My Personal Experience In My Nursing Student Experience

A Service Learning project is one of the project requirements to complete the Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree through Ferris State University (FSU). My Service Learning experience was completed at the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in November, 2014. This paper includes details of the facility along with the contact information for the coordinator of the project. A description of my role as a volunteer, critical reflection of my experience, and a synthesis of the Service Learning are also included.

It is also a “boundary spanning” activity in that it requires active involvement from people both within and outside of the classroom context, often resulting in participant contributors who represent a variety of generations, ethnicities, social groups, and experience levels (Billig and Furco, 2002, p.vii). Service-learning is designed to reduce the boundaries between an institutional campus environment and the community around it. It is designed to connect learning to real experience through service and reflection (Ball and Schilling, 2006; Becker, 2000). As a baseline to facilitate this development, service-learning is distinct from other types of community service and civic engagement experiences in that the service-learning experience must not only have a service and reflective component but also be clearly tied to the curriculum through learning objectives and theoretical underpinnings (Bloomquist, 2015; Pritchard, 2001). As Barbara Holland, former Director of the U.S. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, shared, “Service-learning is all in the hyphen. It is the enrichment of specific learning goals through structured community service opportunities that respond to community-identified needs and opportunities.” (Kenworthy-U’Ren, Taylor, and Petri, 2006: 121).

The critical difference of service learning and the traditional learning style is that students are learning and addressing real needs in the community. Which connect students to the community through meaningful interactions with others, safety, and educational needs. This specific course includes readings, discussions, and activities to support

What has surprised you? I think the most surprising thing about my nursing school journey has been how much I have grown and changed as a person in the past two years. I have become a much more assertive and direct person. I have a greater appreciation for the monotonous moments in my life and have learned how to not over think things and just to appreciate every moment and day for itself. Part of this group come about from clinical and part of it developed through my work experience as a nurse tech in the Emergency Department at Seattle Children’s Hospital. I personally have grown and learned a lot from the kids that I have worked with and its taught me the importance of slowing down and living in the moment. It’s also taught me that happiness is something that only you can determine. I feel that throughout all my clincials I have learned important life lessons from the people from every age and stage of life. All of these lessons have helped to shape me into a more compassionate, understanding, and better therapeutic communicator with my patients and have shaped my personal nursing practice.

The benefit of service learning for the student and community is again a better inform civic minded individual who may use his experience from service learning as a launching pad for career opportunities to better serve within that community. In an article published in the College Student Journal its author noted that with service learning “students gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Strange,

Service Learning is learning through experience to gain sociological observation, concepts, and theories so I decide to do my service learning hours in one of the two high schools that is part of the Oceanside Unified School District. The name of the school is called El Camino High School. El Camino High School is a high school that is located at 400 Rancho Del Oro Drive in Oceanside, California. It has over 3,000 students currently attending. The school’s mascot is the “Wildcat” and their colors are gold and red. El Camino High School is a public school that is part of a system of free public education that is maintained at a public expense for the education of students who are part of that community or district. El Camino High School is a place is a public school where students are coming out of middle school and are

Through personal student interviews, the phenomenon of undergraduate nursing students' experiences in the context of communicating the psychiatric patients was described. This pilot study suggests that one cannot fully understand the breadth and depth of this experience until one has lived the experience. This section reflects the findings of this pilot study in accordance with existing literature as previously reported. Practical implications for nursing within education and limitations will be discussed and will conclude with suggestions for future research.

I did not know what service-learning was until I read the articles assigned for class. The articles along with going to the Harpers Ferry Job Corps orientation really showed me what it was all about. The reading and the class presentation have challenged my first thoughts by giving me a better understanding of what service learning is. Service-learning goes a couple of miles further than community service. Service-learning allows students to help the community, as well as learn about something. For example, my Education class is going to be tutoring students at Job Corps. Our class is providing the Harpers Ferry community a free service of tutoring to those who need it while hopefully my peers and I will gain a solid understanding of what it would be like to teach one-on-one. Service-learning has three main components: community service, instruction, and reflection. Those components work well together and make service-learning seem like the perfect answer to helping education grow into a more progressive way. However, students need to have a high responsibility, they have to take the initiative, as well as make choices. If students do not do that, the success of service-learning will be lacking.

“Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities” (Learn and Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse). This assignment gave students the opportunity to go outside of their comfort zone, which is typically the classroom and see what the “real world” is like. As Gandhi would say “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Gandhi). I believe that this project really allowed us to appreciate what we have because many people are not as fortunate. During this service learning project I had certain expectations going into the project, but in the end, my results were not exactly as I expected.

In Service-Learning in Higher Education is a short video that gets straight to the point talking about what is service learning. Service learning incorporates a volunteer component with a learning experience that requires you to set goals, to make preparations, and reflection of things you experience. This is similar to our module were suppose to learn the purpose of service and role of citizens working in a community. Service learning will help me to have a deeper understanding of things and have an entire different perspective.

Service learning is an important element of nursing education. It is not merely service which benefits the community, nor is it simply providing community health promotion. As the name suggests, service learning also facilitates student learning opportunities that differ from the classroom or clinical experience. The senior center group project was valuable, in that it allowed for the enhancement of personal health care knowledge, as well as the opportunity to share that knowledge with the older adult community.

Service learning projects can be life changing for students. They learn empathy for others, and may even get the real life experience they need which will inspire them to find a career. Through helping others students may find that they want to go into the human services field or even go more global by joining the Peace

According to Kathleen Flecky and Lynn Gitlow, service-learning is defined as, “learning that occurs in experiences, reflection, and civic engagement” (Flecky & Gitlow, 2011). In recent years more universities are implementing service learning into their curriculum. A key concept of service learning is civic responsibility. Civic responsibility can simply be defined as your responsibilities as a citizen. As will be shown later in this paper, service learning can have many benefits not only to a student, but also to the community members

Nursing students face many challenges due to their narrow scope of practice, and lack of experience and knowledge. This changes with the development and learning of values and beliefs, which shape the decision making in the nursing process. During my clinical nursing practice experience as a new nursing student, I have had amazing learning opportunities as well as situations that made me feel uncomfortable, powerless, and dependent on the assigned nurse. In this paper I will talk about one of my clinical experiences where I felt powerless, analyze it, and show how the sociopolitical inquiry and power dynamics come into play in my story.

The Society for Experiential Education defines service learning as, “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience” (Staton 1). Service learning is a great opportunity to get extra learning experiences while also experiencing the community around the universities campus. “Service learning allows students to apply what they are learning from their instructors, peers, and readings to genuine tasks that occur outside the four walls of the classroom while simultaneously helping others” (Staton 1). Universities are using service learning to expand beyond the classroom and provide students with experiences that will