Trinity Observer Volume 53 Issue No. 2

Features
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BECAUSE WE CAN’T WRITE OUR OWN STORIES
BY: Mayzelle Riz A. Vejano
The last few weeks of 2020 felt like reading a hopeful epilogue after the unfortunate
climax and falling action of the first installment in a book series. When everything
before that last chapter didn’t go the way you wanted them to, you’d hold on to the
last pages and hope you’d find a hint that things could still change in the next book.
It felt like this for a lot of us; like the new year meant everything would change.
And just like a series’ die-hard fan, we enthusiastically welcomed the next
chapter.
Four months into 2021 and I’m stuck here at home, looking
back to last year when a lot of us were hoping that 2021
would signify our recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
How are we now, really? I’d say it’s the exact opposite of
our wishful thinking. We treated January as a fresh start
and welcomed the year with smiles and hope, but vanished
immediately when we realized that we could’ve
gotten millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as
early as January if all the requirements were submitted
and processed on time.
Fear started to creep in more when the first UK variant
was detected in the country. February, the month of love,
would have been a great reason to smile, if only we could meet
all our loved ones. It was a pain to send chocolates and flowers
in place of our presence. March had the highest daily COVID-19
cases since the start of the pandemic and broke those records day after
day. Later that month, the NCR Plus (NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal) was
The Perception of SLCN Students on Online Return
Demonstrations and Related Learning Experiences
BY: Reem Guada Y. Lee
It has been a year ever since we shifted to online classes due to the pandemic. Because
of the shift to online classes, freshmen Nursing students in particular are doing their Return
Demonstrations (retdems) while sophomores are busy with Related Learning Experience
(RLE) in the comfort of their homes. To get their opinion and stand on this, a survey was
conducted and they were asked the following questions: What are their thoughts on this?
Do they find it effective? What are their doubts and fears on this? Are they able to perform
the tasks properly? Do they get enough feedback from their professors with regards
to performing the task correctly? What are they hoping for? The freshmen and sophomore
respondents’ names were omitted. Here are their responses:
Based on the answers of some freshmen students, they find it hard because of some
circumstances and such practical skills are better learned in a face-to-face setting. A freshman
stated: “As a nursing student with this kind of situation right now, even if we want to
learn practical skills in face-to-face classes, we really don’t have any choice at all. But we are
privileged enough to gain knowledge through online classes since it’s the only best alternative
solution that we have now.”
For the sophomores, they find their RLEs helpful and informative because of their
hardworking professors, but then clinical duties are what nursing students look forward
to.“Despite the pandemic, I am very much happy with our RLEs, for our professors are
trying their best in order to make our RLE rotations enjoyable yet filled with useful information.
Every rotation leads to different lessons and realizations, nursing-wise and life lessons
in general.”
When asked about the effectiveness, freshmen students do not find it effective in an
online set-up because of limited equipment, and since it is one of the practical skills nurses
need to learn, it is best done under guidance and supervision (personally) by the professor.
“I can’t say that it is fully effective since we are not able to personally witness the
demonstration, and I think that sometimes we miss small details in performing the demonstration.”
Freshmen students fear that they only learn through knowledge and not through practical
skills, which is more needed in this field, and they doubt whether they can do and apply it
correctly or not.
“Life of a nurse is all about hand-on situations and I think with this lack of knowledge
there’ll be certain mistakes made in the future if we are asked by a professor to do a task
since we don’t have the practice at all.”
placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) once again.
Déjà vu, right? Almost exactly a year ago, we were also isolating ourselves inside
our homes. We were wishing to see our friends. We didn’t like the online set-up
and we didn’t want to miss any opportunities outside and families could barely
hold on and provide for their needs. The same concerns and what-if ’s for the
second time. You’ve gone through it once and you think you can deal with it a
second time, but you end up coming up with nothing.
Time has changed, but time has also brought us back to this experience
that we hoped we’d never face again. At this point, it feels like coping
means watching things happen and trying to live with it because
you don’t have a choice. We can’t choose when there are no
options.
Most of us are hoping that things wouldn’t be the same
throughout the next pages. I know a lot of us wish we could
write it on our own and make things happen the way that’s
ideal for everyone. If only our wishful thinking could come
to life, we’d all be back to how it used to be before the pandemic.
Unfortunately, what’s ideal cannot always turn into a
reality. We want to take things in our own hands and give it
our best but sometimes, even after we do, things don’t change.
We can’t be the author of our own lives even if we work hard
enough to be in control. Because we can’t write our own stories, we
just play our part in it, and fulfill that role. We keep that role, survive,
and hope that whoever is writing this story will let us see a better epilogue
soon. That’s our 2021 story.
Sophomores also worry about relatively the same thing.
“I do fear that we may not be able to perform as well when it comes to the clinical field
due to the lack of physical return demonstrations. But all we can do right now is to hope that
this pandemic would end soon in order for us to make up for the lack of clinical exposure.”
However, freshman students said they are able to perform well with different ways
and techniques such as time management and the use of learning materials provided by the
professors.
“With the help of lectures and hand-on practices from YouTube medical videos specifically,
I am able to perform my tasks properly. On top of that, my mother is a doctor so
she is helping me whenever I ask for a certain procedure that a task is asking to do.”
While there are some sophomore students who struggle from time to time and there
are students who are able to perform well by taking one step at a time.
“I could say that I could perform the tasks properly, sometimes it’s quite hard to balance
things out in terms of RLE outputs and lecture exams. But little by little, I try to prioritize
and organize my tasks by scheduling them. Organizing and prioritizing are very
important when it comes to dealing with exams and school work.”
To conclude the survey, both freshmen and sophomore students, and even professors,
are hoping for face-to-face classes as they think it is the most effective way for them to learn.
“Just like others in general, I am hoping for a face-to-face class soon even though it’s going
to be limited, it’s nice to have hands-on practical learning so that I am able to apply it to my
future profession.”
“Although RLE is quite successful for me, I think we learn best if we’re physically
exposed to the field. That’s why I am hoping that this pandemic ends soon in order for us to
learn better. We would be able to master specific kinds of skills if we try and practice them
to actual people. All we could do right now is to hope and pray that this pandemic would
end, for the betterment of our learning and for the betterment of everyone’s lives.”
There are a lot of courses which require physical and practical learning, and are best
learned in a face-to-face setting for the students to better apply specific skills. Nursing students
look forward to the clinical duties and capping and pinning ceremony, but due to the
pandemic and the current situation, such ceremonies are not allowed. The digital shift of
education is indeed challenging. It’s one of the toughest challenges given to us, but we are
stronger than we think.
Literary