Other Titles
Service learning in undergraduate nursing
Abstract
Purpose: Service learning provides many benefits for all students who participate in service learning activities. Adegbola (2013) has stated that service learning helps health care students to "develop an appreciation of the vulnerabilities that marginalized segments of the population face". Both Health People 2020 and the American Association of College of Nursing include objectives that can be accomplished through service learning. Hoebeke, et al., in 2009 discussed the benefits of service learning for students to include the development of leadership skills, critical thinking social skills as well as cultural competencies (Hoebeke, 2009). Service learning contains four elements including: • Experiential in nature • Allow students to engage in activities that address human and community needs vial structured opportunities for learning • Incorporate reflection • Embrace the concept of reciprocity between the learner and the person and entity being served. (Hoebeke, 2009).
Service learning has been thought to contribute to the development of the nurse not only as a professional but also as a citizen (McKinnon and Fealy, 2011). Brown (2013) examines service learning as a way for the student nurse to develop compassion. Service learning can be used to introduce nursing students to caring and compassion (Brown, 2013). Through service learning nursing students can learn that caring of others is challenging, more challenging than caring for themselves. The purpose of this study was to examine nursing students" perspectives of service learning and to determine is these experiences helped to develop caring.
Methods: The curriculum for the students had the students enrolled in a service learning course, a nursing informatics course at the same time students were participating in their first clinical in medical-surgical nursing. The students were able to participate at their service learning at a facility of their choice. This allowed the student to be able to choose the site/organization, based on their interests and would lead to a more positive experience for the students. The survey that was utilized was the same interview guide used by Schofield, et. al., in their research. Demographic information was collected as part of the survey including the age of the student, ethnicity, the number of years that they have worked in health care, and if they are currently working. Below, are the questions that were asked of the students who participated in the service-learning course. 1. Where did you have your Service Learning rotation? 2. Describe the people you worked with at the Service Learning site? 3. What did you expect to get out of the Service Learning experience? 4. What did you learn about others and yourself? 5. What did you do that was effective and why was it effective? 6. What values, opinions, decision, have been made or changed? 7. Describe what caring means to you? 8. How has this Service Learning experience helped you to care for others? 9. Is it important for you to stay involved in the community? 10. How would your efforts contribute to social change?
Results: Once students were introduced to service learning, they were able to appreciate and value the experience by the overwhelming response of 100% of the students viewed the importance of staying involved in the community. Responses to the question #3, "what did you expect to get out of the service learning experience", had the most frequent response as "to help others", by 16% of the total responses. The most frequent response to the question #4 was "how much I like to help" which was reported 18% by our students. The next most common response was the realization that our students identified that "other people have it worse than I (they) do" and this was cited by our students at 12% of their responses to question #4. This response was surprising and there was not any literature that noted this perspective in other studies. The significance of this response is that students are able to "empathize" and see the perspective of others and relate these experiences to their own lives. Students were able to identify strengths such as "I am actually good at working with students" which 4% of the students responded.
Conclusion: The results of the study suggested that service learning for our nursing students is valuable and can be anticipated to reach many vulnerable clients and populations. At present, our students have accrued, by participating in a minimum of 10 hours of service learning as a course requirement, over 1180 hours of service. In this time of social injustices, vulnerabilities and inequities experienced by many, it is hopeful to think that our nursing students have been exposed to giving back, and even more importantly, have overwhelmingly indication that they will continue to do so.
Notes
This session was accepted for presentation at the International Nursing Research Congress 2017, but not presented.
Sigma Membership
Unknown
Lead Author Affiliation
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Caring, Cultural Competence, Service Learning
Recommended Citation
Van Dyke, Olga; Dean, Teresa; and Cheng, Betty, "Service learning and development of caring in undergraduate nursing students" (2017). INRC (Congress). 490.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2017/presentations_2017/490
Conference Name
28th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Dublin, Ireland
Conference Year
2017
Rights Holder
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Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Service learning and development of caring in undergraduate nursing students
Dublin, Ireland
Purpose: Service learning provides many benefits for all students who participate in service learning activities. Adegbola (2013) has stated that service learning helps health care students to "develop an appreciation of the vulnerabilities that marginalized segments of the population face". Both Health People 2020 and the American Association of College of Nursing include objectives that can be accomplished through service learning. Hoebeke, et al., in 2009 discussed the benefits of service learning for students to include the development of leadership skills, critical thinking social skills as well as cultural competencies (Hoebeke, 2009). Service learning contains four elements including: • Experiential in nature • Allow students to engage in activities that address human and community needs vial structured opportunities for learning • Incorporate reflection • Embrace the concept of reciprocity between the learner and the person and entity being served. (Hoebeke, 2009).
Service learning has been thought to contribute to the development of the nurse not only as a professional but also as a citizen (McKinnon and Fealy, 2011). Brown (2013) examines service learning as a way for the student nurse to develop compassion. Service learning can be used to introduce nursing students to caring and compassion (Brown, 2013). Through service learning nursing students can learn that caring of others is challenging, more challenging than caring for themselves. The purpose of this study was to examine nursing students" perspectives of service learning and to determine is these experiences helped to develop caring.
Methods: The curriculum for the students had the students enrolled in a service learning course, a nursing informatics course at the same time students were participating in their first clinical in medical-surgical nursing. The students were able to participate at their service learning at a facility of their choice. This allowed the student to be able to choose the site/organization, based on their interests and would lead to a more positive experience for the students. The survey that was utilized was the same interview guide used by Schofield, et. al., in their research. Demographic information was collected as part of the survey including the age of the student, ethnicity, the number of years that they have worked in health care, and if they are currently working. Below, are the questions that were asked of the students who participated in the service-learning course. 1. Where did you have your Service Learning rotation? 2. Describe the people you worked with at the Service Learning site? 3. What did you expect to get out of the Service Learning experience? 4. What did you learn about others and yourself? 5. What did you do that was effective and why was it effective? 6. What values, opinions, decision, have been made or changed? 7. Describe what caring means to you? 8. How has this Service Learning experience helped you to care for others? 9. Is it important for you to stay involved in the community? 10. How would your efforts contribute to social change?
Results: Once students were introduced to service learning, they were able to appreciate and value the experience by the overwhelming response of 100% of the students viewed the importance of staying involved in the community. Responses to the question #3, "what did you expect to get out of the service learning experience", had the most frequent response as "to help others", by 16% of the total responses. The most frequent response to the question #4 was "how much I like to help" which was reported 18% by our students. The next most common response was the realization that our students identified that "other people have it worse than I (they) do" and this was cited by our students at 12% of their responses to question #4. This response was surprising and there was not any literature that noted this perspective in other studies. The significance of this response is that students are able to "empathize" and see the perspective of others and relate these experiences to their own lives. Students were able to identify strengths such as "I am actually good at working with students" which 4% of the students responded.
Conclusion: The results of the study suggested that service learning for our nursing students is valuable and can be anticipated to reach many vulnerable clients and populations. At present, our students have accrued, by participating in a minimum of 10 hours of service learning as a course requirement, over 1180 hours of service. In this time of social injustices, vulnerabilities and inequities experienced by many, it is hopeful to think that our nursing students have been exposed to giving back, and even more importantly, have overwhelmingly indication that they will continue to do so.