Journal Reflection | | | | Not |
| Answered the required questions in sufficient depth. | Fully meets requirements of assignment.Explores implications of chosen ideas.Makes a convincing case for why selected key ideas connect. | Fully meets requirements of assignment.Explores implications of chosen ideas. | Does not address some
of the assignment
Superficially answers
Both or only one of the | Does not address the |
| Linked Course Content and Community Service Experience | Fully meets requirements of assignment.Explores implications of chosen ideas.Makes a convincing case for why selected key ideas connect. Integrates course content
Uses evidence-based references | Fully meets the requirements but does not exceed them
Integrates course content
Uses evidence-based references | Does not address some
of the assignment –
minor, superficial links
to course content and | Does not address the |
Demonstrated Self-Awareness
| Summarizes experience with community partner.
Describes challenges when working with partner and possible solutions
Sets future goals in collaboration with partner
Discusses observations and/or interactions in the context of the author’s own world-view
Also links reflection to theories discussed in class. | Summarizes experience with community partner.
Describes challenges when working with partner and possible solutions
Sets future goals in collaboration with partner
Discusses observations and/or interactions in the context of the author’s own world-view | Superficially summarizes experience with community partner
| Does not summarize
experience with
community partner
|
| Conclusion | Fully meets the requirements as well as developing a lead for future reflections. | Fully meets the requirements but does not exceed them | Does not address some
of the assignment | Does not address the |
| Graduate Level Writing and Presentation | Structured, spelling, grammar, punctuation, APA format, or citations.
| Fully meets the requirements but does not exceed them. Minor errors in grammar, spelling, writing flow. | Does not address some
of the assignment
Major errors in writing | Does not address the |
Christ the King Community-based Service Learning Reflection
DePaul University
Health Promotion for Families and Communities (Course Name)
NSG XXXXXXXXXX
Christ the King Service Learning Reflection
For the past 10 weeks, I have had the privilege of serving at Christ the King College Preparatory School. This school is located in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago and provides a private, college-preparatory education to families who would not be able to afford it on their own. Students work five days a month at local businesses to earn about two-thirds of their tuition. The school just graduated its first senior class in 2012. They are still in the process of finding the best organizational systems and curriculum. They do not currently offer any health or nutrition classes. This was very surprising to me, especially given it is a high school and there are a lot of health related topics that should be addressed. Hopefully we can help them add these into the curriculum through the next two years. The years between 13-18 are critical years to help these young adults adapt healthy lifestyle habits and even just understand what is happening to their bodies as they grown, change, and develop.
One of our responsibilities was to help the school organize the medical records. One of the things that really surprised me was how many of these folders were empty. Students did not have any proof of immunizations or event consent forms that the school could give them any medications. The faculty seemed to understand that these forms are difficult to track down given the population they are serving, but did not seem too conserved about the missing forms. Many of the students do not have a consistent healthcare provider and are seen at various clinics around the city. As a result, the school has given a grace period to families that have not been able to turn in these records. The school is clearly culturally sensitive to their students. However, that being said, this is all the more reason that they should institute a health curriculum. Many of these teenagers are not receiving medical/health advice from a consistent medical professional. They need to be taught how to care for their bodies and their minds. They also need a safe place to ask questions.
I can tend to be a “rule-follower” and don’t have much understanding for those that are not. As a result, when I first started looking at the medical records – I was surprised to see that so many of the folders were lacking vital medical information. I was surprised to see that the school was able to operate without this information. It really opened my eyes to the challenges of serving certain populations. I did not realize how hard this would be for families. I now have a much better understanding of some of the challenges associated with this population when it comes to finding consistent medical care. This helped me further understand the need for ACA to promote more Community Health Partners in underserved areas. This was actually my topic and helped to bring the issues I addressed there into a more practical vantage point. I can really see the need. So many of the children that did have forms for more than one year – were from all different practices and locations. And even more did not have a full patient history; they just listed information as “missing” or “not known”. This really opened my eyes to the vast differences that can occur in the same city just a few miles apart. It also showed me some of the challenges that I will face in my nursing career when families don’t see the same practitioner year after year and don’t retain all the records.
I think there is a clear need for the services we were able to provide. Our site contact, Mr. Hobson, is the school vice-principle and he has a large amount of work on his hands, and he doesn’t have the time to go through each file and determine how to help each family get the needed information in their files. I am pleased we were able to get through all the files. We organized them and then went through each one and made a spreadsheet of what each student was missing. Hopefully next quarter we can take this one step further and help the students and their families find places to get these missing immunizations or yearly physicals. We want to help the school get back up to code and to also ensure the health of their students. Once we begin researching clinics and various ways for the children to update their records, I think we will have an even better understanding of the underlying inequalities that exist in this community.
One issue that did stand out to me in reviewing the medical records was the number of students that were overweight. So many of these students had BMI’s that would place them in the Overweight or Obesity Class 1 category. Many forms even listed that the children were at risk for developing diabetes. This is an epidemic in our society that needs to be addressed, and needs to be addressed in the schools. How are we going to be able to help these children? How can we teach them better habits? Our next project for the school is to develop a health & nutrition curriculum for the school. It is our goal to address this issue there. What type of healthier life style adaptations can these children make? How many calories are really necessary for any given day? How much sleep should they be getting? How much exercise is healthy in a given week? I see our role morphing into one of health promotion over the next two years. I think as nurses, we have a lot of offer the students. And since we have spent time looking at all their medical records and have been at this school for the past few months, hopefully we can develop an approach that fits the lifestyles of the students and the community. There is so much room for growth and change here. We can really make a big difference. There is no reason these students should not have a health/nutrition class. I had one in high school and although it was embarrassing when certain topics were discussed, it really gave me a foundation upon which to build a healthy lifestyle.
One of the reason’s I got into the nursing profession is my desire to improve the quality of life for the patients under my care. I believe that by working at Christ the King, I will learn how to adapt programs for a community that doesn’t look exactly like the one I grew up in. This will force me to think outside of the box and outside of my own experiences to develop a plan that will best serve the students entrusted to our care. When I am a practicing nurse, most of the patients will probably be from backgrounds that are different than my own. I need to learn how to adapt programs and lifestyle modifications to serve their needs – not my own. Hopefully through the time at Christ the King, I will learn how to do this a little better. So much of our role as nurses is to advocate for and educate the patient. The experience of building a lesson plan will be invaluable training to develop to these skills.
Another one of our goals at the school is to help with school nursing needs as necessary. They do not currently have a school nurse, so there isn’t anyone there trained to treat the patients when problems arise. Hopefully we can help with this role – as we get more proficient with our own skills. I am still a little unsure of myself around patients so I hope that my time interacting with students and helping answer their questions or provide positive reinforcement will improve my skills.
I am thankful to be assigned to Christ the King School. It is an incredibly impressive place that is filled with very talented and hard-working students. I hope that I will be able to help the school continue to serve these students in even better ways throughout the next two years. I am excited to see what we will accomplish.
References:
Kaakinen, J.R., Gedaly-Duff, V., Coehlo, D.P., & Harmon Hanson, S.M. (2010).
Family health care nursing theory, practice and research.Philadelphia, PA: Davis Company.