Rough Start to the Second Week

We did not get the volunteer spot we wanted. Well what doesn't hurt you only makes you stronger, right? We're working on figuring something else out. I'm still unclear on what the 20 hours entails. Is that 20 hours of just teaching or is it 20 hours of volunteer work with a teaching project included somewhere in there? I'll have to do a little bit of clarifying to figure it out. This week in class we learned about culture. I feel that it is very good for us to learn about how to handle a situation involving multiple cultures. I'm sure it is important in other fields of work but because nursing is so (uhhhh what's the word...) intimate (I guess?) then culture affects it so much more.

I don't really have much to say about our service learning project. I guess it is still out for discussion. We are running out time to figure it out. I am actually get nervous as I write this. I hope that I can find something to do that is fun and that I can be passionate about. What good is doing something you hate? I don't think I will learn much from it if I hate it.

As a student nurse it means that I should begin learning about other cultures and what to do in situations that involve different cultures while I am in class and clinicals. I have noticed that it is very easy for nurses and nursing students to get so carried away with the textbook side of health care that they forget about the human side. Some nurses are so involved in the person's physical health they may forget to take into account what the person's culture dictates

While learning about culture may seem tedious I think that it will help all of us in the long run. By learning skills to deal with cultural differences it will help us when difficult situations arise not only in nursing but also in our lives in general. I'm hoping that it will be like CPR, when the situation comes up the training will just kick in and you will automatically know what to do.

I hope that this education will help me to become a better student, educator, family member, and friend as well as a better nurse. I believe that a lot of our education can be used in everyday life and that it will make us better people in the long run. I understand that there is a lot of culture and diversity in Utah County but I hope that I can someday live in a place more outside my own comfort zone and take care of a bigger pool of diversity. Maybe I can accomplish this through travel nursing. Although I hear that the opportunities have decreased since the economy went down I hope that I will still be able to benefit from the experience. I think that learning about culture will be an integral part of me being a nurse, traveler or not.

Service Learning: It Has Begun!

We have begun the preliminary stages of our service learning project. This week we have contacted Planned Parenthood to get the "Okay" to do our service learning project with them. I was not the one in the group who contacted them and I have yet to hear how that went. It makes me a little nervous but I am also very excited to get out into the community to teach awareness about...something. We still haven't decided what we're going to do our teaching project on either. I think that will come after we have had a discussion with the people at Planned Parenthood. I think that our lecture on adult learning gave us some tips for our learning projects. The most poignant slide, I found, was the one titled "Teaching/Learning Factors." Our group was thinking of using pamphlets to teach our information along with conversation with people who come to our kiosk of information. So the retention rate of our learners will be better than that of just those with whom we would lecture. I hope that they will put their learning to immediate use (be it by practicing safe sex or washing their hands) so they will retain the information the best.

I believe that being an adult learner and learning about adult learnig can help me greatly in my own life and in the lives of those that I educate. I believe that understanding why we're doing something (such as learning) can help us in succeeding in the activity (learning!). By understanding how important learning is to my career and to my life in general I think that it will help me to grow as a person. Also, knowing how other adults like to learn and how they learn the best can help me when I educate someone about their health or health in general.

I really hope that my group gets the service learning project that we are trrying to get. It will give me the opportunity to educate women (mostly women, I assume) about keeping their bodies safe and healthy. I have had a soft spot for the subject ever since I had to have one of my ovaries removed when I was 19. The removal was not caused by anything that I did but it made me more aware of my body and the need to be vigilant in it's care. I was afraid that I would not be able to have children if something else bad happened so I went to the doctor and was given information on how to save my eggs through birth control. This was a huge relief to me. I think that it will be satisfying to be able to give other women the same kind of relief through my teaching.

I believe that teaching this sensitive subject can help me learn how to teach while being non-judgemental of others choices. I am sure it is a hard thing for some people to do but I am also sure that I can do it and learn a lot from the experience. I also believe that completing this project with two other people from class can help me to learn collaborative work in relation to nursing. We all have to do our part and we all have to help each other when we go to actually teach. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

I feel like women's health nursing is something that I can truly be passionate about and what a great place to start! I believe that beginning to learn this information now and starting contact with the community I would be working with in the future would greatly benefit me if I were to become a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner or hold a job similar in function. . I believe that my colleagues (classmates) could benefit by seeing this side of healthcare because they may choose to make this their career as well. I am very grateful that I may have the opportunity to work with this community so early in my nursing career.