“Pakikipagkapwa and Utang na Loob”: The Influence of Family and Culture in Graduate Degree Attainment Among Filipino American Nurses

Written by Jamille Nagtalon-Ramos

doi: https://doi.org/10.13178/jnparr.2020.10.01.1007

Abstract

Background: Filipino American nurses represent an impressive share of the nursing workforce; however, they are not well represented in advanced practice, faculty, and executive leadership positions. Obtaining a graduate degree in nursing has the potential to open a wider range of opportunities to meet the healthcare demands of a population that is becoming more diverse.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting graduate degree pursuit for BSN-prepared Filipino American nurses working in the United States.

Methods: Ricoeur’s hermeneutical phenomenology was utilized as an interpretive approach to analyzing the data and the theoretical underpinnings of career construction theory served as a conceptual framework to make sense and meaning of the rich stories that the participants shared about their educational aspirations and professional lives.

Results: This study provides an in-depth examination into intergenerational perspectivesof 33 BSN-prepared Filipino American nurses working in 14 different states in the U.S. that revealed that the push and pull of family responsibilities and the influence of culture were the main factors that affected the pursuit of a graduate degree. The participants’ career construction was deeply influenced by the Filipino American cultural values they
espoused: “pakikipagkapwa”, the sharing of one’s self with one’s fellow being and “utang na loob”, a deep commitment to debt reciprocity, towards their nuclear family and the extended family and community that they left behind in the Philippines.

Conclusion: The decision to pursue an advanced nursing degree depended upon the nurse’s determination that the return on investment of a graduate degree outweighed the sum of all their responsibilities and obligations towards their family in the United States and the extended family they left behind in the Philippines, and deep commitment to their patients and community.

Keywords: Filipino American, nurses, diversity, workforce, graduate education