The Great Pandemic

Yes, a pandemic of epic proportions is rapidly taking over the entire global community. It has unleashed its wrath on every nation, institutions and religious states. It infests and corrupts the host’s nervous system, and lodges there until morbid symptoms overcome the body. Not even the most advanced medicines ever created could match against this cataclysmic disease. For it is not of the bacterial, fungal or viral type – it is the infamous ideology of Hierarchy.


How many times have we felt its power infiltrate our living? Such demise is clearly seen in this grief-stricken nation. The National Government, the SLU Admin, church hierarchy and even hospitals – all tactlessly show their powerful crowns to every species below them. And oh! What a pity for these lowly members of society… What a pity for the common Filipino worker, the Louisian, the layman … What a pity for us student nurses – the lowest creatures in the food chain of the Medical Jungle.


The good-old organizational charts found in many buildings tell us one positive thing: the value of respect. Respect your co-workers and you earn their trust. But in reality, it is the respect we give to the faces found at the topmost portion of the org charts that often gives us the advantage. It brainwashes our mind to respect those Big Bosses no matter how unrespectable and disrespectful they are to us. By showing them your smiley face, you ensure yourself a seat for the favorites, while you get their egos bloated.


This Filipino Caste system happens in some hospital institutions. In fact, the victims of this highly contagious ideology are not the patients but most of the medical personnel. From a medical director down to the housekeeper. From the great consultants, to the resident physicians, medical interns, clerks, chief nurses, head nurses, nurses and down to the student nurses! Well, that’s the kind of hierarchy that settles who could shout, command and insult the other. That’s the hospital life we must painstakingly endure on the way to top. And yes, we get persuaded to climb the hierarchical ladder of the orgs, that in doing so we submit to the Bosses’ every bidding.


By far, we (student) nurses represent the majority of the workforce in the health care team. We carry out doctors’ orders, assess anything there is to assess, and do the dirty jobs – these are the important health measures that often go unrecognized. “Thank you” and “sorry” are rare terms for the hospital heavyweights, and even for some medical student-clerks who make “utos” to us as if we were electronic machines of the lowest brand. Hey, I thought we all belong to ALLIED health courses?


When the great consultant roasts a resident physician alive, the latter’s guilt feelings are displaced down his ranks. The anger stuff would all precipitate down to the Lowest Levels of the Hierarchy. Of course, that’s us.

Also as a student nurse, I often get the most lot from shoutings for being a maverick, an oddball. If you feel the need to graduate, well then you have to conform, conform conform! Stick with the rules, or you’ll end every school term finishing your extension duties and paying fees for it. “Attitude” matters, so they say. In this communist pink era, “attitude” equals discipline, and discipline requires conformity to rules – and that means you have to abide, abide, abide.

It’s good to have your instructors “remind” you of your stupidities. Hearing words like “third year ka na ‘di mo pa alam yan,” “ano’ng pinaggagawa mo” “huwag ka na magsalita, matatalo ka lang” “sige, IR ‘yan” and “nakakahiya ka, Mr. Agpasa” is a must for supreme learning (P.S. heavy sarcasm). To excel in your field of work you have to start low, and (unfortunately) be treated low. Sometimes, shouting and insults are tools that clinical instructors use to pierce your every nerve cell and to short-circuit your personality.

While many medical and nurse practitioners overfeed their egotistic selves, others are simply adorable for their unblemished personalities. One worth mentioning is Dr. R.M. whose specialization in cardiology exceeds the physical boundaries. Even Residents R and G, and some of the medical students show sympathy to an admirable extent. But still, these people are outnumbered. The Insensitives dominate.

Even the SLU Admin shows the symptoms of the pandemic. And for goodness’ sake! What is it again that I hear of another planned Tuition fee increase? Surely, an abuse of power and Autonomous status! Bakit taon-taon na ang TOFI? Ano ‘to? Annual TFI Celebration? May ribbon cutting pa sana ah, ta’s magpamudmod sila ng pera. My parents’ pockets have already been dehydrated. To say that the TOFI’s for SLU’s improvement is half-deceit. I wouldn’t react like this if they ever bothered to fix our nursing facilities and the age-old Net Library!

Don’t we SN’s deserve a little respect? Are we not worthy of the ‘services’ that we pay? Do we not spare these hospitals and schools from bankruptcy by fending them off with thousands, if not millions, of pesos from our tuition and affiliation fee? Where is the ‘equality’ and ‘justice’ they so talk about in their Ethics and Theology subjects? Surely, they are all easier said than done.

At times of desperation, we lay on our comfort zones and pretend that all these horrible stuffs are just episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. By this way, we only make fools of ourselves. For all these happen in real-time, with no edits and Photoshops (except for the faces everyone wears when faced with the enemy).Yes, we are plastics! Who’s not, anyway?

The great pandemic is showing no signs of weakening. It persists to devour every mindset of the heads of offices, every room in SLU, every neuron in our brains. It inflates the heavyweights’ pleasure spots with just the right amount to fuel them in maintaining their ideologies. After all, it’s nice to be on top. And to those abusives on top, perhaps they might like to read Kuwaderno 7’s poem Deceit:

You aren’t more intelligent by calling me stupid.

You aren’t more respected by disrespecting me

– you aren’t any better than me.
Today, a mere student will teach you.
Respect me and I will respect you.