Patxuka de Miguel: "For me, Nursing is Science, Empathy and Art".

Former student of the University of Navarra, we review with her her path through the campus of Pamplona, her first steps in Nursing and her change to the world of Archaeology.

What do you remember from your time at School Nursing?
I have many memories of my time at the School of Nursing - that's how it was before I went to Degree- and most of them are very gratifying. Our graduating class - 1981 to 1983 - consisted of 200 female students. At that time there were only women who entered our training with a great desire to learn. We lived very intensely the three courses, mixed between theoretical and practical classes, many hours dedicated to train us, so that at the end we would be able to work in any field of nursing.

From academic staff I have fond memories of two people in particular. The first one was Ana Irujo, my teacher at Anatomy, a subject that was extremely complicated for me, with so many names and so many details that we had to assimilate. I know that without her support and trust I would not have been able to pass it, it is curious, because now I live most of my daily life surrounded by bones. The second is Inmaculada Serrano, one of my teachers at Materno Infantil, from whom I received great support when I chose to train as a midwife. I do not want to forget the chaplain of School, or at least one of them, Mr. Miguel Ángel Monge, who supported me when I wanted to access the Official School of Midwives of Santa Cristina in Madrid, where he had previously worked.

As anecdotes, unforgettable was the theater we staged under the direction of Ljerka Brajnovic, Los extremeños se tocan. I was only the prompter, the artistic vein is not very developed, but we enjoyed a lot, we shared very good times and we were aware of the good time we made the public spend, not only when we represented it, but when it was broadcast by the TV channel of the CUN ... unforgettable.

What did studying at the University of Navarra mean to you?
I believe that it not only meant, but still means, a lot. Having been trained as a professional, with the scientific foundation essential for the practice of Nursing and with the continuous concern to keep updated. It is essential to know that Science advances, and the Scientific Evidence available is mutable.  

Was it always clear to you that you wanted to be a nurse? Where did your vocation come from?
As far back as I can remember, when I went to high school at María Inmaculada, I wanted to be a nurse. It was complicated because I was not a good student, nor did my abilities allow me to approve without studying for many hours. With more or less perseverance, and with many difficulties, I managed to pass a BUP of pure sciences. I was lucky enough to be admitted to the School of Nursing, after a entrance examination, since at that time the university entrance exam was not necessary. When I started at the School, after the first year, which is always more complex due to the subject of general subjects taught, every day I enjoyed learning, the colleagues, the nurses who trained us, the many hours of practice and the contact with the people we attended to.

I learned the importance of caring for and accompanying people with more or less serious pathologies and those who were at the end of their lives. The most complicated thing to manage, in those years of training, was the death of children, and the limitations to achieve their recovery. In addition to the accompaniment of the families in the face of these losses.

Nursing today

If someone asked you to define nursing, how would you define it?
When we were trained it was defined as Charity, Science and Art. But times change and so do the characteristics of the professions. Today, for me Nursing is Science, Empathy and Art, you have to know a lot about the discipline, be clear that we work for the welfare of people both for their recovery and for a peaceful death.

In addition to being a midwife, she is also an archaeologist. When did she decide to embark on this path?
Before giving an injection I had already gone to excavate (I went to the excavations that took place in the place del Castillo de Pamplona between 2001 and 2002). I have always liked archaeology, but I don't know at what precise moment I discovered such an exciting world. I think it was influenced by my History teacher at high school, Teté Guiber and my teacher at high school Ángel García Sanz. But nursing was the profession to which I wanted to dedicate myself. However, I continued to dig in the summers during my training as a nurse. Then I became a midwife and opted to look for work, something not at all easy contrary to what is currently thought. When I had my place as a midwife in Orihuela (Alicante) and since I had time, I started to study History at the University of Alicante, always with the illusion of excavating and learning about the Material Culture of the populations of the past. Reading in the traces that remain of the people of the past, away from the bias of historical sources sometimes so inaccurate and biased, is always a challenge, and archeology allows it. 

From helping to bring life, to studying the lives of deceased people, how do you combine both?
I have also been very lucky in this area. When I was a history student, excavating a site in El Salt (Alcoi), an area where Neanderthal communities lived, its director, Professor Dr. Bertila Galván, suggested to me that with my training it would be very appropriate for me to dedicate myself to the study of the people of the past from their skeletons. For this I have always counted on who has been the director of my thesis of licentiate degree first, and co-director of the doctoral thesis later, Professor Dr. Mauro S. Hernandez Perez, Full Professor of Prehistory of the University of Alicante. These are many years of training in a field that is hardly talked about during the academic training , but which is enjoyed every day.

The union therefore of my work as a midwife and that of osteoarcheologist, was simple, to summarize, work always with life, on the one hand, that which will build the future and allow history to continue, and on the other hand, recovering vital testimonies of anonymous people who built the history we have inherited.

Tips for students

For students who are about to graduate in nursing, what would you give them committee ?
Curiosity should always accompany them, curious people learn every day and that is fundamental in scientific disciplines such as nursing. That they work on the Science of Care, but that they do not forget their foundation, which is to accompany people in the different stages of life. We are professionals who have functions from preconception to death.

And do not depreciate the value of experience, now it seems that everything is known at the click of a button, that networks fill the gaps in knowledge. But those who have lived more, who have been concerned about researching and building a profession like ours, have a value that must be recognized, and who must be listened to, in this way the Corpus of knowledge of a Science is built, and Nursing is it.

After a long journey that took me from Pamplona to Madrid, Zaragoza, Calatayud, Alcoi, Cocentaina, Villajoyosa, Lanzarote, Orihuela and Alicante, currently work as a midwife in the delivery room of the Hospital Virgen de los Lirios de Alcoi (Alicante). I have worked in small and large hospitals, at attendance primary and I have been a village midwife, in all places I have had the great fortune to work with excellent teams, with particular peculiarities, but always enriching. I must admit that now I am fortunate to be in a delivery room where respect is the foundation that unifies the work of the whole team, midwives, obstetricians and auxiliary nurses, with the support of the Nursing and Medical departments. It has been achieved that the whole team has as a common goal Care, Empathy and Professionalism, I think these are the virtues that define us, and that every day we see it reflected in the recognition of women and families who come to receive their babies in our hospital.

I am also currently an Associate Professor at area of Prehistory, University of Alicante, a very enriching experience. Sharing areas of knowledge with the young student body is always a challenge that I do not really know if I can overcome satisfactorily, in this field you also have to train every day, besides being able to stimulate that scientific curiosity that is apparently more hidden than it should be.