Despite ordeal, Leyte nursing grads hurdle board exam

TACLOBAN CITY , Philippines   â€“ Their homes and properties may have been wiped out, but not even the worst of typhoons could destroy the future of several nursing graduates here.

Despite being battered by Super Typhoon Yolanda last November, 95 percent of the graduates of the Remedios T. Romualdez Medical Foundation Inc. (RTRMF) here passed the 2013 nursing board exam held last month.

The school was ranked fifth among the top 10 medical colleges with the most board passers, among them Loren Banario, 20.

“When the water subsided, my concern was to find my notice of admission to the board exam, but we could not locate it. Two days later, we saw it as we tried to clean my room. It was very wet and torn, practically useless. I was thinking, how could I take the board exam?” Banario said.

A resident of Barangay San Jose, Banario said her family decided to remain in their residence even when the onset of Yolanda had been announced because they never thought the water would reach their bungalow.

Together with her parents and relatives, she survived the storm surge by climbing to the ceiling and holding on to the rafters.

“There was a portion of the roof that was not blown away and we took shelter there,” she said.

Banario is thankful that her family emerged safe from typhoon, said to be the strongest to make landfall in history.

She added that the RTRMF also extended some help, allowing her and her classmates to finish their review for the licensure exam in Cebu.

“I feel very happy, overwhelmed and blessed,” said Banario, who now works for World Vision as a monitoring and evaluation officer.

Another board passer is Quintin Bon Jason, who used to reside in Barangay Anibong but transferred to Lolita Village after Yolanda.

Jason, 21, lost three relatives to the storm surge.

He said five ships rammed their houses in Barangay Anibong during the onslaught of Yolanda and crushed residents.

But it was also the same ships that shielded their house from the storm surge.

After the typhoon, he decided to stop reviewing and not take the board exam because they were hard up.

But an aunt, Sarah Bato, who is based in the United States, decided to help him.

“She came home to assist us and look for my grandfather’s body,” said Jason, who is now a volunteer for a non-government organization doing relief work in Tacloban.

He said he was offering his success to his relatives who perished in the floods.

Andre de Veyra, a clinical instructor of the RTRMF, said school authorities were happy to maintain their position in the top 10 list of nursing schools in the country.

“We did not expect to have such a good showing,” he said. “This is the sixth consecutive year that we are in the top 10.”

De Veyra said most of the graduates suffered great loss and taking the exam was the last thing on their mind.

But the RTRMF administration tried its best to help the graduates, who were accommodated at the Cebu branch of their review center.

Socorro Gasco, dean of the school’s nursing department, also said she pushed their graduates to take the licensure exam.

“I told them to have faith in God. God is good all the time,” she said, adding that she urged them to have group prayers and group rosaries in the course of their review.

Gasco said the traumatic experience left the students shocked, with one of them arriving at the Cebu airport in her pajamas and not knowing where to go.

“It was a good thing that social workers there knew our review center and turned her over to Dr. Medrano, who heads the Power Development Review Center,” she said.

The same student also passed the board.

Gasco said the students often told her they were not motivated, but she would not take no for an answer.

“I told them that they needed to try, at the very least,” she said. “They were rough gems when they began, but now they are polished diamonds.”