Iloilo Mission Hospital

Iloilo Mission Hospital Main Hall in the hospital's new location in Jaro, Iloilo City. The structure which was built in 1929 was finished in 1931.

When the Philippines was ceded by Spain in 1898 to the United States thought the Treaty of Paris (1898), the country was opened to a new faith brought by the Americans, the Protestantism. One of the early Protestant sects that came to the Philippines islands where the Presbyterians. That time when the Presbyterian Americans came to the Philippines, they were allowed to go in different places in the islands to do their mission works, and Iloilo became the very first place where they set foot because of its prominence as the second next important city after Manila in the socio-economic sector due to the sugar industry boom when its port was opened to the international trade and commerce.[13]

On February 13, 1900 the Philippine islands opened up to the American Protestant missions, Joseph Andrew Hall, an American missionary doctor with his wife Jean Russell Hall who are working under auspices of the Presbyterian Church in the United States see the need of opening a mission hospital in Iloilo, thus in 1901, they erected a temporary eight-bed nipa and bamboo structure clinic at Calle Amparo (now Ledesma Street). The clinic-dispensary hospital served as a venue for the treatment of health care to the very poor in the surrounding community under the help of the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in the United States.[6] During the same year, a chapel was also built through the benevolent funds from the Church of Yonkers in the United States from near the hospital and was named after Dr. George Pentecost, a donating clergyman of the said church.

Iloilo Mission Hospital (IMH) Map with (1) IMH Centennial Building, (2) IMH Main Hall, (3) IMH Medical Arts Building, (4) IMH Chapel, and (5) CPU-IMH Medical Education Training Center (IMH METC).

In 1906, due to the growing demand of hospital space to for the expanding healthcare needs of the community, the Halls purchased a lot on Iznart Street in Iloilo City (the present day Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Iloilo) near the Casa Real de Iloilo (Royal House of Iloilo), the old Iloilo provincial capitol. They built a 25-bed hospital made of bamboo and wood with the help of carpenters and an American ex-soldier, Mr. Renfrew.

CPU-Iloilo Mission Hospital banner.

With the hospital's expansion there came the need for a training program for nurses. The search for young Filipino girls to train as nurses was difficult, considering that many never heard the word “nurse” before, nor seen one at work. Finally, through their church connections, Reverend Paulino Solarte, a Presbyterian pastor, helped to recruit two of his sisters to undergo the training for two months. Jean Russell Hall who was not a nurse commenced the task of teaching the girls the basics of reading and writing English as well as arithmetic while Dr. Joseph A. Hall taught them to understand common medical terms, to identify surgical instruments, to make medical supplies, and to take the patient's vital signs such as temperature, pulse and respiration. Classes were held every afternoon at the house of the Halls. Unfortunately, the Solarte sisters got disheartened by the conduct of the patients who treated them rudely in demeaning ways as if they were housemaids. They decided to leave the training program. This unfortunate turn of events would have discouraged others with less determination, but not the Halls. They continued the difficult task of searching for young Filipino women to be trained as nurses with only "willingness to work" as the entrance requirement.

At long last, two young sisters from Leon, Iloilo, Dorotea Caldito, Basilio Caldito who were laundry staff for the Union Mission Hospital, agreed to help the American missionary nurse, Elizabeth Brinton who arrived on June 3, 1906. Miss Brinton was assigned to take charge of the nursing service as well as the training program for nurses. Thereafter two more young women agreed to join the nursing training program. They were Nicasia Cada from Oton, Iloilo and Felipe de la Pena from Hippodromo, Iloilo City. Felipa's mother, Petra de la Pena, was a very sick patient of Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall. After her recovery, she persuaded her daughter to join the training, and so Felipa stayed on. These four young women, who were just beginning to learn to read and write, comprised the first group of nursing students who started their training in 1906 and finished in 1909. During the training, the girls were made to wear a red calico uniform, with full sleeves gathered to a band just above the elbow and a white cap to keep their hair in place.

