Speaking Engagements

* Live Interview over DZMM with Bal Domingo - BREAST CANCER

* TV Coverage of Interview: BREAST CANCER aired over Sarimank Network

* Northern Luzon Adventist College-SCHOOL OF NURSING, 4th CAPPING & PINNING CEREMONY - "Infinite Voyage of Caring"

* Lyceum Northwestern-COLLEGE OF PHARMACY, INDUCTION & ACQUAINTANCE PARTY Below is the Speech of Dr. Navarro delivered at NLAC;

Northern Luzon Adventist College-SCHOOL OF NURSING

4th CAPPING & PINNING CEREMONY
"Infinite Voyage of Caring"

INTRODUCTION: Although there can be clinics without nurses, but there can be no hospitals without nurses. For nurses have a definite role in patient care different from that of the doctors' role.

PURPOSE: Define what Nursing is. Give the difference between Nursing and Medical profession. What is expected for those who will be receiving their cap and pin. Challenge them to adopt a new dimension in patient care.

SPEECH PROPER:
Nursing is an art and a science of caring for the whole person. As a science, it is a systematized knowledge derived from observation, study, and experimentation carried on in order to determine the nature or principles behind patient care. As an art, it is the disposition or modification of principles learned by one's skill, to carry out this responsibility of caring for patient for their utmost comfort. (Discuss Art and Science thru example).

Classic definition of Nursing as developed by theorist Virginia Henderson and adopted by International Council of Nursing, states that, "The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of the activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge. And to do this in a way as to help him gain independence as rapidly as possible."

Christian definition of Nursing according to Shelling and Miller states, "Nursing is a ministry of compassionate care for the whole person, in response to God's grace toward a sinful world, which aims to foster optimum health (shalom) and bring comfort in suffering and death for anyone in need.

In recent history, nursing has been closely associated with medicine, and often confused with the medical profession; however, nursing and medicine are distinct profession with very different histories.

Medicine is the art and science of the prevention and treatment of disease. At the early period in the history of medicine, emphasis was given to the treatment of disease rather than prevention.

Medicine has traditionally focused on the physical scientific dimension of the human body, relegating the spiritual and psychosocial to religion and psychology. Nursing on the other hand, is wholistic in approach, it cares for the whole person: physical, spiritual and psychosocial. Thus, a nurse can do the work of a doctor but the doctor cannot substitute for a nurse.

Primitive medicine was based on the concept of supernatural causation of disease; illness was always the result of malevolent external influence of evil spirit or hostile sorcerers. The treatment was therefore, essentially magic and consisted of spells, charms, incantations, and various complicated rituals; evil spirits had to be driven away by noise, or deceived by marks and a change of the patient's name.

Western medicine, though claiming its root from Greek medicine is drastically different from Greek practices. Hippocrates (c 460 - 377 B.C.) justly called the "Father of Medicine" based his therapy on cooperation with nature. He did not believe in drastic measures and thought that vis mediatrix naturae, "the healing power of nature", could often lead to spontaneous recoveries. Diet, rest, fresh air, massage and baths were an important part of treatment. Hot drinks were used as sudorifics (perspirant) and vegetable juices as diuretics.

As opposed to medicine which has its Greek (Gentile) root, nursing traces its root from Christianity. Although some forms of health care were provided in ancient cultures, nurse historian Patricia Donahue states, "The history of nursing first becomes continuous with the beginning of Christianity." Nurse historians Dolan, Fitzpatrick and Herrmann state, "The teachings and example of Jesus Christ had a profound influence on the emergence of gifted nurse leadership as well as on the expansion of the role of nurses. Christ stressed the need to love God and one's neighbor. The first organized group of nurses was established as a direct response to His example and challenge."

The impetus for this movement came when the 1st century Christians began to teach that all believers were ministers who were to care for the poor, the sick and the disenfranchised (Matt. 25:31-46; Heb. 13:1-3; Jas. 1:27; I Pet. 2:9). As the church grew, they appointed deacons to care for the needy within the church. Eventually, more men and women were added to the role of deacons, and their designated responsibilities grew to include caring for the sick. Phoebe, the deacon mentioned in Romans 16:1-2, is often considered the first visiting nurse.

