Service; there are many different things that come into mind when you think of the term service. I use to think of the term as, in something needs to be serviced, something needs to be done or helped. PSL has changed my view on the term service and that their are many different things about service, its not just helping. Throughout my service experiences and resources I have learned its not about helping at all. Naomi Remen, author of In the Service of Life states “serving is different from helping. Helping is based on inequality; it is not a relationship between equals.” Serving is all about having that connection with someone and going in with an open mindset. Based on my own personal experiences with serving I didn't know what to expect
I feel that the importance of service is to help a person in need because you could change someone's life, not because you feel that you need to. People who love what they are doing are the people who effect everything around them.Service has impacted my life because it makes me a better person. My family feels the impact, the community feels the impact, even servicing for a few hours a week affects the people around you. It makes the community a better place to live.
The hospice aide’s job duties varies depending on the patient. If the hospice patient is in good condition, the job duties are very similar to that of the nursing home CNA. The hospice aide’s main goal is to maintain the patient’s dignity while providing the most comforting care possible. Many hospice patients are referring to as being on “comfort cares” – meaning if they don’t want to eat, they aren’t forced to. The hospice aide’s job is a hard one, as any CNA’s is, but perhaps more so, as they lose their patients at a higher
Remen points out that “helping” a community makes the indebted to the helpers, while serving one requires engaging in the unity with the community, creating a common ground. She also focuses on the assumptions implied by certain words, for example, for one to fix a problem or community implies that it was, before your assistance, broken or lacking. I agree that it is important to be conscientious of words choice and understand the disconnect that sometimes happens between intentionality and reality. However, I had a difficult time grappling with Remen’s preference for the word “service” which I feel implies the one serving is inferior, which doesn’t so much fix the initial dichotomy but simply reverses the roles. Furthermore I felt that her definition and emphasis on service had religious overtones that made me uncomfortable with what she was presenting and made it more difficult for me to relate to and digest her
On February 14th I spent a day doing something I never thought I would do in a million years, I went to hospice. I always thought I would hate hospice, but I actually didn’t mind it too much, it isn’t a job I see myself doing in the future but it is a job that I understand why people do it and why they enjoy it. During this observation I was touched by how much these nurses really seem to care for each of the patients that they have.
1) “Death with Dignity” is a famous slogan repeated constantly in the euthanasia debate and in this film. Try your best to be charitable: what do you think is meant by this? What does it imply about “life with dignity”? Do you think “total dependency comes at the expense of intimacy”?
In the meditative essay “A Matter of Life and Death” by Timothy Aubry, he reveals the meditation of marriage and mortality. With careful consideration of word choice, he creates a transition that sets forth an emotional connection with the reader before an authority of the physical world. Aubry begins his essay reflecting on a dream and recounts his past experiences- observant of the marriage that his parents once had, it becomes concerning for him seek what to expect for his own future. Throughout the story, Aubry inverts the pattern at the end, regaining his sense of reality. Therefore, he gives the essay an emotional connection with the reader in order to believe a larger-than-personal point. By using his own unpleasant experiences of illness and divorce, Aubry’s persona is identified through expressing himself as an apprehensive person to discuss the values he uncovers with marriage.
The functional area of service-learning is currently emerging as an acknowledged department at an institution of higher education. The theoretical roots of service learning go back to John Dewey, and the early twentieth century. However, current research on service-learning pedagogy dates back only to the early 1990’s. Best practices for the field are still being created as more and more new offices are springing up on campuses throughout the United States and institutions internationally. The reason this functional area is becoming ever popular is due to the positive impact it has on students and most all educational outcomes.
Then came my first challenge: working for a hospice. Here is where I learned harsh realities that no schooling could prepare me for. The hospice was difficult for me, at first. It was hard to speak with patients suffering from memory loss, dementia, anxiety, depression, or other disordes. It was hard to experience death on a regular basis; the death of patients that I interacted with and started to befriend. I had to learn to keep a fixed, professional demeanor to mask my sorrows (for my displays of sadness could affect the other patients). I had to foster a personal, caring commttment toward the patients—without becoming too personally attached, myself.
At the beginning of this volunteer experience, I walked in hopeful that I would gain some knowledge about the different careers that the medical field possesses, but I got so much more than that. I learned that community service is about making an impact in the lives of other members who share my community.
Candidate Handbook. (2013). National Board for Certificate for hospice and palliative care nurses. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://www.nbchpn.org/
My earliest experiences of observing nursing in action occurred during my last two years of high school. My father was diagnosed with cancer during the spring of my junior year and died right before my senior year. During that short time I watched as the nurses cared for him and I could see compassion and empathy in the way they looked at him. It never occurred to me until after I had raised my children that I wanted to be able to help people in the same way those nurses helped my dad. But now when I tell people that I want to be an oncology nurse, people often respond by saying that they would never choose that type of nursing. They say that they could not stand to watch their patients die so frequently. Their reactions, along with this course in death and dying, have made me question how I might be able to bear the challenges of nursing in an area where death of my patients may be common. I believe that oncology will be a positive specialty to work in because of the consistent advances in prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancer. Furthermore, I believe that William Worden’s four tasks of mourning as presented in our text book is a good framework for the oncology nurse to use in order to cope with the repeated losses inherent in this type of nursing (Leming and Dickinson, 2011).
My community service work at County Hospital is to care for the rudimentary needs of each patient. My goals are to provide inspiration during the healing process, teach kindness and compassion, and discover my own abilities for empathy. "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I'll try again to tomorrow (Mary Anne Radmacher)." My hope as a volunteer is to help each patient find that voice, find that courage to go forward.
If we open our lives and give service to those less fortunate than ourselves, we allow our hearts to receive immeasurable happiness. When we sacrifice our time to help someone in need, whether it is a great or small need, we become a part of their life and can help alleviate heavy burdens. Making time to help people in need creates opportunities for us to develop new and lasting relationships. Serving our fellowmen allows the best in each of us to shine through and we can become examples to our children.
Ruth presented aspects of “An education model for explaining hospice services” (Welk, 1991). She discussed the four dimensions of support for the patient and family within hospice care, which are physical, emotional/psychological, social, and spiritual and gave examples of how the various dimensions of support could occur. She explained the purpose of hospice is to allow the patient to live as full as possible and comfortably until the end of life. She explained hospices services takes the “…conflict out of social situations, helps to subside the fear emotionally, attempts to remove as much pain physically and addresses decreasing despair spiritually thus easing the suffering” (Welk, 1991, p. 16) of the patient and
According to (Lennan, 2008) service delivery is the provision of public goods or social , economic or infrastructural services to those who need them .The Education and Training Unit (2009 internet source) defines this as the supply or ability to provide basic services to the public and these have a “direct and immediate” consequence and impact on the...