In June 1906, Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall officially opened the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses, the first school of nursing in the Philippines. Jean R. Hall was a valuable helpmate to Dr. Hall. She helped in the training of the young trainees, in addition to her other duties in the hospital. Shortly after the opening of the training school, however, there were difficulties in the organizational set-up of the newly opened hospital and school because of the scheduled furlough of the Halls. Fortunately Dr. Hall's resourcefulness paved the way for a solution to the problem. He requested the Foreign Mission Society to send a reliever. Another missionary doctor, Dr. Mackel, who was scheduled to go to China, took over temporarily. When he left, Dr. Creel, from the government Quarantine Office, took over briefly. Shortly, Dr. Raphael C. Thomas of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS), willingly accepted to fill in for Dr. Joseph A. Hall until his return from furlough. Dr. Hall also arranged to get help in the person of Miss Amelia Klein, an American government nurse stationed in Manila, who came on for salary for six months to help Miss Brinton with the nursing service and training program.

Since the hospital's founding in 1901, it is noted that the Protestant Presbyterian and the Protestant Baptist missionaries were very supportive of the medical work of the Union Mission Hospital and its training school for nurses (Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses). Both mission agencies saw the need for a united effort in order to give good quality services to the region, and so in 1907, the Presbyterian Mission and the American Baptist Mission officially decided to unite, with the Union Mission Hospital as the center for their medical work in the Visayas region.

Unexpectedly, Basilia Caldito dropped out of the training program, leaving three students Dorotea Caldito, Nicasia Cada and Felipe de la Peña to finish the course. During the training of the three remaining young women, enrichment of their learning experiences was generously supplied by American educators who were assigned as supervising teachers in Iloilo. The first was Mr. George Swank, a Harvard University graduate who taught the nursing students English in night classes with two lessons in a week for over two years. When he returned home to the United States, another English teacher, Richard Bough, took over and taught them for another year. Mr. Bough became impressive with the young three women to learn fast and speak fluently. Follow-up classes were also conducted by Miss Brinton. She taught the said three remaining students addition, multiplication and division to enable them to get the right proportion of the drugs prescribed by the physicians. Though a busy one in her work in the hospital and the training school for nurses, Miss Brinton married businessman John Broadman, an American businessman in Iloilo in latter part of 1907. She served the training school for nurses as a principal from June 1906 to 1907. After she got married, she returned to the United States with her husband.

In latter part of 1907, Christine Benedict took over as the second superintendent of nurses at Union Mission Hospital and as principal of Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses. The training of the three nurses continued under the able guidance of Miss Benedict with the assistance of Amelia Klein who, after her six months work earlier with Miss Brinton in 1906, decided to come back as a Baptist missionary nurse in 1907.

In 1909, the first graduation was held successfully with the three nursing student graduates Dorotea Caldito Nicasia Cada and Felipe de la Peña after finishing their training. The commencement exercises took place at the Pentecost Chapel. One of the special features of the program was the beautiful violin music rendered by Don Gil Lopez, assisted by his three daughters; Benita, Marcela and Honey. The said gesture became consistently offered by the Lopezes every graduation program of the training school for nurses until Don Gil Lopez's death on July 16, 1946. This musical gesture of support and Christian testimony of Lopez family is remembered with gratitude and love by the institution and all those who had witnesses the ceremonies. The first three nursing graduates of the nursing school in the Philippines were given gold pins inscribed with the name of the school "UMHTSN". Their diploma showed that they had completed the three-year Graduate Nurse (GN) course from school year 1906 to 1909 and were called "Qualified Surgical and Medical Nurses". These graduates of the first school were reminded that they were products of the hospital and training school whose mission and vision stated thus:

Nicasia Cada, Felipa de la Peña, and Dorotea Caldito, first graduate nurses of the Philippines, from a 1910 publication.

"The purpose of the hospital and training school for nurses was to train young women to care for the sick and become intelligent Christian workers in all matters pertinent to health in the community, giving emphasis to the raising of the health standards of the homes, child care and sanitation which are the foundation for a healthier and stronger Philippines."