By the third century, organized groups of deaconesses were caring for the sick, insane and lepers in the community. In the fourth century the church began establishing hospitals. Most of the hospitals did not have physicians but were staffed by nurses! There were several periods when the early church did not condone the practice of medicine, which they viewed as a pagan art.

Nursing in the Middle Ages centered in monasteries. Women who wanted to serve God and care for the sick joined together in monastic orders. The Renaissance through the 18th century brought a dark period in the history of nursing. As Catholic religious orders were disbanded or suppressed in Protestant countries, hospitals deteriorated. By the 19th century, nursing was disorganized and corrupt. Nursing care was provided by alcoholics, prostitutes and women who were uncaring and immoral!

In 1850, Florence Nightingale, an Englishwoman, internationally known as the founder of modern nursing, felt God calling her for future service. She responded to that call by becoming a nurse, studying at the Deaconess Kaiserswerth Institute in Germany and at a Catholic hospital in Paris. Nightingale went on to single-handedly reform nursing, bringing it back to its Christian root and setting high educational and practice standards. By applying the principles of sanitation, she made a major difference in the death rate of British soldiers during the Crimean War (from 42 percent to 2 percent). She was thus known as "The Lady with the Lamp" and "The angel of Crimea". She introduced three golden rule in nursing: Hygiene, Sanitation and wholesome environment.

Although sanitation was then rather new to Europeans and the rest of modern world at that time, it's history dates back to the Old Testament times. Preventive medicine and sanitation legislations reached great heights during the time of Moses as written in the book of Leviticus. Daily baths, washing of hands before meals, and obligatory baths for women after menstruation and childbirth were made a part of religious rituals. Soldiers had to bury their excrement outside the camp with a special paddle, and this implies a highly advanced of notion sanitation. Similarly advanced were the laws concerning leprosy (which probably included several skin disorders). These involve isolation of the patient, washing or burning of his clothing, and disinfecting his dwelling. The plague that hit Europe in the period 1347-1350, killing ¼ of the population, spared the Hebrew community because of good sanitation. The Jews were even blamed for the epidemics that they were persecuted. The Hebrews were pioneer in public health and the Bible may be regarded as the first textbook on sanitary legislation.

Central to the function of Nurses is the love and care of patients. Now as you receive your pins and caps this evening, you are about to board the boat to bring you to an "infinite voyage to caring". Infinite means endless! Like sailors who will sail for the first time, you must be armed with navigational instruments like compass to know your direction. And the navigational instruments are your SKA: the Skills, Knowledge and Attitude that you carry with you in caring for your patients. Knowledge is what you learned in this school, Skill is developed as you apply this knowledge in caring for your patients. Some will be less skillful, some will be very skillful in caring for their patients depending on your intellect and desire to learn. Attitude is also important because it's useless to be a nurse if you don't have the loving and caring attitude like that of a mother to her child. Mother and child relationship is the right attitude to emulate in fulfilling your Christian calling.

The white immaculate uniform that you wear as you take your cap symbolizes purity. Purity means freedom from adulterating matter. In the Bible, the white garment that is worn by saints who would be with Christ during the second coming speaks of the righteous deed of the saints. Thus, implying freedom from evil or sin.

And the light during the lighting of the candle symbolizes life. Life, of course, comes from the Lifegiver - and that is Jesus Christ. If ever your patient is saved from destruction or death, it is because it's the will of God.

And the caps and pins, both represents Responsibility. Like the captain of the ship, you are held responsible to veer the ship to safety. Now to all of you who will receive your cap and pin to assume the responsibility of a nurse, let me pose to you a challenge as I present to you the history of medicine and its future direction.

Advances in Medicine:

* In May 14, 1796, Edward Jenner performed the first vaccination on a small boy of 8, with the pus from the hands of an infected dairymaid with cowpox.

