Exhibition
A Culture to Care
The History of Filipino Nurses in Virginia
A project made possible through the sponsorship of the Philippine Nurses Association of Virginia and Virginia Humanities.
Filipino nurses are the largest group of internationally educated nurses in the United States, composing approximately 5% of the country’s nursing workforce. Despite these nurses’ visibility as healthcare professionals, their voices are often erased in media portrayals and archives. The Culture to Care exhibition locates the genealogy of the Filipino nurse subject in the unlikely place of Virginia. Its timeline ranges between the importation of the professional model of nursing under the US colonial regime in the Philippines and the current globalized care economy. Traveling from the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia to the Library of Virginia, the physical exhibition is now permanently housed at the University of Virginia School of Nursing’s Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry. This site holds digitized versions of exhibits for public viewing.
Mobile Pursuit of Filipino Nurses Gallery
These banners provide a historical overview of Filipino nurses en route to Virginia across various themes.
Albert Acena Collection
The photographs in this collection depict a vignette of the Filipino nurse during the rapid expansion of hospitals during the early 20th century through the scrapbooks of Felicidad Nolasco Acena. She was a 1919 graduate of the Philippine General Hospital School of Nursing who was then recruited to work at City Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio in 1926. During her time in the US, she even visited Virginia at one point before permanently relocating to Seattle, Washington. Her scrapbooks providing a rare glimpse in time were graciously donated by her son, Dr. Albert Acena. This collection may be viewed in its entirety through the Bjoring Center for Historical Inquiry in Nursing.
A Culture to Care Documentary
Synopsis: While Filipino nurses have grown to encompass the majority of the US internationally educated nursing workforce, many view their migrations as ahistorical. The narrative of American nursing history erases Filipino nurses’ longstanding presence in the US that dates back to the early 20th century. This documentary illuminates upon the history of Filipino nurses amidst the convergence of race, care, and capitalism. It takes an intimate look into the lives of Filipino nurses, using both archival documents and oral history to explore the subjectivities and agencies of Filipino nurses as they mobilized to and within Virginia.