Vizcaya nurse bags top award

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – A female nurse from this province was chosen as this year’s recipient of the country’s most prestigious award for those in the nursing profession.

Ruth Raña-Padilla was named the 29th Anastacia Giron Tupas Awardee and “nurse extraordinaire” by the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) “for her distinguished (and) unparalleled leadership (and as) a staunch advocate in upholding the integrity…of the nursing profession.”

Padilla received the award from Health Secretary Enrique Ona during the 2010 National Annual Convention of nurses, which also coincided with the 53rd Nurses Week celebration held recently at the Manila Hotel.

The honor is the highest award given annually by the PNA in honor of the late Anastacia Giron Tupas, regarded as the dean of the Filipino nurses, who founded the PNA, then the Filipino Nurses Association, on Sept. 2, 1922.

The PNA said that the Anastacia Giron Tupas Award was conceived not only to honor its founder “but to remind us of the uniqueness and nobility of our profession as exemplified by the recipients of the award.” 

Padilla, who served as PNA president in 2003, was chosen as this year’s awardee for her “distinguished transformational leadership which paved the way to significant milestones in the growth and development of the PNA.”

Padilla, wife of veteran lawmaker Rep. Carlos Padilla of this province, was the first nurse to be appointed as commissioner of the Professional Regulation Commission.

A former OIC governor here, she now serves as consultant of the Department of Health.