Nursing Graduates of University of Santo Tomas Seeing new Horizons
by Mina Edonio
The continuous need to uplift and improve health care education will always be the thrust among esteemed institutions of nursing education because of the changing nature of health care delivery. And what better way to initiate this vision than to start among those who are yet to carve their niche in this particular career, to be specific, those tertiary students of ours.
One fine week of March, HCCA sponsored another program called "Horizons 2008" known to many University of Santo Tomas students as "Nursing Skills Fair." Launched in 2006, it has become one of HCCA's several programs aimed to develop the technical, interpersonal, and nurse-patient skills of the participants as these are the things expected from nursing practitioners in a global healthcare environment. HCCA also fosters these programs as way of giving back to the Philippine nursing community - assisting with the country's effort to produce competent healthcare professionals, by immersing them with the international nursing practice standards, and introducing to them actual experience which they can constructively use in their community practice.
The week-long event accommodated almost five hundred (500) participants, who had a chance to practice abilities in major clinical skills namely Focused Assessment, Airway Management, Tube Management, and Wound and Ostomy Management. Hands-on opportunity to experience vital nursing skills in the US, such as assessing simulated clinical situations, and identifying patient's needs and problems, was also given to the students. Minus the Ferris Wheel and the Grand Carousel, the venue was decorated with colorful balloons, and served the best finger-foods like corndog and popcorn, plus an ice cream for dessert.
Together with Bayani Consulting Network and University of Santo Tomas, we made sure that when participants leave, they take with them their theoretical knowledge translated into practical situations, and with their previous impression of the skills fair as something rigid and boring shaken off
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