The mission and vision of the school have been maintained despite the changes as the years rolled on. Some forty years later, the remarkable pioneering work of the Presbyterian and American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in establishing the nursing school relatively gained recognition as the "first training school for nurses in the academe" in the Philippines, which caught attention from some of the leading nursing educators in the country, among them Dean Julita Sotejo of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing and Mary Vita Beltran Jackson who in their published book titled Development of Nursing Education in the Philippines, Learning Nursing at the Bedside in 1965, had an account of interview with Felipa de la Peña, the only living survivor of the three nursing graduates, about the school of nursing.

Some of the milestones of the nursing school include being the first rank number one top-performing school that got a 100% passing rate and the first nursing school to produced rank number one topnotcher both in the first Philippine nursing licensure examination in 1920. The Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses and the hospital likewise established the first nurses alumni association in the Philippines.

The 1920 graduates who took the first ever Philippine Nursing Board Examination topped the said exam. Christine B. Pratt who took the said exam became the first topnotcher in the history of nursing education and profession in the Philippines. The Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses Alumni Association spearheaded by Rose Nicolet was established on May 12, 1925 and is the first of its kind in the Philippines. Its founding date coincided with the global celebration of "Florence Nightingale Day" in honor of Florence Nightingale, known as the Mother of Modern Nursing.

Other notable achievements of the hospital and the nursing school during the period of 1920 to 1925 also included its expansion to a 70-bed hospital; its incorporation and recognition by the Philippine government (with corporation papers legalized by a notary public on November 18, 1920) with incorporators Anna L. Dahlgreen (Registered Nurse), Eleuteria Cortes (Registered Nurse), Presentacion Jaranilla (Registered Nurse), Rose Nicolet (Registered Nurse) and Raphael C. Thomas (Physician); and the first nursing school to send graduates abroad for further studies (which happened through the representation of Alice Fitzgerald in the office of the Governor General) - Catalina Demetillo (Jaleco), who was sent to Peking Medical College, Beijing, China under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation on the advanced studies on child care and infant feeding, Presentacion Jaranilla (Franco), was sent to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA through a sponsorship by Miss Christine Benedict Pratt on the studies of specialization on operating room techniques and general surgery, and Ida McLeroy (Macasa), who was to Columbia University in New York, USA through a sponsorship from the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society to take Bachelor of Arts degree.

The Iloilo Mission Hospital Main Hall in its new location in 1931 in the City of Jaro (now a present district of Iloilo City).

In 1925, an agreement was reached between the Presbyterian mission and the Baptist mission with the regard to the focus of their mission outreaches. The Presbyterian Mission was to focus on the Eastern Visayan region while the Baptists stayed to carry on the work in Western Visayas. The Baptist Mission Society then purchased the share of the Presbyterian Mission's property in Iloilo.[14] With the Baptists long association with the Presbyterians in the running of the hospital, the latter (Presbyterians) turned over the entire medical work to the Baptist Mission Society through Dr. Raphael Thomas. Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall was relocated after the said succession by the Presbyterian Mission to establish the Bethany Hospital and Training School in Tacloban City, Leyte.

In the same year after the hospital was turned over to the Baptists, they continued running the hospital and the ministries that were already ongoing after the Presbyterians left to focus for their outreach in Eastern Visayas. In 1926, Rose Nicolet retired as superintendent of nurses and principal of the nursing school. Her said held positions were later replaced by Hazel O. Mann, a Canadian missionary nurse with the Baptist Mission, while Flora G. Ernst who came from the American Baptist Mission Society, USA, came as her assistant. It was their exceptional executive ability that the training school for nurses expanded as years went by. No school fees were charged on students during Hazel Mann's principalship while they were given books, uniforms and a nurses obstetrical kit after graduation. By 1929, nursing became an accepted profession. Students no longer had to be forced to join. As many students wanted to become nurses, entrance requirements were imposed. Those who completed high school were preferred. From this time to the 1940s the students paid only 40.00 Philippine peso for their textbooks and for the three-year training period.

