Summer Integration Program held

Four nurses joined the Summer Integration Program (SIP) conducted by the Visayas Primary Health Care Services in the island barangay of Hilutungan, Cordova last June 4 – 6.

The SIP is a yearly activity that offers interested students and health professionals the chance to live with the communities , share their life experiences and render health services.

Nurses Zane Omega, Hanna Liza Lora, Arianne Rama, and Vernon Estrera lived with foster families during the three days, joined them in fishing and participated in their daily household chores. The nurses also conducted health education classes on control of acute respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases among the residents, mostly of whom are fisherfolks. The people’s organization Kahugpungan sa Gagmayng Mangingisda sa Hilutungan (KAGAMAHI) hosted the exposure program.


The nurses said that they learned to see their patients not merely as medical cases but as persons whose illness is deeply rooted in the social, economic and political spheres of our society. They realized that the people prioritize their economic needs more than their health needs. They also realized that as nurses, they can work together with the people’s organization to equip the residents with knowledge and skills on health so that they shall be empowered to attend to their health needs.


The island barangay is a beautiful tourist spot famous for its marine sanctuary. The residents subsist on fishing and guso (a type of edible algae) growing using crude fishing implements that give them barely enough income for their basic needs. Health services are direly lacking as exemplified by the lack of personnel and services in the barangay health center; the local midwife and municipal health officer of Cordova visit the island only once a month. Delivery is generally done by traditional birth attendants and the residents have to go to the mainland Cordova for their health needs, taking a pumpboat ride of P 30 for a way.

The SIP aims to develop among health students and professionals a critical awareness of the social determinants of health and to enhance their social responsibility and involvement.