Central Philippine University - College of Nursing


The Central Philippine University College of Nursing constitute as one of the schools and colleges of Central Philippine University. Founded in 1906 as Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses, it is the first School of Nursing in the Philippines. The school later changed its name to Iloilo Mission Hospital School of Nursing when Union Mission Hospital changed its name to Iloilo Mission Hospital.
After postwar World War II, the school was transferred to the main campus of Central Philippine University where it was also renamed to Central Philippine University College of Nursing.
Later, the college had been renamed to the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences when the Pharmacy degree was re-established and added to the college. In joint with the re-establishment of the Pharmacy program, the Medical Technology program from the College of Arts and Sciences was absorbed by the college.
The Medical Technology program of the college separated in August 2017 and became the College of Medical Laboratory Science. Later by sequence of events through a university order, the Pharmacy program of the college eventually separated and became the College of Pharmacy.
The college was renamed back to College of Nursing after the said academic programs stemmed into separate colleges.
The college at present offers academic program in Nursing. The college is also one of the leading nursing schools in the country, ranking seventh based on the school's performance in the Philippine Nursing Licensure Examination.
The College of Nursing maintains affiliation with CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital as its base hospital for college's clinical training program and off campus academic classes.

History

Foundation

When the Philippines was opened to the Protestant missionaries after the islands was ceded to the United States by Spain through the Treaty of Paris, one of the early Protestant sects to come to the Philippine islands were the Presbyterians. Iloilo is one of the very first places where the said sect started a mission. Thereafter, a comity agreement was made that the Philippine islands would be divided into different Protestant denominations for missions to avoid future conflicts. Thus, the Western Visayas region came to the Baptists yet some Protestant sects were allowed like Presbyterians to do a mission also.
In 1906, five years when Iloilo Mission Hospital was founded by the Protestant Presbyterian American missionaries Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall and his wife in 1901, the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses was established. It was Union Mission Hospital which set the stage for nursing as a profession in the Philippines. Like other professions, nursing in the Philippines evolved from the apprenticeship system. This system laid the foundation upon which the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses was built and after which other schools of nursing were later patterned.
Later, the Union Mission Hospital changed its name to Union Hospital and later to Iloilo Mission Hospital where the school changed its name to Iloilo Mission Hospital School of Nursing. The Protestant Baptists are in association with the Presbyterians through the years since the hospital is operating and due to that, the hospital expanded where a piece of land was bought in Jaro City (now a district of Iloilo City to cater more patients.