A new foundation of the Union Mission Hospital was set in 1929. The hospital needed for a new site and a bigger hospital became evident. Dr. Dwight L. Johnson, the Canadian director of the hospital at that time, started a fund campaign to meet this need. The plan gained support from civic-spirited notable Ilonggos in the community of Iloilo like Julian Go and the Lopez family, the hospital and nursing staff, and the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, which raised an amount needed for the hospital's new site and building. In the same year, the foundation for the 120-bed, concrete hospital was laid in the property the hospital bought at Mission Road (City of Jaro), a present-day district of Iloilo City). Dr. Dwight Johnson was given credit for the planning and construction of Union Mission Hospital's new site and structure.

On September 19, 1931, the Union Mission Hospital started admitting and treating patients in its present location on Mission Road. The hospital plant occupied a lot 29,283 meters or approximately 3 hectares in area. On October 21, 1931 became a joyous day. The new relocated hospital was dedicated with its founder, Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall came all the way from Tacloban City, Leyte, as the guest of honor on the said momentous occasion. Dr. Precy Grigg lost no time in developing the new hospital's buildings and its surroundings. On what used to be a deep rice field and swampy place was a green lawn and rose garden surrounding the new imposing and neat-looking concrete hospital. After office hours, Dr. Grigg loved to work on landscaping the surroundings with plants secured from the islands of Negros and Panay.

On March 5, 1932, Union Mission Hospital (UMH) became the Iloilo Mission Hospital (IMH). Likewise the training school was renamed Iloilo Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses (IMHTSN). The hospital onwards continued to grow. It drew students from many parts of the Philippine islands who came to apply for admission to the training school for nurses.

On March 22, 1932, Loreto D. Tupaz, together with her eight other classmates graduated while her as a class valedictorian. She was awarded the "Alumni Efficiency Medal". As a student she had demonstrated leadership and the hospital promptly employed her as clinic nurse and supervisor. During the latter part of 1932, Flora Ernst was reassigned to the Capiz Emmanuel Hospital in Roxas City, Capiz to replace Jennie Adams, a registered nurse, who went on a furlough for a year. Dorothy Stevens became the acting superintendent and principal of the Iloilo Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses. Miss Loreto Tupaz became a full-time classroom instructor at the training school.

In 1934 many changers took place in the organizational set-up of the new hospital. Dr. Grigg married Pauline Holland, the niece of C.N. Hodges, a prominent American business tycoon in city of Iloilo during that time. The couple moved back to the United States after their wedding. Dr. Grigg's departure meant a vacancy in the hospital and Dr. Cornelio T. Blancaflor had to manage the hospital as acting hospital director and also as chairman for Board of Control. For six months, Dr. Frederic W. Meyer, who was a director of Capiz Emmanuel Hospital in Capiz, came to Iloilo every week to see and treat patients at the Iloilo Mission Hospital. He want home to Capiz on weekends to be with his family. In October 1934, Dr. and Mrs. Henry W. Waters arrived in Iloilo City. The couple won the hearts of many patients and friends in the hospital and the community. Mrs. Anna Waters, being a nurse, helped in the teaching program of the school and at the same time took an active part in the Hospital Ladies Auxiliary activities.

A noteworthy addition to the services of the Iloilo Mission Hospital by that time was the Tuberculosis Pavilion in March 1935. The building begun with funds raised in 1910. The funds generally grew until it was large enough to put up a cottage suitable for the needs of TB patients. This additional service department augmented the learning experiences of the nursing students. It was also in the same year, according to the Iloilo Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses school records, that high school graduates with an average of 80% were given preference for admission to the said school.

