Helen

i got back from Davao last Saturday, October 24.We left CDO at around 6am last October 10. I was part of the eighty-eight students sent to Davao for the Psychiatric affiliation. We were the first of five batches scheduled for the exposure. We were divided into two blocks, D and H, and during our duty, we were further divided between the female and the male ward. The University of South-Eastern Philippines dormitory at barangay Obrero became our home for fourteen days and while I was there, I shared room 203 with Juwella, Aiko, Evette, Lakambini, Christine, Abigail, Renea and Bea.

My patient had Schizophrenia, undifferentiated, and i found out later on that she had been in DMC for quite a while now.

We left Davao at 5:30 in the morning of October 24 and arrived in CDO around 12:45-1:00 in the afternoon.

so that’s it for the basics. now for the meat of the meal:

After the 2-week duty, I realize that I want to be a nurse that I could go back to Davao and be a Psychiatric nurse sometime in the future. I also thought about working in London, still as a nurse, and having mama stay with me. But it all seems muddy right now. I still have the drive to go for Medicine after working as a nurse for 2years or so. I still dream of treading the oceans as a marine biologist or debating with ADCPDC as i proceed to take up Law.

Somehow, my thirst for growth and development, for self-actualization and wholeness, grew a thousand-fold! I guess it has much to do with the fact that I only saw the bigger picture in Davao. I was also able to take in the impact of love and support from the family and the relevance of functional support systems in the mental hygiene and health of an individual. Finally, I measured myself and contemplated with much scrutiny the whole of my being and the purpose of my life.

I guess the two-week exposure was a makeshift pilgrimage for me. At the end of the day, I asked myself, why shouldn’t I be a nurse?