Community Nursing

Last March 15 I went to Caloocan Health Department for my Community Care Management rotation/duty. The first day is a requisite attendance to the general orientation provided by the Caloocan Health Department. If you failed to attend the orientation you will not be allowed to complete the 2 weeks rotation. The orientation is a mere briefing about what to expect in the area and the rules and regulation of the agency. They will also ask you to remember their Mission and Vision, which is actually almost the same as the previous areas I have covered. From the orientation I also learned that there were 188 barangays, 2 Districts and 40 Health Centers in Caloocan City. After the general orientation my group was herded by our CI in a corner and told us to be ready for the survey and ocular we have to conduct in Barangay's 69 and 70 the next day. Each of us have to survey at least five families. We were then allowed to go home.


The next day around 8 am we proceeded to Francisco Health Center, we had a short briefing and then immediately went to Barangay 69 and 70. The place is quite congested, the alleys were less than two arms length wide. The houses were either made of stone or mixed materials of wood and concrete. I am assuming that the place was previously a squatter's area because the houses were built with no consideration with the basic building code. The lot were probably granted to them in the end.


The families we surveyed have at least one of the family member earning 10k a month. The average size of the 50 families that we surveyed is 6. Almost all of the families are relying on the Health Center for their Health and Medical/Dental services. The Health Center is actively pushing immunization for all babies. All of them uses water sealed lavatories, and they are getting their water from the Water Company. Some of them are not drinking tap water but mineral bottled water. There were a lot of houses that do not have refrigerator, hence food storage for left over food is a problem. There were a lot of kids below 5 years old running, crying, and playing around the narrow alleys. You can also find some ladies doing their laundries along the narrow alleys. There were also a lot of teens, men and women who are simply idling and talking along the alleys. Most men are in their supposedly productive years but are out of work.


Two days before the end of our 2 weeks rotation we conducted health teachings concerning environmental sanitation. We distributed reading materials and trash bags to each families. After the health teaching we went to the house of one our groupmates to prepare the materials for our case presentation the next day. The presentation went on without a problem and our community rotation officially ended.

This is my third exposure to community nursing. My previous assignments brought me to the communities along the river bank of Tullahan River and the quaint barrios of Obando, Bulacan. I have to give it to the Public Health Nurses and Doctors their dedication to their work. All of the health workers I have worked with are really passionate about their work. They were able to establish themselves as an integral part of the community. I am pretty darn well sure that they are not getting the compensation that commensurate their hard work. But this does not hinder them in doing a good job.