NMC instructor obtains PhD

A Northern Marianas instructor recently completed a doctor’s degree in community development in the Philippines.

Josefina Gañela Sabaot obtained her doctorate from Benguet State University. Her degrees are all accredited by the World Education Services Inc., a New York-based non-profit organization that is founded in 1974 and recognized in the field of international credential evaluation.

With broad experience in international health care, Sabaot first came to the Commonwealth in early 2003. She was invited by the CNMI International Business and Professional College to conduct a review for the National Licensing Examination for Nurses.

She later joined the NMC faculty. She was appointed to serve as the college’s acting Nursing director in the same year that she obtained a license to practice nursing in the CNMI.

Sabaot is an active member of local and international organizations such as the Chicago-based NCLEX-RN Item Writing Panel, the CNMI-USA Nurses Association, and the Philippines Nurses Association.

Her community work includes being a former president of the Federation of Baguio Women’s Welfare Association and a member of the Overseas Employee Support Group for Filipino workers in the CNMI.

Born March 15, 1945, Sabaot hails from Candon, a city in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Sur. She completed nursing degrees at the University of Pangasinan (formerly Dagupan Colleges) in 1966 and at Manila Central University in 1967.

Shortly after graduation, she joined the Jersey City Medical Center’s obstetrics and gynecology department as an exchange nurse. She also worked at Bronx Lebanon Medical Center in New York City and served as a staff nurse at the Intensive Care Unit of Burlington County Memorial Medical Center.

She passed the NCLEX-RN with flying colors and became qualified to work anywhere in the United States. In the early 1970s, she moved to Chicago, Illinois to work at the Michael Reese Medical Center. Then she was hired as head at the Intensive Care Unit of the University of Chicago Hospital, attending to open heart and kidney transplant patients along with other major surgical cases.

The University of Chicago provided assistance so she could pursue post-graduate education in critical care nursing at Northwestern University, also in Illinois.

Sabaot moved to the Middle East in 1982, after she landed a job at Saudi Arabia’s King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital. Her background in Critical Care Nursing qualified her to key positions at the Post-Anesthesia Recovery Room Unit and later the Echo Cardiology Division. She was recruited as Instructor of the Staff Development Division, conducting annual re-certification of employees for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

She returned to the Philippines in 1994 and taught nursing at Pines City Colleges. It did not take long before she was appointed coordinator of the college’s Department of Midwifery. She obtained a master’s degree in public administration in 1998 and a master’s degree in nursing administration in 1999 at Benguet State University. She conducted review courses for nurses and midwives at St. Anthony Review Center in Baguio City and Davao City.