Maraming salamat

After ten beautiful, incredible, inspiring weeks in Manila, I have returned home at last. My husband came to visit for the last two weeks and we were able to travel around a bit which was lovely. We traveled Ifugao, Mountain, and Batangas provinces of Luzon, then down south to the Busuanga and Coron provinces of Palawan.

View from our homestay in Batad, Ifugao

Fun with friends at Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay, Batangas. (Pinoy friends - I highly recommend this place if you haven't yet been!)

The beautiful "Proposal Garden" at Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay, Batangas

View from our hut in Busuanga, Palawan

View from Kayangan Lake Viewpoint in Coron, Palawan

My least favorite part of the last two weeks was the two times I had to pack up the apartment I had called home for so long (once before we left to travel, and again before leaving to head back to the States); I teared up quite a bit reflecting on all the time spent in that room reflecting on the day's work at the hospital, chipping away on assignments, and watching Netflix to try to put some space between myself and the first two activities.

I remembered my first week in Manila - jetlagged and staying in a bug-infested apartment in the business district of Manila - Makati. Waking up at 9pm (8am EST) hungry and trying to figure out how to get food delivered without a local phone number, my husband trying to help me from back home. Finally working up the courage to ask the concierge where to go for food and to call me a taxi, then going to the only burger place still open nearby - a place called "Sweet Ecstasy" - and having the best burger and kamote (sweet potato) fries with honey sriracha sauce that I will likely ever have in my life. (Sidenote: I also did not stay in the bug-infested apartment in Makati, but instead moved to much nicer accommodations much closer to the hospital in Malate.) That scenario was pretty symbolic of the rest of my experience in the Philippines - encounter a challenging new situation, scramble a bit for a solution, screw up enough courage to take action, then see it through - usually with good outcomes, and with the support of the wonderful people around me and back home.

This is the pattern I found myself in while rotating through the adult medical ward where I learned how to use volumetric sets and got lots of practice calculating drip rates - skills that I was (accurately) advised in my first semester would not be needed unless I were to work in a developing country.

This is also the pattern I found myself in while rotating through the pediatric ward, where I learned how to do the quickest bedside assessment I have ever seen and was challenged to work with up to five patients, including one intubated and one in airborne isolation. I was presented with many scenarios where my very first thought was "You want me to do what?" followed by "Okay, teach me. Where do we start?"

I celebrated birthdays with my patients. Comforted family members of those for whom another birthday wouldn't come. Performed my first trach care. Changed more wound dressings than I had in the rest of my other semesters combined. Spent countless hours using colored pens and rulers to chart assessments and document medication administrations. Teared up when, during a visit one week after my last day on the unit, my essentially nonverbal toddler patient who I cared for my entire month in pediatrics greeted me by name. I had video chats with friends and faculty back home who just let me cry and sometimes cried with me. I learned that I am capable of far more than I think I am. I reaffirmed that choosing to begin a career in nursing was one of the best choices I have ever made.

Over the course of my practicum, I was challenged in ways I ways I would have never anticipated and have grown toward being the nurse I would like to be. The young woman who was so timid and uncertain at the beginning of her nursing education just 20 months ago is now the same young woman who is confident in advocating for her patients to the interdisciplinary team and making sure their needs are met.

I know that I will be working at a hospital in Montgomery County, MD, for at least the next year, but I am not sure where the road will lead for me after that; maybe global health consulting, maybe a PhD, maybe trying to keep it as simple as possible and continuing to work as a floor nurse while my husband and I settle down and start a family. I am open to any opportunity where it seems my skill set can be put to best use and I will be able to learn and grow the most. Wherever my journey leads next, I know that my time at JHSON and PGH have prepared me well for it.

I am so grateful to the faculty, staff, nurses, and interdisciplinary teams at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, University of Philippines College of Nursing, and Philippine General Hospital for making this experience possible. And maraming salamat (very big "thank you") to my friends and family who patiently listen while I recount the tales of my ten weeks as a student nurse in the Philippines.