectedness between the nurse and the patient cannot solidify their
mutual understanding. It will only make the nursing care difficult to happen. It does not motivate the
nurse to even try to flow with time and changes and will eventually give up on the patient, thinking that
the nurse have failed to do his/her duties, as for the patient, how do they build hope on their own when
 4

the nurse themselves have given up because they cannot understand the patient nor know how to
understand them, and the fact that the trust between nurse and patient is minimal, the patient cannot
say what they’re thinking and how they feel about their situation.

I had an allergic reaction to dust once in school during my junior high school years. I was seeking
help from someone as I could not breathe, as if the allergy is already inside my chest. We had a clinic nurse
in school, but I’ve felt nothing but disappointment and hopelessness. The nurse didn’t know what to do
with me, as she just told me to calm down. There were no tools that could help my allergies, and it was
getting worse. I asked if they could send me to the hospital if they cannot help me with my allergies, and
so they did, but I did not see any concern nor sincerity in them, like it is a normal day for them. After that,
I was sent the hospital and got confined. What was good is that they knew what IV drip they should use
for me and gave me a comfortable bed, but other than asking me who are my relatives and how to contact
them, I haven’t heard of them since then. Being confined for two days, I did not see them that much, and
that they were only replacing my IV drip. Although I felt better, I had a negative insight about nurses after
that experience.

Another experience that I had was that I was the relative of the patient, and it was my grandfather.
He was supposed to be treated because the disease that he had was getting worse, but the local hospital
in Samar did not have the instrument to help him nor identify what’s going on in his lungs, hence he was
told to be transferred to another hospital in Tacloban. Due to the lack of instruments, the nurse and my
grandfather was not able to have time to connect to each other. I noticed the sad emotion in my
grandfather’s eyes, thinking that they had no solution to help him. When he was in another hospital in
Tacloban, he was checked daily by the nurses, but for his physical condition. They asked how he’s been,
and that’s it for their conversation. I was the one who took care of my grandfather during that time, as I
was the one who fed him, and helped him in moving his IV drip because he wanted to go to the bathroom.
I have felt another insincere encounter with nurses. He died after a year, and since then, even my mother
is doubtful of the capabilities of nurses and doctors in every hospital.

Because of the realization of what Filipino nurses lack, which is a theoretic background to truly
care, and technology to be able to use it as a way to understand a patient, it has solidified my idea and
belief that Human-connectedness with the help of theoretic background and technology is truly essential
to be used, especially here in the Philippines. There are a lot of things that they lacked and that they are
not fully aware of the importance of it. As mentioned by Martinez (2019), Human-connectedness is
observed by having the intention to know as an another perspective and that it is done with the assistance
 5

of technology, rather than being the alternative to human nurses to the process to know the person, and
with this, it is possible to create a genuine care between the nurse and patient in the end. However, to be
able to create that kind of connection, it is truly important to utilize at least one or more theories in every
nursing action. Locsin and Purnell (2015) themselves has stated that technology can lessen the language
barrier between nurses and patient which would improve the communication between the two.
Technology helps in knowing persons by obtaining data, as long as technology is always updated to catch
up with the constant changes in people and the environment. The capabilities of technology with nursing
does not only stay as an instrument to heal, but also an instrument to help the nurse and the patient to
have a closer relationship, which would improve the quality life of the patient, or create a big impact in
the patient’s life to believe that one’s life was meaningful.

Nurses in the Philippines may have adequate facilities and technology to be used for patients in
some areas while some don’t, but either way, the lack of presence and sincere care lessens the capabilities
of what nursing has to offer. It is a shame that the identity of nursing from other medical professionals
have been mistakenly similar because of the lack of theoretic grounds of the nurses. Though as I am slowly
learning about theories in school, I have hope that there is a chance for this to change for the better, since
nursing students of today begin to value the importance of having a stand or reason to why they do those
things and how would they say that what they’re doing is nursing and not just practicing healthcare. There
may come a time when the uniqueness of nursing here in the Philippines will be evident for everyone, and
that the connection between nurses and patients always makes the lives of both meaningful. Until then,
the importance of human-connectedness and how technology can be used in its higher capability should
be shown to others, since as of this time, Filipino nurses are lost souls who do not fully know what it takes
for their actions to be nursing and that it does not embody the beauty and importance of nursing within
them.
 6

References

Boykin, A., & Schoenhoffer, S. O. (2001). Nursing as Caring: A model for transforming practice. Jones &
Bartlett Learning.

De Guzman, A. B., Cruz, A. A. R., Cruz, A. L. G., Cruz, R. E. D., & Cuarto, J. M. N. L. (2009). The Filipino
Nursing Students’ Dilemmas in Geriatric Care. Educational Gerontology, 35(8), 673–686.

Locsin, R., & Purnell, M. (2015). The Universal Technological Domain: Refining the Theory of Technological
Competency as Caring in Nursing. International Journal for Human Caring.

Martinez, R. C. K. P. (2019). “Lost Touch”: Situating Human-Connectedness in Technology-Caring in the

Health Sciences. The Journal of Medical Investigation, 66(1.2), 12-14. doi: 10.2152/jmi.66.12
 7

PROOF OF COMPLIANCE TO TASK

IAHC Journal Club Zoom Meeting Kapehan session with Prof. Locsin

Reading Human-Connectedness