18/09/2026
๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐. ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ก ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐๐ฅ๐.
ICYMI: Last September 4, the Philippine Nurses Association opened a new chapter in remembering the woman who helped begin its story.
The First Anastacia Giron-Tupas Memorial Lecture brought Filipino nurses together to revisit the life and contributions of our Founder and to reflect on what her ideals mean for nursing today and in the years to come. Through the insightful discussions of Dr. Annabelle Borromeo and Dr. Erlinda Palaganas, we were reminded that honoring our history is more than looking back. It is understanding where we came from so we can better determine where we are going.
As the first guest speaker, Dr. Annabelle Borromeo questioned the familiar expectation that Filipino nurses should always be โresilient,โ while also pointing out that resilience can become harmful when it teaches people to simply endure unsafe and unjust conditions. Thereby, calling for a shift from resilience toward defiance, not defiance for its own sake, but the courage to challenge unsafe staffing ratios, inadequate compensation, moral injury, burnout, missing resources, broken equipment, and other systemic failures that affect both nurses and patients. Furthermore, Dr. Borromeo connected this call to the legacy of Anastacia Giron-Tupas by presenting four areas that could help the profession. The first was strategic and political parity. She called for nursing leaders, particularly chief nursing officers, to have a meaningful place in major institutional decisions alongside other health and finance executives. She also encouraged nurses to use clinical data to demonstrate how nursing affects patient outcomes, including infection rates, pressure injuries, falls, and readmissions. The second was the responsible use of technology. Dr. Borromeo discussed how artificial intelligence, natural language models, and automated systems could reduce the burden of documentation and other repetitive tasks, but it should not replace the human side of nursing; instead, it must create more time for empathy, listening, presence, and touch. The third was the establishment of a just culture. Dr. Borromeo distinguished human fallibility within flawed systems from reckless misconduct. She discussed the importance of psychological safety, in which nurses can report near-misses and safety concerns without fear of automatic punishment, allowing institutions to learn and improve rather than simply assign blame. The fourth was the need to bridge the gap between academic preparation and clinical reality
The memorial lecture continued with Dr. Erlinda Palaganas, who discussed how to carry forward the vision of Anastacia Giron-Tupas in contemporary nursing leadership. Dr. Palaganas called for a shift โfrom monument to movement,โ anchored on five living mandates: dignity, voice, formation, evidence, and solidarity. These include protecting the dignity of patients and nurses, ensuring that nurses have a place in policy and decision-making, forming professionals who can think critically and act ethically, using research and technology responsibly, and strengthening solidarity across the profession. She also introduced Kintsugi leadership, which calls for leaders to accept responsibility, protect those who were harmed, and pursue meaningful reform. For Dr. Palaganas, leadership must be rigorous but humane, firm but fair, and courageous without becoming cruel. Before the end of her talk, Dr. Palaganas reminded the nurses that legacy is carried through everyday choices, including the courage to speak, the commitment to fairness, the pursuit of truth, and the willingness to share power. โLet us not merely carry her name,โ she said. โLet us carry her nerve.โ
The inaugural lecture was not simply a tribute to Anastacia Giron-Tupas. It was a reminder to every Filipino nurse that we are inheritors of a vision and that each of us has a role in carrying it forward.
๐๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฎ, ๐ฌ๐ ๐ง๐๐ข๐๐ข๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐ค๐ช๐ง ๐๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฃ๐๐ฎ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ.
๐๐ค๐๐๐ฎ, ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ช๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฃ๐๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ฉ๐๐.
๐๐ค๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ง๐ค๐ฌ, ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ช๐๐ก๐ ๐ค๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ฉ ๐ช๐จ.
To access the full article by Nurse Carl Balita, you may read it here: https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/09/11/opinion/columns/living-the-legacy-the-vision-of-anastacia-giron-tupas/2422738
