Reflection paper for pino PDF

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Reflection paper for anatomy class...

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Maria Ocampo Reflection on Service Learning Professor Pino MWF 8-8:50

Influenza is a virus that affects respiratory tract. It is commonly known as the “flu”, and it can cause complications if not treated correctly and on time. Having the opportunity to work in a group and be able to research information on influenza to provide the community with that information was a one in a lifetime experience. Being able to present the information we learned and worked long hours for was worth it when everyone was satisfied with listening and wanting to learn about influenza and how they can prevent it. I am extremely satisfied with knowing that I was able to make a difference in a persons life at that health fair with the information that we gathered on influenza. With this project I have gained many different skills and had an amazing opportunity learning about not only influenza but about communication, technology, researching, and presentation skills. Communication is something that I struggle with constantly, as a shy person getting to talk in front of big crowds can really frighten me and make me nervous, but with service project I was really able to work on my talking in front of big crowds and accomplishing the goal of not getting nervous and just going out and having fun. Technology and researching really was not an issue, I was able to go work on the databases fairly quickly and smoothly. Obviously at time we faced challenges of not being able to find information on very specific data but at the end of the day I overcame that with the help of the wonderful assistants in the lab. The most challenging part of all the research was not being able to find specific information on how influenza affected African Americans. As I look into my future and think back to this project, I gained experience for my career. I am an aspiring nurse that is dedicated to learn and be the best I can be. With this project I was able to learn a great deal of information not only about Influenza but as how to research medical information on the databases and communicate the information to an audience who

also aspire to be future nurses or doctors. As an aspiring nurse getting the adequate information that I need to become a better nurse is always important. Having access to the databases made searching for information to become the best nurse I can be extremely easy. Being a nurse is a tough and challenging job, it’s a job that requires you to be learning everyday and searching new information about not only symptoms, but new diseases that can develop and where they come from, or how you can help cure them. Challenges that I will encounter in my career as a nurse will be with communication. Being able to communicate with not only a patient but with the patient’s family is extremely important as a nurse. With the service learning project, I believe that it helped me be able to communicate the information I learned better and not struggle to speak with an audience. As I was standing at the health fair watching my peers and I gave out information about influenza, and high blood pressure, I thought “Goodness, some people suffer from these things and some have it worse than others”. As a former influenza patient (H1N1), I know exactly how people feel when they have 105 or 106 of fever, the annoying chills, the sore throat, body aches. I felt as if I needed to be reminded that not everything in life is a big deal. For example, people in Africa have it so much worse than people in the United states, not only because they are an underdeveloped country in which they do not have the medical attention that someone in the state of Florida can. African people have to deal with those awful symptoms of influenza and sometimes if not treated can result in death. I understand how they feel and understand that we, Americans, have things easy, and are very fortunate to have such amazing medical attention provided to us 24/7, that if we just feel a little cold coming in we go and get some medicine and stop the infection or bacteria from making us feel so horrible and down. As this Service Project comes to an end, I was able to realize and learn a whole lot of things in which I sometimes took for granted. Being able to work in a group and each having a deadline to turn things in was an awesome experience because it tested our ability to work under a little pressure and tested our patience to work in a team. This project is something that I will remember for the rest of my life, it helped me gain things not only for my personal experience but for my career as well. I am satisfied knowing that my group and I were able to make a difference even if it was as tiny as a grain of sand in the community....