A Filipino nurse at work at a hospital in Maryland, US. - Websitepic
By PERCY A OSTONAL
Michigan, USA
AS
PART of the exchange visitor program of the United States after 1948, nursing
professionals from the Philippines came to the US in thousands.
Such
program was not really intended to favor the country specifically our nurses
but it was created to combat Soviet propaganda during the Cold War thru
exposition of US democracy to foreigners.
People
from countries where America has its strong political, cultural, economic and
social relationship were given special privilege to study and work for two
years and find out what they can learn about the US particulary its culture and
society.
Later
on, because of the effect of World War II nursing shortages, America needed
lots of experienced nursing professionals from anywhere they can get.
That
was the starting point when the exchange visitor program with US government’s
approval became a recruiting vehicle for US.
It
was really in the mid-60s when big
migration of Philippine nurses occurred when US migration laws, which had
favored Northern European countries, were changed, allowing more people from
the Philippines and Asia to immigrate.
The
new law also allowed nurses to come here on tourist visas even without
prearranged employment, says Reuben Seguritan, JD, a Filipino-American Attorney
who is general counsel to the PNAA (Philippine Nurse Association of America)
then.
Job
placement agencies for nurses and other medical
professionals as well as “fly-now-pay later" travel groups
multiplied in number to meet the demands
of sponsoring American hospitals and getting them "on board into gigantic
airplanes … first time to the US without worrying financial burden to the
families they left behind.
There
were only a handful of 17 nursing schools in the Philippines after the War, (most
of them in Manila) and yet enrollment
soared in the late 40s thus, giving
Institutional leaders in
education the incentive to open-up more schools the preceeding years.
In
1990, there were 170 and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE ) said that the
total number of nursing schools in the country for the year 2010 was 450.
Nursing
schools in the Philippines are now manned and regulated by Commission on Higher
Education (CHED).
Department
of Education created this commission to monitor and evaluate the quality of
nursing graduates that these schools produce each year.
Failing to meet the
nursing board examination passing rate to CHED standard will result to initial
warning and or closing/phase-out of the college. Of the above number, 150
schools were told to improve their performance.
(Information above courtesy of websites Philippine Nurses in the US …
Yesterday and Today, MinorityNurse.com, WWW.globalscholarship.net)
Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas'
Shirley Aguada-Mataverde, RN
"I
am dreaming of white Christmas" … Bing Crosby's song was totally
inspiring and made coming to America so
delightful … I would like to see and feel for myself what is to be in the snow
by touching it,” said Shirley A Mataverde, now a retired nurse who came to the
US under the exchange visitor visa in 1967.
The
eldest of seven siblings from small barrio in the town of Alcala, Pangasinan,
Aguada-Mataverde, an elementary school class valedictorian who graduated with
honors at Alcala High School in 1961 (now Cipriano Primicias Memorial High
School), was highly motivated to go to college, take up nursing and make sure
her younger siblings had the opportunity to watch movies in television and eat
chocolates just like her what her nurse-cousin would bring home from America
every time she paid a visit to relatives in Pangasinan.
"Ang
sabi ng father ko sa akin noon ay huwag raw akong makupad … kailangan raw
parating nasa unahan para makamtan ko ang gusto ko sa buhay" (my Dad told
me then to be always first on line in order to achieve my goals in life).
She
earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Santo Thomas
in 1966, worked as staff nurse at UST hospital for less than two years and in
November of 1967, together with three nurse recruits, set foot in freezing,
windy suburban city of Chicago, Illinois.
“Ito
pala and America, malungkot at malamig," (so this is America, lonely and
too cold).
“Just
like what my lola said: "Sana kung may pera lang ako, hindi ako papayag na
umalis ka" (If only I had substantial amount of money, I won't let you go).
Compared
to their American co-workers, Filipino nurses were paid STIPEND (Webster Dictionary: A fix sum of money paid
periodically for services to defray expenses) and not salary for reason that
they were in the US through the exchange program and was made possible as
learning opportunity.
With
the enactment of US immigration laws
pertinent to exchange visitor visa, adjustment to legal immigrant status, such
non-adjustment of compensation by some American hospitals at that time was so
rampant considered and deemed as labor exploitation by many.
Documented
complaints lodged with the Department of Labor made it possible the full
compliance of salary scale re-alignment and these hospitals were told to standardize and comply work equality and
distribution among all workers.
“Reflecting
on being a nurse for the last 46 years was something easy for me to rekindle …
I made a big difference in the lives of many and my utmost gratitude for
countless blessings and opportunities it has given me … my family, the joy of
my life, our grand children and many friends around.
