Social Participation Paper

I have been given many opportunities to help others and make an impact in Johnson City through organizations like the Family Medicine Interest Group at ETSU, serving as the coordinator for student involvement in free clinics. I have also been able to make an impact through medicine in Cleveland, TN by way of the Good Samaritan Clinic. This is a free clinic in downtown Cleveland that I have been volunteering at for the past seven years. I have also been directly involved in the start-up of the Just Care clinic in Mountain City, TN, a medical student ran free clinic in rural Appalachia. I was also been able to spend time in rural Guatemala with a medical team from my undergraduate university helping diagnose, treat, and care for patients whom receive little to no regular healthcare. From my own first hand experiences in both Guatemala and my time spent in the Just Care and Good Samaritan Clinics, I have seen the impact that an inadequate health care system can have on a population. I hope to use my medical and public health training in areas that do not have adequate access to health

There are some challenges, as well, in implementing health promotion programs that use the social ecological framework. One main challenge is that programs are expensive and complex to implement in certain community settings. Also, there needs to be close coordination and collaboration between individuals and groups. In the article by Wagemakers et al., the authors developed a framework that links the domains of social environment and health, with key health predicting mediators, and operational variables of participation and collaboration (6). They based this framework on experience in case studies, audits of community health programs in the Netherlands, and ideas found in the literature. The authors offer four key guidelines on how to apply the framework that can help increase community participation and collaboration. These guidelines are: use the variables as a menu, set specific aims for social change processes, use an action research approach and triangulate data. This framework can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of community health promotion designs and address the challenges faced in implementing new programs.

Additionally, I volunteered with community programs focused on alleviating health care issues. For example, I worked with an organization that promotes community discourse on the unique, hidden health challenges of homeless and low-income women and girls. Not long after that, I volunteered at two events,

Additionally, volunteering in medically underserved hospitals, working with organizations that specifically aim to help the most “at-risk” individuals, and now tutoring “at-risk” youth at my former high school sheds different light on the topic ultimately giving me a multidimensional perspective. In my opinion, with this understanding comes great

Public health nurses can utilize outreach to help make health care more assessable to the communities they serve by implementing health education and counseling in areas the population congregate, for example: schools, community centers, churches and workplaces. Comprehensive services and

Next, there are six main groups to choose from when becoming a volunteer. These groups consist of education, environment, health, agriculture, community economic development, and youth in development. In relation to becoming a nurse, the health group promotes many important health issues. Since these volunteers are helping in poor countries, they focus on nutrition, hygiene, clean water, HIV/AIDS, and child health. They mostly teach and support orphaned children with diseases, but do other nurse related jobs, too. (What Volunteers Do

My initial clinical volunteering experience was when I volunteered in adolescent health education at People’s Community Clinic (PCC) in my hometown of Austin, Texas during the summer after my sophomore year of college. I worked a couple days a week with staff physicians and other undergraduate volunteers to craft effective ways to disperse health information. The clinic served a majority low-income population. During my time volunteering at the clinic, I witnessed the necessity of providing quality health information, not just in its raw form, but also in connection to the individual. I created health communications that efficiently informed adolescents and how health institutions can better effect positive change in their patients. Through the experience, I became interested in how people develop personal perceptions of health, and how information regarding health is dispersed through various platforms including pamphlets, visual demonstrations, and online resources.

I am passionate about this major since the work conducted by this group allows for substantial government and societal changes to occur. However, there is a high need for public health workers in the neighboring islands. Therefore, my career goal is to improve the health of neighboring islands by advocating for environmental, individual, and societal changes that motivate healthy lifestyles in low-income communities. Additionally, I hope to improve their health literacy through awareness and prevention interventions focused on non-communicable

Today, my group and I attended a Health Fair at the Heskett Center gymnasium on campus. Every spring the Camus Recreation Organization at Wichita State host a Health Fair. The event, with over 60 vendor booths, offered demonstrations, wellness tips, and screenings from WSU departments and community members.Health Fairs, such as this, is an excellent opportunity for students to provide under privileged communities with education and resources, and gain the experience needed to compete in the ever expanding health care field. According to the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Undeserved, "Universities are in an excellent position to train, supervise, and organize volunteer health corps in order to engage students in reducing health disparities

This summer I will be joining East Carolina University's chapter of Medical/Dental Brigades in Honduras. Much of the population in Honduras is living in poverty and therefore living conditions are poor and the country is extremely medically underserved. The Medical Brigades will have the opportunity to provide services that the population is currently not used to having for a whole week. While in Honduras, we will be working with members of the community and providing health care services in areas such as: triage, doctor consultation, dental, OBGYN, pharmacy, and more! Aside from providing health care, the medical brigades will also be participating in a public health project to help the community become sustainable. An example of this would

Pitt County Health Department mission is to protect, promote, and assure the health of all people in Pitt County. This agency has several programs and classes to educated and serve the community. During my internship they provided several opportunities for me to teacher classes and work with the members of the community. Another strength about this agency is that every health educator is passionate about what they do when serving and educating the community. Throughout my internship they have provided me with several teaching opportunities. I’ve also attended meeting and conducted research for two grants. The agency allowed me to see first hand what health education is all about, which is providing the community with knowledge and skills

Volunteering in your community helps solve many dilemmas in your community that descend through the eyes of government and social agencies (Everything you ever wanted to know about volunteering).

To be successful in offering preventative testing to prevent chronic diseases, it is essential to know what programs already exist in the community that is successful. By partnering with existing businesses in town the success of a healthy community can go a long way. Programs offered at the local community centers such as fitness programs for seniors and children would help to

However, most of these interventions are on short term basis for changing the attitude of the community, will benefit people for a long term as they lead them to a proper channel based on their situation. The outcomes can be evaluated on follow-up sessions after the initial assessment. People with high risk for coronary heart diseases will refer for more assessment and as they are in contact with the health professional, they will have more access to related educations. Local news channels and local medias will be encouraged to offer more education related to the issue as pert of their health programs. Churches, community centers, and schools will be encouraged to offer group exercise or peer support sessions by the help of volunteer in order to expose the community to more information and

barriers to the active participation of health volunteers reflecting “the inadequate capability of the volunteers and trainers”, “inadequate acceptance of the volunteers”, “restrictive social norms” and “organizational problems” themes were explored by qualitative research. Sub-themes included Inadequate knowledge of volunteers, Inadequate skills of the volunteers/ trainers, Inefficient communication, Not taking care of the population covered by the program, Organizational distrust, Unrealistic expectations and systemic confusion, Escaping and denial of responsibility, Lack of motivation and organizational support and Educational Failure. The first round questionnaire consisted of 10 questions, the questions were formulated exploratory (open