Of reunions, memories, and mortalities

Last of two parts

By Marivir R. Montebon

New York – From being a local journalist and an unpaid nurse in Cebu, LA-based Debbie Dixie Duraliza shared her inspiring journey as a Filipino nurse in the Philippine diaspora.

In early December, her batchmates from the Velez School of Nursing celebrated its Pearl Jubilee in Dallas, for four days. Thirty years after a rigorous education, 63 of them, thought it was time to regroup - flying in from Australia, Canada, and various parts of the US.

Velez College is a highly reputed institution in Cebu City which produces topnotch nursing graduates for the Philippines. The Pearl jubilarians constitute half of the total graduates, a continued reflection of the brain drain the Philippines.

Debbie is a radiation oncology nurse in a premiere hospital in Los Angeles. Before her nursing practice in the US, she was a local journalist and a volunteer nurse in Cebu City.

Philippine nurses constitute about 31% of the total nursing work force in the US, according to the National Nurses United, providing a formidable strength in the US health care system. The Philippines’ unabated poverty and the long-standing US-Philippine relations account for the continued migration of Philippine nurses to the US.

Excerpts of our conversation with Debbie:

MM:  What does reunion make you feel or what impact does it give you, aside from the feeling of nostalgia?

DDD:  Reunions make us remember all our antics and all our shenanigans that that we got into way back in college. It also reminds you of your mortality, that life is so short. It made you feel like 30 years have gone by so fast. That’s why we were all determined that weekend that we should continue having these reunions.

At first, we were like, okay we'll see each other in another five years but some of them said, no five years is too long. We should see each other sooner before any of us are in wheelchairs or walkers.

Especially after covid hit in 2020, I was in the hospital for a long time. So, it makes you think that life is not just the job that keeps you going. It's more like family and friends.

Welcome dinner boodle fight for the Pearl Jubilarians.

MM: Because Velez always produces topnotch graduates, what kind of education system do you go through there, Deb?

DDD: Our batch produced the top one and top two and there were a few more in the top 10 that year in 1993. Shout out to Julie David who's now the vice president of Nursing in her Hospital in Florida.

I think, first, it’s because of the limited number of classrooms back in my day, so when you go through the entrance examinations they only got like the top. I don't know how many of us were in, but maybe 200 for our batch.

They couldn't accommodate everybody that passed the entrance exam, so they only got the top 200.

MM: So, you were the chosen elite. In terms of how you were being taught the theory and practice, how is that different from the other schools?

DDD:  It also was an advantage that Velez has her own hospital and the teachers there are so amazing.  They really focus on the students and how to train us. The only thing we didn't have back then was the Psychiatry part, so we had to go to another like facility to practice Psych nursing.

The training in Velez is really something else. It’s really really hard. I think by the time we had our capping on the second year, almost half of the students were cut. They failed. They cannot reenroll. I guess some of them moved to another school or they just changed degrees.

Pearls and black for a 30-year milestone.

MM: What is the process of you being trained into the examination part?

DDD: We had a lot of practice tests and review classes. But come to think of it, Julie, our topnotcher, really didn't join us in our review classes. I think she just reviewed on her own. We hired a review center, but she didn't join us. She was on her own.

It was also good that our dean of nursing, Dean Lily Lumbab, oh she was so amazing. She would really go with the students during the exam date and be part of us.

Some of us decided to take our board exams in Iloilo and she really flew to Iloilo and be with the students. She would, for example, guide us on how to approach a case. Part of the success of student nurses in Velez is because of Dean Lumbab.

MM: But you know what, I am a little bit sad because you are 63 in your reunion and that's like you said half of the graduates in your batch. How does that make you feel that you are mostly outside the Cebu or the Philippines?

Right after a Sunday mass.

DDD:  Yeah, it's like all these talents and all these skills that the Filipinos can't really take advantage of and we can't really serve our countrymen.

But because the Philippines doesn’t really take care of the healthcare workers there. They pay us very little, just peanuts, and you can't live with it and support our family.

MM: On the brighter side, on the universal environment, the Filipino nurses are so respected in the world because you take care of the sick in a very personal and very efficient way. How is it on your part Deb. I mean, it took a long time for you to practice being a nurse when you were a journalist. So how was that? That's a kind of a very unique journey.

DDD:  I remember, I think it was Michelle So of Sunstar who saw me wearing scrubs and she asked why I was wearing scrubs.

I was a nurse in the morning. I would work in a shift in the hospital and then by 4:00, after that shift, I would go to the newsroom and then work until 9 or 10PM. I was working two jobs. We term it volunteering in the hospital. You’re working as a staff nurse, but you don't get paid.

MM: So, they're using your labor and you're not being paid?

DDD: Yeah. At the end of your work or volunteering, you get a certificate that says that you worked a certain number of months in this hospital, and you have the skills necessary to become a full-fledged nurse. So, it’s like a win-win.

MM: It's also for your resume, right? For your future employment. When you moved to the US Deb and then you had to stop being a journalist. Did you miss journalism?

DDD: Yeah. I did. It was so much fun. It was Nimrod Quinones of The Freeman that got me as his assistant Sports Editor.

I remember that I was in Dubai and worked in a hotel there for a year came back and I worked as assistant business editor, then I shifted to opinion editor and then my last position was entertainment editor.

It was so much fun working as a journalist. We created a bond for lasting friendships.

MM: When you moved here, how was your adjustment?

DDD: It was a little tough. It was good that my first assignment was not in a big hospital. It was New Mexico, at the border of Colorado. It was a small hospital.

The adjustment wasn’t on the skills because we have that already but it's the adjustment of the culture of the Americans. How they pronounce certain words.

We were charting and we were saying like H & H. What is H&H?

I was reading the chart and my partner who was from Arkansas had a different twang. I said potassium, as in shium. And he turned to me and pronounced potassium (no H).

I thought I was really good in English.

They always mistook me for being a native American. There were patients who started talking to me in Navajo or asking me from which reservation do I come from.  

MM: You moved to LA. Was it much better because it is urban?

DDD: After the small hospital, I was working as a travel nurse all around New Mexico and I settled down in Albuquerque. It's a big city but when in 2020 the pandemic hit, it made me realize that I must be with my family. My parents were already in LA, so I decided I must be with my parents.

MM: Did you contract covid?

DDD: Yeah. I thought I had bacterial pneumonia because I couldn't breathe right and when I looked in the mirror, my lips were blue, and I couldn’t smell anything.

I went to the ER and my oxygen was only 58%. The nurses started running and I asked what’s going on. They said that 58% can't support life. They put me in high flow oxygen.

I thought I had common pneumonia and then later, I found out I tested positive for covid. I was in the ICU for ten days and there was no vaccine yet.

MM:  During that time when you were sick. What were you thinking? Did you still want to be a nurse? During covid, many nurses died and others retired from nursing, which is the reason why we still have a staffing crisis.

DDD:  I was thinking that it's going to be really hard to be a nurse, especially as a travel nurse because you're given the worst cases and you'll probably be working with covid patients.

When you get sick, you will really understand what covid is, despite conspiracy theories or that it’s made up by government.  

The stress of being a nurse is not only physical. It's also mental and emotional because there are many patients who are verbally abusive. I wouldn’t recommend it to everybody.

It's very fulfilling but the same time, it’s hard work. I still want to serve as a nurse. If you’re just in it for the money, then don't become a nurse.

MM: Glad to know you still want to continue your vocation as a nurse. I call it a vocation. Perhaps until your next reunion.

DDD: I still be a nurse, yes. Up until my next reunion. I’ll keep you posted. (Laughs)

MM: Salute to you. Thank you, Debbie. #