“Also,
because of my career in nursing and extended help from my younger sister, (also
a nurse) the rest of my siblings and parents were able to come to the US,”
Mataverde said with a smile.
Shirley
is married to Dr Alex Mataverde and they were blessed with a daughter and a
son, with their wonderful spouses and four grand kids.
They
all live in Michigan.
Teresita
A Avena, RN
 |
| Teresita A Avena, RN |
ABOUT
six months after graduating from UST, Teresita A Avena passed the nursing
board examination.
Then,
after working for few months as staff nurse of a medium-size hospital in Sta
Mesa, Manila in 1971, she and her elder sister (who happened to be a nurse as
well) had their first-time experiences: To be on board a jumbo PANAM Airlines
bound for Detroit, Michigan USA.
The
sponsoring hospital where their elder sister worked as medical doctor
facilitated and processed their working visas.
“This
is the turning point of my career in
nursing and my hopes for the future,” Avena
said to herself quietly.
Unlike
today's US international flight routes which would take you to your destination
with one or two stop-overs, they had Guam as first stop, Honolulu and then
San Francisco International Airport in California, which is one of the the ports of entry to the US mainland.
They
waited six hours for their connecting flight to Michigan and with some US loose
change on her purse. Hungry and tired, they could only watched people eating.
Finally,
Avena decided asking a food-counter staff as to "how much a hotdog and
softdrink cost".
“You
mean, pop, do you? … It's two dollars
and eighty-five cents (US$2. 85) each or five dollars and seventy cents (US$5.
70) for two,” the woman at the counter said.
"Thank
you and here's the money (in US coins) and see if I have enough,” Avena
said.
After
having it counted, with comforting smile the lady said : " You're okey … and
welcome to America !!!
Avena experiences her first snow encounter.
Upon
arrival in Michigan, such story was bigger than anything else and the first
lesson Avena and her sister got from their brother-in-law was knowing the
United States currency monetary units .
Filipino
nurses who came to the US in the 70s were better compensated from the first day
of work and unlike their fellow nurses ahead of them in the 60s early on , they
managed retaining their "status quo" outright as reliable and dedicated
healthcare professionals and deserving full
recognition from hospital authorities and peers.
 |
| Avena poses for a picture at home. |
From
a regular staff nurse position, “Tessie" (he nickname) was promoted to charge-nurse
and then to nurse-supervisor in a short time.
Sending
money back home was no different to any Pinay/Pinoy nurses and just like them,
she made it sure that every payday she
has to drop by at a nearby bank and do
money transfer to Manila for the next four years to parents in Paranaque.
In
summer of 1974, Avena decided to come home to marry the man she met
at that hospital in Sta Mesa, Manila.
 |
| Avena and husband, Percy A Ostonal |
They
have an only child. While her husband was away in 1982 on overseas job contract
in the Middle East, her US 3rd preference immigration petition came in and she
was notified immediately by US Embassy in Manila for processing.
Meanwhile,
early on, their daughter together with her grandmother flew to the US in 1981 for
a two-month holiday (Avena's parents and siblings are US immigrants) after
filling extension of stay document to US Immigration Office in Detroit for her
daughter, her siblings enrolled her daughter to a grade school a few blocks
away from their rented apartment.
Avena (right) with fellow nurses when they went to Lansing, Michigan for their
licensure examination ,
Being
a "green card holder" or resident alien, her daughter's residency was
automatically re-adjusted into immigrant status in 1982.
Avena's
training and work experience at crisis center, inpatient psychiatry, medical/surgical
acute care, telemetry, burn/hydrotherapy
and medical Intensive care unit from
her second American trauma center hospital employment in 1982 (Detroit,
Michigan) made her change of work/employment afterward literally easy to her present-day inpatient
rehabilitation nursing job.
She
is looking forward for her retirement in three years time.
Meanwhile,
upon job contract completion overseas, her husband's immigration family
petition in the Philippines finally made their reunion in America realized in
April of 1985.
He
is now retired, worked as home Improvement designer-salesperson for a US and
world largest home Improvement chain centers with stores in the state of Michigan.
 |
| Larah Faye Ostonal |
Their
daughter, Larah Faye, upon graduation from high school in 1994 went to the
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and pursued
and earned a degree in nursing in
1998.
She
works as neuro-trauma intensive care unit (NICU) nurse during the past 14 years
for a county hospital in downtown Detroit.
She
is married and has a son.
(Writer's notes: The former Ms Avena and I were married in Manila in December of
1975. Larah Faye Ostonal-Barcelon is our only child.)
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