Flora Ernst spent 32 years of her life as a superintendent of nurses’ training at two mission hospitals in the Philippines. Having received her own training at the Northfield School for Girls, she received her R.N. from the Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1926, Flora sailed for the place and work toward which she believed her life was directed. Her fist assignment was to supervise the Training School for Nurses at the Iloilo Mission Hospital. She remained there until World War II and a period of internment under the Japanese. After a two-year furlough, she returned to the Philippines, this time to serve at the Emmanuel Hospital in Roxas City.