Cherry Mae Cardosa Feu Nursing Apr 2026

“Cherry has something you cannot teach,” says Clinical Instructor Maria Rosario Santos, RN, MAN. “Some students freeze under pressure. She breathes. She listens. She treats every patient as if they were her own lola.” Ask any FEU Nursing student, and they will tell you: the program is not for the faint of heart. Between 7 AM return demonstrations, 12-hour clinical shifts, and the constant weight of the Comprehensive Exam (Compre), burnout is a daily threat.

Fellow nursing student and clinical buddy, Marco Javier, shares: “Cherry Mae once stayed with me until 2 AM while I practiced arterial blood gas interpretation. I was about to quit. She didn’t give me a speech—she just opened her notebook and said, ‘We’ll take it one ABG at a time.’” As graduation nears, Cherry Mae Cardosa faces the same question as every senior FEU nursing student: Will I pass the boards? Will I find a hospital that values my humanity over my overtime?

“We are trained to save lives, but we are rarely trained to save our own sanity,” she explains. “If a nurse breaks, who holds the line?” cherry mae cardosa feu nursing

She never does.

In the hushed, fluorescent-lit corridors of Far Eastern University’s Institute of Nursing, students learn to memorize pharmacology, master IV insertion, and recite the 12 cranial nerves in their sleep. But every so often, the program produces a student who reminds everyone that nursing is not just a science—it is an act of quiet, relentless courage. “Cherry has something you cannot teach,” says Clinical

“FEU taught me the science,” she says, adjusting her pin that reads Honor and Excellence . “But my classmates, my patients, my failures—they taught me the heart. And in nursing, the heart is what lasts.” — a daughter, a scholar, a future nurse. And for everyone who has crossed her path at FEU Nursing, a living reminder that the best medicine is not in a vial. It is in showing up, again and again, with hands that heal and a spirit that refuses to break.

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Her advocacy started small: a group chat where nursing students could anonymously share their fears. It grew into a peer-support circle called Hinge ng Puso (Heart’s Hinge), which now meets biweekly at the FEU Chapel garden.