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.