World War II and reconstruction

Thereafter, World War II started which some of the hospital facilities was destroyed. Soon after the war ended, the opening of the school of nursing was initiated by Miss Loreto D. Tupaz. Dr. Henry S. Waters, the postwar director of Iloilo Mission Hospital and also the principal of the Iloilo Mission Hospital School of Nursing in 1946-1947, pressed for the offering, with Central Philippine College, a collegiate course leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. The director of the Bureau of Private Schools and the members of the board of examiners for nurses authorized the opening of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing four-year course in 1947. Dr. Henry S. Waters served as acting dean of the new College of Nursing at Central Philippine College. When Dr. Waters returned to the United States, Dr. Teofilo Marte served as the executive secretary ; and Miss Loreto D. Tupaz who finished the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree at CPU, was the acting dean from 1949 to 1950 and served in this capacity until the arrival of Miss Esther Salzman and an American Baptist Foreign Mission Society missionary nurse, who held the deanship from 1950 to 1961. During her term, the college offered three curricular programs: the Bachelor of Science in Nursing four-year course, the GN-Bachelor of Science in Nursing Supplemental Course and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing five-year course.
Miss Tupaz and Miss Salzman worked together to develop Central Philippine College of Nursing into a college of distinction, recognized both in the Philippines and abroad. Miss Salzman served as dean until 1961 when she retired in the United States. Miss Lily Plagata, MSN, was appointed to the deanship. When the latter resigned and went abroad, she was replaced by Miss Carmen Centeno, MS, during the remaining months of 1963. Miss Centeno, however, also left for the United States and Miss Loreto D. Tupaz, who finished her MA degree at CPU, resumed the deanship, assisted by Miss Maria Pablico, MSN. Miss Pablico also resigned to work in the U.S. From 1963-1973 Miss Tupaz continued to administer the three course programs of the college---the BSN five-year course, the CCT course, and the BSN Supplemental Course.
On May 1, 1972, Mrs. Natividad C. Caipang, GN, BSN, MA, ; CPH, was appointed assistant dean in preparation for the retirement of Miss Tupaz in 1974. In 1973, Mrs. Caipang went on the Exchange Visitor’s Study Tour Program in the United States and Southeast Asia to visit nursing schools. This tour was jointly sponsored by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society and CPU. Miss Tupaz was appointed as nursing consultant to Mrs. Caipang until her retirement in February 1974.
Mrs. Caipang served as dean from 1973 to 1989. Under her administration, the college curricula underwent several changes in response to the trends in the nursing education at the national level. It was also during her term that the College was accredited with Level II deregulated status and later with Level III.
After 16 years of deanship, Mrs. Caipang retired in May, 1989. During the search for a qualified educational leader for the college, an administrative committee chaired by Mrs. Wilma S. Punzalan with Mrs. Lydia F. Robles and Mrs. Genera S. Maglaya as members, was appointed to administer the College until May 1990.

1990s to present

On May 1, 1990, upon her return from the United States as a recipient of a doctoral enrichment program in nursing education at the George Mason University in Virginia, U.S., Dr. Betty T. Polido was appointed Dean, a position she held until May, 2000. During her nine-year stint as a dean, she accomplished the following: Implementation of Associate in Health Science Education as a preparatory course in Nursing ; Level III Re-accreditation granted in 1994 and 1999 each for five years; transcultural Nursing Program with Truman State University; inclusion of the College among the Outstanding Schools with Highest Performance in the Nurses’ Licensure Examination; the strengthening of the outreach program of the College of Nursing with the setting up of the KABALAKA Reproductive Health Center as training institution, implementer of various health programs and services and recipients of grants and funds from local and international support agencies; and upgrading of the New Level 2 Skills Laboratory.
On June 1, 2000, Mrs. Lily Lynn V. Somo was appointed Officer-In Charge of the College of Nursing for school year 2000-2001 and has served as the Dean of the college until 2009. During her term, the college has grown to become one of the biggest college in the university with more than 2000 student nurses enrolled. In spite the increase in the population, the college has high passing percentage in the nursing licensure examination. As a proof of this, the Commission on Higher Education acknowledged the college as one of top performing nursing schools in the Philippines ranking seventh among schools with 1000+ examinees. It was also during her tenure that the college transferred to its present location the Loreto D. Tupaz building.
Last June 2009, Prof. Faith Leila Querol was appointed Officer-In-Charge of the college of nursing. Starting that month, the college implemented the new Bachelor of Science in Nursing curriculum.
At present, the college still maintains its status as one of the top nursing schools in the Philippines alongside with its Level III accreditation. Recently, the college absorb some of the allied health sciences programs from other colleges of Central Philippine University which is the reason why the college was renamed to Central Philippine University College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.
The Clinical Laboratory science department separated from college in August 2017 and became College of Medical Laboratory Science. The Pharmacy program on the other hand of the college separated also thereafter and became College of Pharmacy.
The separation of the 2 academic programs paved the way for the renaming of college back to the College of Nursing.

