UPINHF 2021 International Nurse Awardee
DR. CORA DE LOS ANGELES ANONUEVO, BSN, MPH, PhD., RN
For her dedication and commitment to alleviate the health employees working condition, establish a just and fair compensation and to provide poor families with access to medical care and more importantly, give them a voice in the wide-ranging healthcare discourse.
“My image of tomorrow’s nurse is one who is broadly educated, cultured, not merely well-informed but unafraid to express her views since she is sure whereof she stands—perceptive, mature and constructively critical yet always capable and skillful one in her chosen field.”
So goes the dictum espoused by the great nurse, founder and first dean of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing (UPCN), Julita Villaruel Sotejo. “Tomorrow” is actually now, and that “image” is all that Cora de los Angeles Anonuevo represents: educated, cultured and unafraid to express her mind. An activist, she rebels against status quo, against established norms especially when they entail injustice among people or those that perpetuate oppression in one form or another.
As a U.P. student, and even early in her nursing career, she looked up to nursing stalwarts that carved a name in history, many of whom she admired, others inspired her to pursue a mission, a movement, a task, beyond the bedside and the academe. Among them, Dean Julita V. Sotejo, a mentor with an awesome vision, known and respected throughout the world; Dr. Minda Luz Quezada whom she considers a luminary in the nursing profession who, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention pursued the concept that “health is basic human right” at the same time loudly lamenting the exploitation of nurses in the workforce similar to Dean Cecile Laurente’s complaints in her treatise published in Geneva that brought the plight of Filipino nurses to the attention of the world.
Cora Anonuevo’s innate compassion and inherent concern for the less fortunate was awakened by the sight of homelessness, hunger, violence, maternal and child death and all sorts of deprivation. There was this profound desire to serve that in her own words “instill in me the duty to give back to the communities that nurtured my growth as a person, nurse and citizen. I wanted to be part of the movement to transform oppressive societal conditions that created social and health disparities.”
It was this awakening, a social consciousness that brought about her immersion into community organizing, union formation (All UP Workers Union and All UP Academic Employees Union) and assemblies in the hope that a collective voice would have a louder effect and perhaps a greater attention. The substance of what she said according to a colleague, fellow nurse, Dean Cecilia Laurente, was her advocacy for the rights of UP Manila faculty under the Pamantasan Asemblea, U.P. Manila, as well as the rights of nurses and other health workers under the Alliance of Health Workers. Along with other militant reformers, they were able to push for the enactment by congress of a law providing proper compensation for health workers, thereby enhancing at the same time, the delivery of quality healthcare services.
Republic Act 7305, known as Magna Carta of Public Health Workers, is now a law of the land.
Cora Anonuevo obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from UPCN in 1972 and her Master of Public Health in 1978. She joined the academia as a college professor and held many positions of responsibility like chairman of the Graduate Program Committee including as secretary of the college. In 2008 she completed all the requirements for PhD in Philippine Studies.
Dr. Anonuevo was involved in many global research projects, among them were the “Designing Better Indices of Poverty and Gender Equity” aimed to develop a just, gender-sensitive measure of poverty, and the Filipino Nurse Migration under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement that reviewed the movement of Filipino nurses to Japan. To the nursing profession she contributed to the improvement of Philippine nursing education by developing course modules and syllabi at the basic and graduate program levels in community/public health nursing, and behavioral/theoretical foundations in nursing. She was also a founding officer of Philippine Nursing Research Society (PNRSI) and the Gerontology Nurses Association of the Philippines, Inc. (GNAP). Proud to say, Cora is also a member of UPINHF, a global healthcare-centered UP alumni association based in the United states.
Dr. Cora Anonuevo’s work and accomplishments were recognized by the many citations she received, viz: Outstanding Nurse Award in Training, Education and Research, from the National League of Philippines Government Nurses, Inc.; Outstanding Alumna Award for nursing education, from UP alumni Association; Most Outstanding Teacher from UP Manila and the International Publication Award (IPA 2019) granted by UP Manila and National Institutes for Health, as co-author of the article, “Community-based Recruitment for Clinical Trials Poses the Need for Social and Ethical Consideration,” (Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, Oct. 2018), and others.
In February 2016, Dr. Cora Anonuevo was appointed by the President of the Philippines to the Board of Nursing, Philippine Regulation Commission.
In her on-going career, Cora Anonuevo has already achieved much and certainly will be pursuing more, it is however her conviction and commitment to healthcare reform, to mending blatant disparities and the social consciousness that awakened her to the profound meaning of being a person and a nurse that the UPINHF Awards and Citations Committee found deeply deserving and very much worthy of recognition. The UPINHF Board of Directors, by a unanimous vote hereby proclaim Dr. Cora de los Angeles-Anonuevo, BSN, MPH, PhD., as the UPINHF 2021 International Nurse Awardee. The members, officers and directors congratulate Cora Anonuevo for her excellent achievement, honor and distinction.
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human
qualities because, as has been said, it is the
quality which guarantees all others.”
––WINSTON CHURCHILL
by Nelson C. Borrero