only a few weeks left!!!!

These were the old people that I will tell you about.
Beckham is learning the art of quilting with my mother. He is picking it up so fast.

For the service-learning project in another class we went to Seville senior center and talked to the people living there about preventing dementia. It is important for older adults to keep their mind sharp with brain exercises. Also they need to provide their brain with plenty of fresh oxygen through exercise. We also provided them with an assortment of crossword puzzles, word searches, and Sudoku. To keep them sharp.

WHAT? We got to the senior center and there was a little auditorium all set up for us with about twenty-five percent of the chairs filled, which were about five people. (I think a few of them were sitting there just because there was a seat available). The most important thing that I gained from this was that the older people had a real large knowledge deficit when it came to knowing about dementia. A lot of them did not even know what it was! Or they had heard of it but didn’t know what it did exactly; they just knew that it was bad. This was important for me to learn because dementia is a common thing in older adults, so you assume that they know about it. However as a nurse I need to teach people about their health care and if they don’t know something and I don’t teach them because I assume that they know it; it could have bad consequences.

SO WHAT? This experience helped me as a student nurse because it showed me how to teach a group better. I have never taught something and had everyone that I was teaching be on so many different levels. It was hard to talk about a basic principle and not have one or two people not know what I was talking about. This it as a large challenge in and of it self. I feel that it is good for me as a student nurse to get these kinds of problems resolved sooner rather then later.

NOW WHAT? As a nurse in the future I will have be very attentive and observant to the needs of my patients for teaching. I can’t assume that people already know what I am talking about. For example, while in the hospital after the birth of our baby the nurse was in charge of teaching us before discharge. This was our first child and so naturally we had a lot of questions. However, because our nurse knew that my wife was a nurse on labor and delivery she assumed that we knew a lot about our baby and she did not answer the questions that we had. Needless to say we figure out the answers to some of our questions, but we looked them up online and not from a great resource like the nurse would have been able to give us. So as a nurse I need to make sure that my patients have all the information that they want, so as to not let them leave with unanswered questions.

10th week in a row

For a healthy diet visit Hot Doug's in Chicago.
Even babies buckle up. (The FAA in conjunction with the FDA does not recommend children get buckled like this.)

so this week i have decided to blog about my service learning project in another class, i figure it might work because it is all service learning.

I went to the Seville senior center for my other service-learning project. And for the first part of it we did a health screening.WHAT? One of the most important things that I learned at the senior center is that the people that are there really rely on the service that they offer. I’m talking about the fact that that they go to the art museums or the mall, just getting them out and about. In talking to the people during the health screening that is something that they look forward to everyday, and I realized that it is really important to have this in there life.

SO WHAT? It was important for me as a student nurse to go here and do these health screening. I learned that a lot of older people know little about so of the most common health risks. It is important because to me I will have to teach these older people about their risks that high blood pressure and high blood sugar have.

NOW WHAT? In the future as a nurse I will need to reflect on this because I will have to address the knowledge deficit that the older adults my have. And just like I did at this senior center I will have to assess there knowledge about the specific finding to make sure that know everything that they need to about the diagnosis.

Beckham had a photo shoot this week. I tried to tell him not to get to close to the dog because he has germs.

This week was great. I know that I had plans to work on the service learning project but that fell through thanks to a test that we had. I really enjoyed class and loved the good debate that we had. (Even if it got intense at times.) I really am very interested in the comparing of alternative medicine to “western” medicine. I just wonder why if it works so well do those people that don’t agree with it turn a blind eye? I don’t know how I feel about it. Naturally I am skeptical. They seem unreliable, where as they will work for one person and not another. However in class I learned that there are different classes of natural care. When Dena was talking about her oils vs. Wal-Mart’s. One thing is for sure, that no matter what I need to be the patients advocate and support then in what ever they choose.

So what? This has a lot of implications for me as a student nurse. I know that I need to be the advocate for the pt. and that I need to have a general knowledge of basic alternative medicine. This interests me a lot and I think that it will be the subject of a research paper in the future.

This has a very large role to me as a nurse. This idea of homeopathic medicine can affect compliance in a big way. I have a friend that in an attempt to rid her of a yeast infection tried many home remedies, including lathering her perineum with yogurt and placing a clove of garlic inside her vagina. She did this to avoid having to go to the doctor and getting an antibiotic. That same friend when she does get an anti-biotic she takes about half the prescription then saves the rest for later. This really can effect how pt. accepts care from me as a nurse.

the 8th

As a nurse i do not support giving candy to children. but Beckham ask me for this one and i couldn't say no.

Well this week was real productive. In the service-learning department we have done nothing. We have enjoyed the fact that the project is done. But for class we learned about exercise. This was a good thing for me to hear about. I knew the things we talked about, but it was good to hear the reminder.

For the service-learning project the next step is for us to write the paper. This is an important thing to do with any project. This is important because we need to look back and see what we could have done better and what we might do different again. And if you look at any nursing experiment people write a paper on it to educate others what they did.

With what we learned in class I have realized that it is important. We are learning about this because this is something that all the patients that we ever have will have to do. This is something that will help people recover faster. Just the smallest piece of exercise can help patients. So it is our job to teach them that and tell them the benefits of it.

Now what? Well with the service-learning project we are going to break up the project paper. And then we are going to meet and compile the paper and make the power point, and BE DONE!!! And that means that I will be that much closer to being a nurse. This is also helping me learn to work with colleagues that are not my favorite.

As for the exercise this has reminded me to get back to running. Last year I had planned to run in the salt lake marathon, however with the baby and everything I have not been the most faithful and I don’t think that I will make my goal. But I will commit to start to run now and maybe I can make the half marathon.

As an additional note I would like to formally apologize for being disruptive in class. I understand that it was rude and I assure you that I will not be troublesome in class again.

week 7

this is a great book that i found while doing the service learning project. it is important to promote intellectual health too.

week 7

The service learning is DONE!! This week we went to the school two times and taught five classes. That makes us have a total of about 25 hours at the school not counting the preparing time. Now the next step is to nail down the paper and the presentation.

So what does this mean? It means that I have learned a valuable lesson, that if I have a semester long project that I need to get started on it right away. Because it feels so good that this project is done and it is not due for a few more months. The service-learning project meant a lot to the teachers and to the school. A teacher stopped us after our second to last class and she told us thank you and that our presentation was great. She was just so appreciative for us coming to her class. Also one of the kids said that he was approached by some fifth graders and said that the nurses said that he needed to wash his hands better.

This project will help me prepare for the future. I now know that kids are really dirty and gross. So I will be more prepared for prevent kids spreading germs on me! Also this has really helped me to learn how to teach the kids, I assume that in my future as a nurse I will have to do some patient teaching to some kids; this project has really helped me to learn how children learn and what makes things stick to them.

week 6

This is Beckham promoting health to all those people that don't bathe. It not so hard.

This week was so great! I love my new son, and my new computer. As for WHAT I am learning, well I learned the hard way that I need to read my health promotion book, and keep up with the class. In addition I found out that I hate true/false questions. I always thought that they were good because they gave you a fifty/fifty chance, but no. I think that I lost the most points on that test because of those questions. Also we went to the school again this week for the service-learning project. That is about 12 hours of teaching at the school with two more visits scheduled.

SO WHAT? Well this means that I am almost done with the service-learning project!! That is a big step. I remember at the beginning of the semester I looked at the criteria for this project and cried (in my mind of course). But now it is almost done! This means also that my group and I can start on the paper soon and be done with it all in just a little bit. (Maybe once we finish it all then I wont have to blog about so much?)

NOW WHAT? Well I am slowly seeing the effect that we are having on these kids. This week one of the kids looked up at me with a disclosing tablet in his mouth and said, while drooling pink drool, “Doug, I want to be a nurse just like you.” It was touching and a little funny. But it made me realize that these kids are learning what we are teaching AND they are watching all the things that we do. Before we leave the class we teach the kids that we are promoting health so that they need to take the next step and promote these principles to others. This is so that we can extend the ripple effect and reach the most people possible.

week 5

I got a new computer!!! an imac(so i could be more like Dena), and this is me and Beckham

This week was great. Class really was an eye opener. We watched a film called FAT, and it made me rethink the way that I think about fat people. It really made me think of the effect that I can have just by the way that I treat people. For service learning project we did another 4-hour stent at the school. It went really well. We only have about 4 visits left.

I really am enjoying my service learning experiences. At one time in my life I wanted to become a biology teacher and this service leaning opportunity has enlightened me so that I do not want to be a teacher anymore. The kids that we have met with are unruly and they give me even more confidence with my career choice in nursing. I know that we have made in impact in at least one girls life. Her mother reported to us that after we visited her class and did the demonstration she walked around for three days asking her mom for hand sanitizer and saying often that she needed to go brush her teeth.

The future is what this service-learning project is based on. In the small amount of time that we interact with these kids we most likely will not see the far-reaching arm of our influence. As we leave these kids we instruct them to teach at least two people about what they learned and the demonstration. Through the completion of our service-learning project we will have taught over 400 children. If they truly share it will one to two people the rippling affect could reach over 1,000. So that is now what…preparing these children to make a healthier and better future for themselves and the community.

Nutrition plays a key role in everyone’s life, especially in my life as a future health care worker. It is bound to be one of the things I will run into a lot, so it is important for me to learn the physiological background of being overweight. I thought it was interesting that they said new research suggests that the intestines have a brain of its own. Overall good nutrition is something I will have to apply continually in my life as well as advocate for my future patients.

Round 4!

This is my little baby, Beckham Ray Sommers

By the way he gets more cute everyday!

This week I decided to take the nursing experience to an entire new level. On Wednesday my wife and I went to the hospital to have a baby! I took that time to sharpen my nursing skills and practice on my wife, and she was such a good sport. I put in her IV and her catheter, it was a first for me on both accounts. For the service learning project… we started!!! We went to the first 3 classes of the school, and just 12 more to go. We should have 3 classes a week for the next few weeks. So that is WHAT is going on. And sorry I was not in class, I got some concerned comments from my awesome fans, I was supporting my wife and baby.

For my service learning project we started by going to the elementary school for the first 3 classes that we were to teach. We are doing this to teach the children about disease prevention. I was thinking this last week that if everyone knew a little more about disease prevention then germs would spread slower and a lot of lives would be saved. I can remember and still apply the things that I learned 16 years ago in elementary school about saving water. Hopefully for these kids they remember at least a few of the things that we say to them about asepsis.

That is the entire reason that we are doing this service learning project is so that in the future these kids will be a little more aware of what kind of a difference that they can make in preventing the spread of disease. My classmates and I are enjoying working on this project together, and we are enjoying the children.

As for my future as a nurse, well let’s hope that I will be better at IVs than I was with my wife’s. I really feel like my service learning project is going to help me become a better teacher in the long run. And that is a great thing! And it is also preparing me to work in a health care team in the hospital.

3rd weeks the charm

this is some of my family.. you guessed it, being healthy

This week we had no class! Yea! So my group and I took the opportunity to work on our service learning project. This was time will spent because it saved us about two hundred and fifty dollars. We contacted mina and worked out to have us use the service learning grant. So we went to dental hygiene and bought tooth brushes (for 19 cents each) and glo-germ. We basically got all of our supplies ready.

With our service learning project I learned more about the financial ends of projects. We worked with the lady in the nursing department that handles the money (I forgot her name) and she explained how a lot of the finances work. That was very educational. Additionally we have our first presentation coming up, that means that this week we need to get ready! The first one is on Friday and we have to get a plan together and test our products to see if it all works before we go in there. Everything will be great assuming that my wife does not have the baby on Friday!!!

This week for the service learning I am going to spend some time preparing a lesson plan and not doing a half-assed job. I have a tendency to want to “wing” a lot of things but that is something I want to change about myself. This project is turning from dreading to exciting.

week 2, one more than one

This is my wife, Tricia, and I promoting health in a real life situation.

This week was great. For class, all day, we learned about stress and culture. All day! I think that in first semester they should teach an entire class on culture and stress, so that for the rest of the nursing program we did not need to learn the same thing all over again. For the service learning project we have accomplished a lot this week. We got the approval and made the plan to start working on it. And we also decided what we were going to do, that was a big step.

With the discussion that we had in class opened my eyes for how some people live in the world. First off, I don’t have much stress. I’m really easy going for the most part and I don’t let things get to me. I learned that this is a bad thing as well as a good thing. For example, an exam should cause so eustress; I have a test the ends on Wednesday that I have not even thought about. It should cause me a little stress so that it would cause me to study for it. Also I never want to live like the people on hoarders. It stressed me just watching it.

This week with the service learning project we met with the principle of the elementary school that we are going to do our teaching at. I learned about giving a professional presentation and how to work in groups. One member of our group wants to make a glo-germ, but I would much rather buy it than make it. I just have to use the communication skills I learned last week to be up-front and tell him.

I WILL KEEP MY HOUSE CLEAN!!! I will also work towards becoming culturally competent. I realize that this will not be achieved in a day, or even a semester, but I will start now to become educated on cultures so to provide the best care possible for my patients. Culture is the thing that I currently consider the least important thing in providing care. However after class I know that it has a large role in healing and health promotion.

The service learning project is sharpening my people skills and communication skills in a professional atmosphere. I am going to continue to work on this project so as to have a valued role in the community.

week one, what a week

This week we learned about communicating as nurse, and what a large role commuicating plays in the world. We the talked about the verbal and non verbal forms of communicating. and for my service learning...well i have stressed about it, and that is it. i have some ideas, and our group is going to meet on monday and decided what we are doing. but i still am stressed because it is a big project.
With this disscusion in class, combined with class activites, it really made me think about how i communicate with other people. and after taking a good long look at me i realize that i dont communicate well. i really tend to shy away from alkward things or confrentation, and if i comtiue in this pattern as a nurse it could be destructive. so i know why were learning this, it is so when we need to tell someone something, they will get what we say and not something compleately different.
This service learning stuff im a little less clear on. i know why we are doing it, to benifit the community, and to help us learn how to interact with communities. but i just dont want to do it. but i know that once i get started on this it will be better, and it wont be hard to keep working.
Now What? i now commit to be an exellent communicator! im going to continue to develop my skills as a comunicator so no one can say they didnt know what i meant or anhything of the sort. this is a skill that will help me no matter what i do in life so i will likely use it forever, unless i have a bad stroke. but then i will just use non verbal communication. ok ok, if i was in a coma then i could not comunicate.
i have never really seen my self as the kind of person that is that involved with the community, and i dont imagine that i will be. i like the community, im just not to active in it. so i hope that this service learning "thing" will help me to learn how to interact with the community as a professional. and after i learn this i very well could never use it again.
well thats all for this week, until next week on HEALTHY DOUG, PROMOTING HEALTH. and yes i know i dont promote health in this blog, i just needed to have the phrase "promoting health" because the class is health promotion.