Facilities

The college offers various facilities for academic classes and clinical training on the main campus of Central Philippine University and CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital. The structures that is part or occupied alongside with the facilities of the college include:

Loreto D. Tupaz Hall

A modern piece of architecture, the Loreto D. Tupaz Hall houses the College of Nursing and other medical facilities. As early as 1936, Dr. Henry Waters was head of the College of Nursing based in CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital there was a dream already to put up a separate school of nursing with a building of its own. This was reiterated in the late 1980s, but the reconstruction of the Henry Luce III library was given focus hence it was set aside then. During that time, the College of Nursing was occupying the ground floor of the Franklin Hall.
Groundbreaking for the new home of the college of nursing was held on January 19, 2002 and was dedicated the following year. The original name Centennial Nursing Building was later changed to Loreto Tupaz Building on 21 May 2006 and later to Loreto D. Tupaz Hall in memory of Dean Loreto D. Tupaz, pioneer and pillar of the nursing profession in CPU and even in the Philippines. A single glass elevator was later installed in 2015 through a donation of the college's nursing alumni.
Some general sciences subjects of the college on the other hand, is held at the Roblee Science Hall.

CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital

Founded in 1901 as Union Mission Hospital that holds the distinction up to this day as the first Protestant founded and American hospital in the Philippines by Joseph Andrew Hall and his wife Jean Russell Hall, who are both American missionaries under the auspices of the Presbyterian church in the United States. The hospital has various facilities for the clinical training and off-campus classes of the college for Nursing, Pharmacy, Medical technology and Respiratory therapy programs of the college. In general, the CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital which serves the community in general, it serves as the official university hospital of Central Philippine University. The hospital is independent yet it is administered by the members of the Central Philippine University Board of Trustees and Corporation.

Cultures and traditions

Capping and Candle Lighting Ceremony

Traditionally held at the Rose Memorial Auditorium before a fourth year nursing student who will have their clinical training at the CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital, the CPU College of Nursing is the first to pioneer such kind of tradition that was later adopted by some nursing schools in the Philippines. The traditional ceremony involves students don their CPU-IMH nursing uniforms, the lighting up of candles and the placement of a nursing cap on the heads of women nursing students.

The Logo and Centralian Nurse Pin

The Centralian Nurse Pin designates and identifies the wearer as a graduate of Central Philippine University College of Nursing. The design of the pin bears the logo of the college. The pin is a circle enclosed in laurel leaves which symbolizes excellence and the university's vision of Exemplary Christian Education for Life. Each Centralian nurse is called to serve the profession with excellence and to embody the Christian ideals taught by the Alma Mater. The upper half of the other circle burst the word "Iloilo Mission Hospital" to signify the roots of the college - the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses, the first nursing school in the Philippines. The lower half of the circle bursts the word "Nursing" to signify the profession. The inner circle has the acronym CPU which stands for Central Philippine University, the Alma Mater. The pin is made in gold and with the letters, CPU, in blue, the two being the colors of the university.
Upon graduation, the Centralian Nurse Pin is bestowed upon the graduating student nurses in a Pinning Ceremony. This symbolizes that the student nurse has satisfactorily completed her training and is now ready to work as a professional nurse. The Directors of the Nursing Service of the different affiliated hospitals as well as the College's faculty members present the pin to the graduating nurses.

Alumni

The college's nursing alumni association is a composition through association with the Capiz Emmanuel Hospital and Iloilo Mission Hospital and organized as Central Philippine University-Capiz Emmanuel Hospital and Iloilo Mission Hospital Nurses Alumni Association. It was established in 1925 as Union Mission Hospital Nurses Alumnae Association and later on November 9, 1935, it was renamed to Iloilo Mission Hospital Nurses Alumnae Association. Finally in 1960, the association adopted its present name.
The nurses alumni association sponsors the annual Loreto D. Tupaz Memorial Lecture and association's ball held which is held traditionally in the last week of March. The association is composed of nursing graduates from the said institutions and maintains various chapters throughout the country, United States and other countries outside the Philippines.
The college is the first nursing school in the Philippines and since its founding in 1906, it has produced and associated with notable alumni and other people. The notable people of the college include: