Guardians of Health: Voltaire Malaluan, the Nurse Who Made Quality a Calling

Early in his career, it wasn’t a typical summertime. Voltaire John Famarin Malaluan, Volt to his friends, worked the 10pm to 6am night shift so he could sit in summer classes from 8am to 5pm for his master’s degree. He still cannot quite recall how he survived it, but the experience taught him that anything is possible. Fourteen years into nursing, the nurse from Davao City now works in Quality & Patient Safety in Abu Dhabi, where his care reaches patients and fellow caregivers alike.

A stretch that pushed beyond limitations

On top of showing up for work and attending classes, Voltaire had school requirements to complete and submit. At first he questioned his commitment and whether it was all worth it. “But the whole process tested my limitation, pushed me beyond, and eventually helped me go through the rest of the journey,” he says.

The Filipino touch, a badge of honor

For Filipinos, Voltaire says, nursing introduces new terms for something we already know: caring for people. Hospitality and compassion are deeply rooted in us. But of all the medical terms and nursing procedures, what highlights Filipino care is touch, a touch that says, “I am here for you, and I am with you the rest of the way.”

Working abroad, he realised that the work ethic and hospitality Filipino nurses carry are a gem in healthcare outside the Philippines. “That feeling that at the start of your shift, as soon as the patient and family members see that you are the one assigned to take care of the patient, there’s a sigh of relief and confidence that care will be provided. That’s a badge of honor.”

From a lake to the sea

Working in the UAE was a totally different perspective from what he knew back home. Voltaire compares it to a fish that has lived all its life in a lake and is suddenly moved to the sea: a new environment, vast in its culture and its competition.

His answer was humility. “Everything that I brought from the Philippines which I thought would equip me to thrive abroad, I let go of all of those.” In their place came the wisdom he believes the Lord gave him: new skills, new knowledge and a character able to adjust, adapt and keep up with the new environment.

Falling in love with Quality

In college, Voltaire was struck by how vast healthcare is as an industry. Working while studying for his master’s deepened his curiosity about how a nurse can impact healthcare from a broader perspective, and that curiosity led him to learn and love Quality, “not only as a department, but as a discipline.”

That love of Quality brought him to a healthcare facility that instils it as a way of life, where he can touch more lives, both patients and the healthcare professionals he calls caregivers. What keeps him committed is the chance to take care of “the most luxurious possession that we all have, and that is our health,” and to keep advocating for improvement as healthcare evolves. He also wants to be remembered as a nurse who looked after his colleagues, too. “A healthy healthcare team is a very effective team.”

Leading with character

Healthcare faces crises both foreseen and unforeseen, and Voltaire believes business continuity should be built around both. Any team, big or small, can write a continuity plan. What sets a team apart is the right composition: people with initiative, will and openness.

That, he says, is what elevates a good leader: knowing the character the team needs, which leads to proper delegation of tasks and, in the end, delivering success or even more than what is expected.