University of the Philippines Manila School of Health Sciences in Leyte

The University of the Philippines School of Health Sciences Leyte is a medical school in the Philippines supervised by the University of the Philippines, Manila. It is one of the top performing schools in midwifery.

Established in 1975, the School of Health Sciences was seen as the solution to the lack and the inequitable distribution of health professionals serving rural communities in the Philippines. The School had its humble beginnings in a two-classroom building and a small nipa hut at the Danilo Z. Romuladez Hospital (now the Eastern Visayas Medical Center) it transferred to its present campus in Palo, Leyte. There are two new extension campuses, in 2008, Baler, Aurora campus was opened and in 2010 in Koronadal City, South Cotabato.

Its mission is to train clinically, competent and socially conscious health workers who will stay and serve in depressed and underserved communities especially in the rural areas, it also had the mandate to develop a training model for the training of community oriented health workers that could be replicable in other areas of the country.

The School offers an innovative “step-ladder” curriculum where each student starts at a single point and exits at various levels with varying competencies, first as Community Health Worker (CHW), or Midwife then sequentially as Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), and eventually as Doctor of Medicine (MD).

Through its democratized admissions policy, the School provides scholarships and admits deserving high school graduates coming from remote and largely inaccessible rural communities of target municipalities and provinces. The scholars are bound by a contract and are committed to return to serve their communities after completion of a program. Since it is intended to benefit the local community, selection of scholars is determined in consultation with the community. Students do not apply on their own but are nominated by the communities from where they come from. Hence, the client of the School is primarily the community in need of the services of a health worker.