In 1937, the move for the Filipinization of Iloilo Mission Hospital yielded for the institution to appoint its first Filipino hospital director, Dr. Lorenzo Porras while Rosa Hofilena became the acting superintendent of nurses and at the same time as an operating room nurse supervisor. Flora Ernst was given the post Technical Adviser of Nursing Services. Dr. Henry Waters and another medical missionary doctor, Dorothy K. Chambers were given the titles Associate Physicians. In the early part of 1939, Miss Rosa Hofilena resigned, and Miss Flora Ernst was recalled to become superintendent of nurses again. In 1937 Loreto Tupaz was appointed full-time principal of the training school. With Flora Ernst as full-time superintendent of nurses in the hospital and Miss Tupaz in the training school for nurses, the running of both hospital and training school was in capable and dedicated hands.

The hospital was run by the American Protestants from its foundation in 1906 until the late 1940s. The last American director of the hospital was Henry S. Waters from 1934 to 1948.

The Central Philippine University, founded through a benevolent grant by the American business magnate John D. Rockefeller as the first Baptist and second American founded university in the Philippines and in Asia, is Iloilo Mission Hospital's affiliated university. (Aerial view above is the main campus of CPU)

World War II broke out with much damage in the hospital facilities but later when the war ended in 1946–47, Dr. Henry S. Waters, the postwar director of Hospital and also principal of the Iloilo Mission Hospital School of Nursing in 1946–1947, pressed for the offering, with Central Philippine College (the forerunner of Central Philippine University), a collegiate course leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.[15]

The director of the Bureau of Private Schools and the members of the board of examiners for nurses authorized the opening of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing four-year course in 1947 that resulted the school's operation transferred to the college.[15] Waters served as acting dean of the new College of Nursing at Central Philippine College (1947–1948). When he returned to the United States, Dr. Teofilo Marte served as the executive secretary (1948–1949).

Loreto D. Tupaz was the acting dean from 1949 to 1950 and served in this capacity until the arrival of Esther Salzman who held the deanship from 1950 to 1961. During her term, the college offered three curricular programs: the Bachelor of Science in Nursing four-year course, the GN-Bachelor of Science in Nursing Supplemental Course and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing five-year course.[15]

Tupaz and Salzman worked together to develop Central Philippine University College of Nursing into a college of distinction, recognized both in the Philippines and abroad. Salzman served as dean until 1961 when she retired in the United States.[15] Lily Plagata was appointed to the deanship in 1961, but resigned and went abroad in 1963. Carmen Centeno replaced Plagata as dean for the rest of 1963,[15] but she also eventually left for the United States. Tupaz resumed the deanship from 1963 until 1970, but also continued to administer the three course programs of the college, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing five-year course, the CCT (Clinical Teaching) course, and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Supplemental Course.

The Main Hall and Centennial Building's (at the far right) view from the IMH Medical Arts Building.

In 2001, the hospital celebrated its centennial with year long activities. A four-storey Centennial Building was also inaugurated that year. in 2004, Iloilo Mission Hospital acquired the Philips MX8000 CT Scan machine, the first of its kind in South East Asia.[11]

In 2006, the Central Philippine University College of Nursing celebrated also its centennial as the first nursing school in the Philippines with its history that spans for a century of its existence since it was founded or established by the Protestant Presbyterian Americans as the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses.

In 2007, the old Nurses' Home was demolished to give way to the new Medical Arts Building. The building was completed and inaugurated in 2009. Recent expansion plans include a 7-storey modern designed Iloilo Mission Hospital Medical Center (IMH Medical Center) equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. At present, Iloilo Mission Hospital maintains an affiliation and linkage with the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches but it is independent and non-sectarian. It also serves as the affiliated university medical center and healthcare provider of Central Philippine University, in which its board of trustees and administration are largely composed of members from the university's board of trustees and corporation.

• Nelson, Linnea, A.; Herradura, Elma (1981), Scientia et Fides: The Story of Central Philippine University, Central Philippine University{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Caipang, Natividad, C., History of the First Nursing School in the Philippines, Central Philippine University{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)