* Nineteenth century medicine was dominated by Bernard, Pasteur and Koch. All research scientists and not clinicians! Claude Bernard (1813-1878) discovered glycogen and its manufacture by the liver. His concept of internal secretion gave rise to the science of endocrinology.

* In 1546, pathogenic microorganism has been postulated by Fracastoro; bacteria were first seen by Leewenhook in 17th century. But their pathogenic nature was not realized until Lois Pasteur (1822-1895) demonstrated it conclusively. He introduced the Pasteurization process. Pasteur's inventions of antianthrax and antirabies vaccines confirmed Jenner's work on immunology.

* Robert Koch (1843-1910) discovered the anthrax bacillus, the cholera bacillus and the tubercle bacillus. His work ushered in the new era of public sanitation, by showing how water-borne epidemics, such as cholera and typhoid, could be controlled by water filtration.

* Joseph Lister (1827-912) introduced antiseptics and controlled sepsis of surgical wounds with the use of carbolic acid.

The 20th century has witnessed highly significant changes in the character of medicine because of a shift in perspective from infections to chronic degenerative diseases. World War I served to demonstrate to the U.S. army that typhoid vaccination could result in the prevention and eradication of typhoid fever.

* In 1922, Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully extracted and prepared the hormone insulin which could help control carbohydrate metabolism of diabetic patients.

* In 1907, Paul Ehrlich inaugurated modern chemotherapy with the development of a specific chemical agent against a specific organism. He introduced Arsphenamine to control syphilis. This chemical compound was called "606" because it was his 606th experiment.

* Alexander Flemming in 1928 discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic to be used in medicine. It's of great value in the treatment of Pneumococcal and gonococcal infection, as well as syphilis.

* The works of Gerhard Domagk (1932), Ernest Fourneau (1936) and Lionel Whitby (1938) led to the introduction of sulfa drugs in controlling Pneumoccocal pneumonia.

* In 1943, Albert Schatz, Elizabeth Bugie, and Selman Waksman isolated streptomycin. It was the first antibiotic to be of significance in the treatment of Tuberculosis.

It was soon followed by antibiotics obtained from fungi found in soils from many parts of the world; examples are chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin) and tetracycline.

As a result of the control of many infectious diseases, there was an increase in life expectancy. Before, the life expectancy is 50 years or less but now it has risen to 79.6 years for women and 73.8 years for men. But with this increase in lifespan, man is now faced with degenerative diseases, such as atheroschlerosis (lesions of blood vessels), arthritis, heart diseases, cancer, diabetes, etc. These degenerative diseases is now claiming the life of not only the ageing populace but also those who are on their prime of life because of our current lifestyle coupled with the defective medical approach. I say it's defective because the medicines that are said to treat diseases like for example diabetes will not cure or prolong the life of those suffering from this disease but may even shorten their life because of other diseases that may set in due to the side effects of the medications given to them. The present state of our scientifically proven, evidenced-based medical treatment so they claimed is not the answer to our ailing population who are constantly seeking and praying for a solution to their problem. The answer is in the latest medical approach called the Cellular and Biochemical Medicine, a system taking into consideration God-given principles on health and coupling it with the new approach on treatment - treating the cause and not the effect.

As the great inventor, Thomas Alba Edison said, "The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patient in the Care of the Human Frame, in DIET and in the CAUSE and PREVENTION of Disease." You, new nurses are in a position to make this prophecy come to pass. As the navigator of this ship called CARING, you are now given through this message a new navigating equipment which you can employ in your infinite voyage of caring. I challenge you to have an open mind and make use of this new system. Don't cling on using and supporting the present medical system when you have in your hand a patient who, instead of being nourished back to health is slowly deteriorating. Will you just let the life of your patient snap out of your loving care because you have not recommended to them this new dimension in health care? The life of your patient is in your hand. Are you willing and ready to be one of the future doctors that Edison is talking about?