Goodbye Xavier, Liceo Here I Come

“Goodbye Xavier, Liceo here I come,” a normal phrase from nursing students of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan who have a sense of impending doom. It has been a tradition in the College of Nursing to have a lot (half of the population) of third year students fail in NCM 102 (Medical-Surgical Nursing). And if they do fail, they have two options to choose from. One, they become “off-sem” or they don’t go to school until NCM 102 is offered again to students. Second is the very difficult and heart-wrenching decision to transfer to another school.

All my life as a nursing student, I have been constantly challenged to put my gameface on and do my best to excel because I have to live to the expectations of being an Atenean, a student nurse from Xavier University. We are invigorated whenever a clinical instructor (CI) reminds us and says, “This is Xavier University, if you can’t live up to its standards, then you better transfer to another school.” This may sound harsh but it only shows that our CI’s care for us and they don’t want us to fail. I have a lot of CI’s who I really look up too because they are the ones who I want to be someday. Like my CI’s I want to be a graduate of Xavier University and be a pure blooded Atenean nurse who is committed, competent, compassionate, and a good conscience.

I remember my clinical instructor, whom I idolize, telling the class that we shouldn’t cheat because we are only degrading our intelligence, because every one of us has the capacity to excel because we are all intelligent, if we wouldn’t be then we wouldn’t have been accepted at Xavier. And this is quite true because out of 1000 plus applicants from around the Philippines, only a few are chosen, around 400. The XU College of Nursing does not accept transferees from other schools and second coursers. This may be because having a small number of students would provide an environment conducive for learning and so that the famed 100% passing rate in the board exams tradition won’t be discontinued. One of the greatest fears of nursing students from Xavier is that they will be the one to break the record of having a 100% passing rate because ever since the College of Nursing opened, all of its batches have graduated with a 100% passing rate. As my clinical instructor would say, “The problem is not passing the board, but topping it.” It's no wonder why Xavier is recognized as a Center of Exellence in Nursing.

I am proud to say that I am a student nurse from Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan. But sadly I would be transferring to another school next semester. Fortunately I’m not transferring to any other school in Cagayan de Oro, thank God! I’m not transferring because I failed, I got kicked out, or I can’t afford to go to school anymore. I’m transferring because I’m moving away somewhere this coming April or May and I don’t want to say where for now. But even if I transfer to another school, I would always be an Atenean at heart. I have been studying at Xavier University since high school and it’s very unfortunate that I can’t graduate as an Atenean nurse. But I will continue to practice what I believe in and all that I have learned during my formation as an Atenean.