Miriam College

This study examined the barriers to family planning (FP) service delivery as perceived by health workers in selected health centers in District 2, Marikina City. The study is anchored on the WHO Health Systems Framework (WHO, 2007) and the Socio-Ecological Model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), which explain how systemic, organizational, and socio-cultural factors interact to influence health service delivery. Specifically, it identified organizational, technical, resource-related, and socio-cultural factors that influence the implementation of FP programs and explored strategies to improve service delivery. A descriptive quantitative research design was employed, utilizing a structured self-administered questionnaire distributed to health workers involved in FP service provision. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, and weighted mean, with limited qualitative inputs from respondents’ perspectives used to support interpretation of the results. Findings revealed that organizational challenges such as staffing shortages, high workload, and policy-related issues significantly affected FP service delivery. Technical and resource-related barriers included inconsistent supply of contraceptives, limited training opportunities, and inadequate infrastructure. Socio-cultural factors, particularly misconceptions about FP methods, cultural beliefs, and religious influences, were also perceived as major barriers to FP utilization among clients. Despite these challenges, health workers identified capacity-building activities, improved supply chain management, strengthened community education, and sustained policy support as key strategies for enhancing FP service delivery.

In the Philippines, entrepreneurship education is seen as essential in boosting economic growth, generating new ideas, and starting new businesses. Despite of offering BS Entrepreneurship, mandated by CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, Series of 2017, for more than two decades, wherein the program stresses the importance of entrepreneurial skills and venture development, but gaps and challenges remains, especially when it comes to fostering creativity, maintaining institutional support, and bringing together industry collaboration. This review aims to look into the current status of entrepreneurship education in the Philippines and how it closes the economic gaps and addresses gender equality in doing business. The study observes that action-based learning, grounded on Dewey's experiential theory, Saravatsy's causation and effectuation, and Frese's action regulation theory, is a major advancement in the field of entrepreneurship education. This was built by looking at recent literature, policies, frameworks, programs, and case studies of university-based Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) and innovation centers. On the other hand, the results also showed that women are still underrepresented in the entrepreneurial landscape, specifically in scalable and innovation-driven businesses, due to systemic problems and mental blocks. The review mentions that innovation centers and TBIs have been instrumental in assisting individuals who aspire to become entrepreneurs, but transforming their programs and strategies to ensure that they are gender-responsive. It suggests that entrepreneurship education should include mentorship, soft innovation, and inclusive teaching methods to help and empower women entrepreneurs.

This descriptive study was conducted to determine customers' perceptions of innovation strategies for enhancing their experience in a Quick-Service Restaurant. The researchers used a modified-standard questionnaire to gather data, employing convenience sampling to select participants who were readily accessible and willing to participate. This study draws on customer responses from a McDonald’s quick-service restaurant in a town area of the Philippines. The researchers adopted the Top-Down Processing Theory to investigate the general beliefs, expectations, interpretations, and perceptions of customers regarding innovation strategies that encompass both product and service innovations, with the aim of enhancing their experience. The findings indicated that the innovation strategies implemented by the quick-service restaurant enhanced customer experience. The aspect of "ability to personalize orders" within product innovation garnered the highest score, indicating that customers highly valued the opportunity to customize their orders. Furthermore, in service innovation, the customer's perception of "order accessibility and transparency" scored the highest. This implied that customers placed significant importance on the ease with which they could access information about their orders and the transparency of the entire order process. The researchers concluded that product and service innovation strategies, specifically the personalization of orders and the provision of order accessibility and transparency, resulted in an enhanced overall customer experience. Based on its perceived assessment in enhancing customer experience, it was further concluded that the introduction of quick-service restaurant innovation strategies made customers feel valued, bringing positive instances for improving their experience.

This study determined the impact of using social networking sites in teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. There were 65 public school teachers in basic education in the Philippines who participated in this study. The study utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather the data. Findings from the quantitative data revealed that the top two most used SNS for teaching and learning were YouTube and Facebook. Also, teachers’ main uses of SNS were for resources and knowledge sharing, educational and research purposes, collaborating with students and teachers, and communication and announcement. Based on the qualitative findings of the study, three themes emerged from the challenges encountered by the teachers which were: 1) Some information from the Social Networking Sites are unreliable; 2) Slow and unstable internet connectivity perennial issue; and 3) Limited use and access. It is concluded that SNS help in the delivery of teaching and learning in time of pandemic. It is also recommended the institutionalizing and adopting of SNS as support for teaching and learning even during the post-pandemic era.

