Angela Rose Cudia

2NUR3
Community Health Nursing
TLA 1
GUTOM
The Philippines is well known because of its undeniably rich history, paradise-like tourist
spots, great and talented citizens with innate cheerful and happy personalities despite of the
troubles they experience, and other reasons that made an impact to the whole world. But there is
another reason why this country is known in this present time, and that reason is the numerous
lists of the problems or hassles of its citizens.
The documentary Gutom produced by Sine Totoo: Philippine Agenda discussed a great
problem of the country that even today, has not yet been resolved after the long years of
existence. The documentary filmed the lives of different Filipinos who are suffering from poverty
and other poverty-caused problems. The families who have been documented have different
stories to tell, however these families also have similarities with each other which is the
explanation of why they are in a difficult current state right now as seen in the short film.
The rich and the poor are evident in the Philippines. A big part of the countrys set-up is
always the rich having a good and proper education, a comfortable shelter, has the ability to
acquire three complete meals in a day, and experience goodness in life. On the other hand, the
poor gets, perhaps a minimal amount of what the rich people have. It seems like the quote Life is
unfair became one of the favorites of the Filipinos who are experiencing or are suffering from
this problem of the society. But the other set-up of the country that people can observe in the
present time is: the unfortunate ones work harder compare before and find an ethical way, just to
obtain education to improve their life, and to establish themselves for better and healthy living.
This positive news turns out to be a motivation for other people that lets them escape difficulties
and being included in the issues of the humanity.
There are a lot of reasons why people, in some parts of the country experience hunger for
a long period of time. It is discussed in the documentary that having a lack of knowledge
regarding family planning has a great influence on this problem. A normal case scenario would
be: a married husband and wife or couples living-in together lack knowledge on what they can
have in the future concerning the building or creation of family and working for them. They are
most likely to have children count of more than two or higher than five and then eventually live
in a hard situation where in the fathers salary doesnt compromise with the number of the family
he needs to feed and support. This reason affects the family in a lot of ways especially when his
wife is pregnant and doesnt get the proper nutrition she needs and the baby inside her needs. This
may cause an advanced problem in the future with just a simple diet problem.
Another issue discussed in the documentary is the issue in population. As seen on the
video, there are three main reasons why there is such an issue and these are: 1.) Education 2.)

Knowledge 3.) Food. There is a saying Education is a key to success that we have tattooed in
our minds and soul since ancient times. Education is vital to the humanity because with
education, we can guide ourselves in what actions must be done and should not. Knowledge gives
us a power to have a progressive function in the society; and lastly, food, helps us to be tough and
functional as well.
As a citizen of the country and as a beginning nurse, I have thought of some possible
solutions regarding the problem on hand. First is providing free nursing care by joining medical
missions in different areas of Luzon, or if given a chance, in different parts of the Philippines.
With this medical mission, I would be serving clients and help them deal and handle their health
concerns in the level of my knowledge and skills. Second solution is to explore schools and give
free health assessments and health teachings for awareness. School nursing as a part of the
Community Health Nursing plays a significant role in the community wherein Level II students
like me can attend to students needs concerning their health and education. And the teachings
that will be done can serve as the students guide in living a healthy lifestyle. Third solution that I
thought of is to have a congregation of mothers in a community and conduct a health teaching
regarding on the needed care their kids need and a lecture or seminar about the alternative
medications, especially herbal medicines that they can use for the improvement of their health,
and the last solution is to help conduct the different health programs given by the Department of
Health, and to disseminate the program to the members of the community. Through this, we are
not only supporting the government on their aspirations for the improvement, management and
protection of health among the citizens of the country, but also helping the concern ones in
supervising the communitys wellness.
Nursing in the community setting has different roles, and these roles are: 1.) Clinician,
wherein a nurse is a health care provider who takes care of the sick people at home or in the
health centers. 2.) Health Educator, who aims the promotion of health and the prevention of
illnesses through educating people. 3.) Facilitator, who establishes linkages by referral system. 4.)
Supervisor, who monitors and supervises patients and the health care team, and 5.) Researcher,
who conducts researches relevant to nursing services to improve provision of health care.
Nursing has a large scope of roles and has a unique, creative, and scientific-based way in
providing service to people. The documentary became an eye opener for me, and it made me
think of what my role really is as a citizen of the country and as a student nurse. Considering a lot
of factors that affects the health in my and in the community, I would want to play a vital role in
to lessen the detrimental distractions of health and support the advocacy of all health care
professionals.