Reflective Essay on Service Learning for Community Engagement

This reflective essay explores the learning and personal growth experienced through service learning for community engagement. It discusses the role of nursing core values and the impact of community health nursing theory. The essay also highlights the achievement of nursing judgment, professional identity, and human flourishing through the service. The importance of diversity, caring, ethics, and holism in patient care is emphasized. The essay concludes with reflections on professional identity and the need for continuous learning in nursing.

Running Head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON SERVICE LEARNING FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
(1062 Words)

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Introduction
The scope of a reflection paper identifies learning of a student and is crucial for
determining nursing role as a valuable resource for the community at large (Curtin, Martins,
Schwartz‐Barcott, DiMaria & Ogando, 2013). In the current reflection paper personal growth
and development of Core Values through experience has been depicted. Community
engagements for nurses provide an ideal opportunity for learning. In the current reflection paper,
learning's was gained by volunteering at the NCC's Blood Drive for my service learning project.
Self-Reflection
The NCC's Blood Drive provides an opportunity for students and community members to
donate blood for maintaining a general supply of blood or as a response to a shortage in
emergency cases (Douglas et al, 2014). My role during the program was multiple including
recruiting from donors, enabling the signing in the procedure, process the donor's medical history
and conducting a physical examination, then finally escorting them to the refreshment area to
thank them. This entire procedure required me to possess nursing core values of six C’s of care
and especially compassion. As Community health nursing theory addresses the collective
concept in nursing domains for rectification of community abilities amongst the diverse
population, the role of nurses becomes integral (Lundy & Janes, 2009). Community health is a
major part of the nursing profession and experience entails in-depth learning regarding the core
values of patient care.
The experience provided me with the opportunity to meet the SLO’s through the Service.
The three SLO’s that I achieved are Nursing Judgment (NJ), Professional Identity (PI) and
Human Flourishing (HF). The Service required me to perform a varied function which revealed
my PI. I realized that I possessed leadership qualities along with capabilities to work in a team
and appropriate communication skills. Prior to the experience, I was not aware of these qualities
of mine. I was able to undertake priorities in tasks and assign key roles to other community
members, which they followed. I was able to easily attain the task goal which was to assist the
patients and avoid problem arising to any patient. Moreover, while reviewing medical records
and physical examinations, many patients had to be requested not to donate blood and their
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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
efforts were thanked. All these roles were conducted by me and my other team members in a
professional manner.
Refusing some patients and asking some patients to proceed required SLO of Nursing
Judgment (NJ) (Weerts & Sandmann, 2010). I felt at the time of the experience that it is crucial
for nurses to make decisions at several points as nurses possessed the appropriate knowledge for
the same. Though some patients appeared to be healthy their medical reports were not
appropriate, hence they needed to be convinced not to donate blood. One patient I conducted
physical examination weighed 100lbs, hence she was not fit for the purpose of donating blood.
Thus, critical thinking for a patient is crucial in nursing. Further, the NJ of mine was applied at
several instances while reviewing the patient records or while suggesting them a course of action
post donating blood. I possessed knowledge regarding blood donation guidelines and the need
for diverse blood donors which was applied for NJ.
The PI of Human Flourishing (HF) was depicted in me as I handled the patient (Douglas
et al, 2009). I was able to provide them with the necessary comfort while donating blood and
then assure them of no consequences. I motivated them and most patients had a positive outcome
from the overall experience. They provided positive feedback about me, which I feel is an
achievement for me at this initiation stage.
The experience included attending to a diverse set of patients, which in turn allowed me
to meet the Core Values of the Service. Core Values includes diversity, caring, ethics and holism
(Douglas et al, 2011). Amongst the multiple core values, I was able to meet diversity as there
were people from various cultural backgrounds. I had donors from lesbian, gay, individuals with
disabilities, different faith, ethnic minorities, lower socioeconomic groups including African-
American and Hispanic. These groups of people often have limited access to diverse blood group
supply, some of them were attending the blood drive. Interacting with them enabled me to
understand diversity in patient care and the ways nurses could make a difference in their lives.
One African man pointed me that people with sickle anemia cells were common in their culture
and how important blood transfusion was for them. A gay man came to donate blood and was
confused deferred as he recently had sex with a man. Another student was deferred on grounds
of traveling to the UK, where there are concerns regarding mad cow disease. In another donor,
who was physically challenged I offered therapeutic communication technique for providing her
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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
with comfort. Thus, I able to attend to these diverse groups due to my caring capabilities. As a
nurse, I comforted to ethical standards in the blood drive to ensure safety to the donor and
recipient. I feel that compassion and empathy is the basic right of any patient.
The experience provided me with the opportunity for Professional Identity along with
Personal Growth. I was able to view my role as a valuable resource to the larger community.
Through my PI and Core Values, I was able to provide service to a diverse community of people.
In the absence of this experience, I would not have been able to identify the PI and Core Values
that I possessed. It served as an eye-opener for me. However, I feel there are a lot of
improvement areas that I need to attend to such as the continuously changing guidelines for
donor selection. Most nurses often face the challenge of keeping up to date with the essential
policies and guidelines (Andrew, Ferguson, Wilkie, Corcoran & Simpson, 2009). I feel nurses
need to adopt a continuous learning procedure to keep themselves up to date with the policies
and regulations.
Conclusion
The NCC blood drive provided tremendous insights into my personality and capability as
a nurse. I was able to realize my Professional Identity and Core Values as a nurse. Earlier I had
read regarding compassion, care, and other nursing qualities, but this experience provided me
with hands-on expertise to deal with patients and diverse community. This community service
has provided me with an opportunity to develop and improvise in areas in which I lag, to enable
me to improvise myself.
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References
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