O jornalismo policial faz parte do cotidiano da mídia noticiosa, no entanto, no município de Frutal-MG, este se faz de forma peculiar: nas duas emissoras de rádio com programas jornalísticos, as notícias policiais são apresentadas e comentadas por policiais militares que estão em plena atividade. Desta forma, o presente estudo propõe uma discussão do jornalismo policial a partir da questão do conflito do ethos jornalístico com o ethos policial e de que maneira esta mistura de atividade (o policial que assume o papel de apresentador/jornalista) reflete na prática jornalística.

Guidance Counselors are professionals with a specialized practice that ensures the holistic development of students. Despite their crucial role, there is little research exploring the experiences and perceptions of guidance counselors in terms of wellness programs, well-being, self-care practices, and retention. This study aims to create research and evidence-based interventions to improve well-being and maintain work satisfaction among guidance counselors. Using Giorgi’s phenomenological qualitative approach, this study is based on interviews conducted with twelve (12) guidance counselors from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The findings suggest improving wellness programs, namely, physical, mental, and spiritual programs, a strong support system among colleagues, and other incentives and forms of compensation. It was also found that a healthy work environment is a key to FGC retention, which consists of harmonious work relationships, a strong support system, psychological safety, counselor training, further education, and a flexible and accommodating workload and schedule. Financial elements also come to play and other long-term benefits of employment. Intrapersonal factors include self-care and personal commitment. The current research recommends utilizing the proposed wellness and retention program framework and offered mental health and wellness programs of FGC.

Introduction: Tafamidis has been shown to improve survival and decrease heart failure (CHF) hospitalizations in transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CM). In the ATTR-ACT trial, survival benefit emerged after approximately 18 months of treatment, with less clear benefit in those with NYHA class III symptoms. We sought to evaluate the short-term changes in NYHA class, biomarkers, and clinical outcomes in a real-world cohort of patients treated with tafamidis. Methods: A single center retrospective observational study of patients with ATTR-CM who were prescribed tafamidis since its FDA approval in May 2019. We collected data on prospectively assessed NYHA class, NTproBNP, Troponin I, and outcomes of CHF hospitalizations and death. Results: Fifty-one patients with ATTR-CM (mean age 73.3±7 years, 100.0% male) were prescribed tafamidis. Forty-five patients had wild-type and 6 had hereditary ATTR-CM. At the visit when tafamidis was initiated 6 (11.8%) patients were NYHA Class I, 24 (47.1%) Class II, 20 (39.2%) Class III, and 1 (2%) Class IV. Over a median follow up of 8 (IQR 6.0-11) months after starting tafamidis, there were no significant differences before and after tafamidis treatment in time-averaged median NYHA functional class (paired Wilcoxon test, p=0.1610; Figure 1A), time-averaged median NTproBNP (paired exact Wilcoxon test, p > 0.9999; Figure 1B), and time-averaged median troponin I (paired exact Wilcoxon test, p=0.9400; Figure 1C). Following initiation of tafamidis, 13 patients (25.5%) were admitted for CHF hospitalization. A total of 8 patients (15.7%) died a median of 9.5 (IQR 2.5-12.5) months after initiation of tafamidis. Conclusions: ATTR-CM patients taking tafamidis were observed to have stable functional status and biomarkers, including those with NYHA class III symptoms. Despite a higher proportion of worse NYHA functional class, the rate of death at 10 months appears comparable to the ATTR-ACT trial in this real-world population.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses in college require intensive use of spatial skills. This research determines the correlation of the high school physics grades and the spatial skills of selected students from the Philippines. To measure the participants’ spatial skills, the Purdue Visualization of Rotations Test (PVRT) was utilized. Results show that these two variables have a moderate positive correlation. The data also reveal a significant difference in the PVRT scores between the male and female participants in this study. The gender gap in spatial skills was significantly removed after the females received an intervention in the form of a special program for improving spatial skills. This suggests the effectiveness of the special program, and the malleability of spatial skills even in adolescence. Recommendations for improving the spatial skills, as well as directions for future research are also discussed.

Every day the world is getting more urbanized. The rate of urbanization is increasing at an alarming rate. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) reported that 34% of the world’s total population in 1960 was living in the urban centers. In 2014, this rate increased to 54% [1].