The local chapter of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) yesterday reaffirmed its support for two nurses implicated in the taping of a newborn’s mouth in a Cebu City maternity hospital.
“Our stand is the same especially that there is no evidence on who taped the baby,” Edith Rose Santos, PNA Cebu chapter president, said in a text message to Cebu Daily News in the aftermath of Friday’s public hearing of an inter-agency committee investigating the incident.
Arianne Mae Pacula and Kamille Neri , the two nurses on duty on May 9 at the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House Inc., appeared before the probe panel on Friday wherein they denied taping the mouth of baby Yohannes to keep a pacifier in place. Both said they don’t know where the tape or the pacifier came from.
Santos, who attended the hearing of the Regional Subcommittee for the Welfare of Children (RSCWC), said she spoke to the nurses and offered the PNA’s help.
She said the PNA’s by-laws mandate the association to extend assistance to nurses in need of help.
“I offered help yesterday (Friday) and Attorney (Cornelio) Mercado (the hospital’s counsel) said that he would ask the nurses to talk to us,” Santos said.
The PNA president appealed to the public not to prejudge the two nurses as well as the nursing profession in general.
“Let us just say that for the time being the emphasis is not to rush judgment on the nurses involved and the entire nursing population,” Santos added. “We don’t want our dignity trampled upon by shortsighted and narrow-minded people. It’s not fair,” Santos added.
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