“I’VE learned to love the unit and the patients,” this was the answer Hipolita Olivares gave when I asked her why she remained a nurse in the Burn Unit.
Olivares is a registered midwife. But she is serving at the Burn Unit of the Southern Philippines Medical Center. She is the longest serving staff of the burn unit for 27 years.
Ma’am Helly, as she is fondly called by her colleagues, graduated in the now-defunct Mindanao School of Midwifery, which was located on San Pedro extension.
She became a registered midwife in 1983 and got hired by the Davao Medical Center, now Southern Philippines Medical Center. She worked at the Davao Mental Hospital, now the Psychiatry department of SPMC, in 1986.
During the first two years, she was a contractual worker at DMC. She became a regular employee in 1988 and worked on at the Davao Mental Hospital until 1990.
She became a staff nurse of the Burn Unit of Southern Philippines Medical Center in 1990 because the unit needed a nurse and since registered nurses were scarce at that time, a registered midwife can work as a nurse.
Olivares was chosen to be part of the unit by her head nurse because according to the latter, she has an amount of patience that is very vital in dealing with burn patients.
She was hesitant to be transferred at first and even tried to explain to her direct supervisor that she has no prior experience working with a burn victim. Olivares said, although she had previous experience in surgery, but she knew it was different dealing with burn victims.
But then, she added, it must be her “calling” because when Doctor Rizal Aportadera, the founder of the burn unit, oriented her on how to properly dress burn injuries, the works seemed custom-made for her.
“True indeed, when I started serving in the unit, I have realized that patience is, indeed, a very important character to possess,” she narrated. This is because burn patients are more sensitive than any other patients in the hospital since a burn wound is very painful as it affects a large area of the biggest organ of our body, the skin. And dressing a burn wound requires extra care and should take very slowly so that you won’t add up to the pain the patient is already suffering.
During that time, she worked as the one and only staff nurse at the burn unit. She only requested for additional staff nurse in 1995 when the volume of burn patients cannot be handled by one staff nurse alone.
Ma’am Helly noted that the one and only person she looks up to in terms of work dedication and devotion to help those in need is Dr. Aportadera. It is him who inspires her to love not only the unit but the burn patients as well.
She is one of the living witnesses of how the burn unit grew into what it is today and she is one of the reasons also why the unit grew to what it is now.