Service-Learning and Reflection - Essay Example

Service-learning can be defined as a form of learning whereby students use skills acquired in class to benefit the community while advancing their hands-on skills in their field of study. It gives them a chance to put their classroom knowledge into practice in the communities around them. The advantage of this form of learning is that it benefits the target communities while also benefitting the learners (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995). In nursing, this learning method has shown to be very effective to both the learners and the community involved. It helps bring out the students' true passion in offering their services to society, which is critical in this profession. Through service learning students get exposed to the real life situations that they will be facing during their practice. This can be achieved by offering community service in respective areas of practice therefor helping improve the general public health of a given community. Apart from the practical knowledge that the nursing students get to acquire during service learning, it also helps them develop critical leadership skills (Stewart et al, 2020). This paper seeks to review the international council of nurses' position statements and then create a service-learning plan in Sentinel town based on one of the position statements.

Review of International Council of Nurses (ICN) Position Statements

The ICN brings together more than 130 national nurses associations and has five broad categories of position statements. The federation regularly updates the list. These five categories include the role of nursing in healthcare services, the nursing profession, healthcare systems, socio-economic welfare of nurses, and social issues (ICN, n.d.).

The role of nursing in healthcare services defines the different healthcare categories that nurses are required to offer their services. Anti-microbial resistance looks at the different disease-causing micro-organisms and medical interventions to control them to reduce disease infections. It also defines the role of nurses in providing care to dying patients together with their families. This category also addresses breastfeeding, the health of women, and the health hazards of tobacco usage. It addresses giving care to detainees and prisoners to ensure high standards of health within the correctional facilities. Finally, it defines nursing and the care of vulnerable populations of migrants and refugees.

The second statement deals with the nursing profession and how high standards should be maintained to ensure that the profession's reputation is protected. The cultural and linguistic competence of a nurse should be excellent for the nurses to communicate with their patients well while maintaining a friendly relationship. Nursing regulations seek to set rules and codes of conduct that the nurses should adhere to to ensure they offer quality services. This statement also looks at the scope of the nursing profession. It seeks to protect the nurse's title by ensuring only legally qualified persons can hold this title and offer nursing services.

The socio-economic welfare of nurses comprises the industrial action of nurses, which seeks to ensure nurses are well compensated for their services and work in a decent environment. It also ensures there is adequate and qualified staffing within the nursing fraternity. It addresses the safety issue for the nurses against disease infection from patients by ensuring nurses are provided adequate protective gear. This statement also looks at the protection of nurses against workplace violence and career mobility, both locally and internationally, by stipulating ethical recruitment procedures for nurses.

Social issues look at all the social aspects of the nursing role in the world. It defines the role of nurses in providing their services in areas facing conflict to save human life. It reiterates patients' right to be provided with full information concerning their health and ensuring they have free access to healthcare information. It offers guidelines on social media usage by nurses. The role of nurses in protecting human rights is also addressed here. Counterfeit medical products and how nurses should ensure they are not used as provided for in this statement. Also outlined is the role of nurses in tackling climate change and the health hazards associated with it. Finally, ICN considers peace as one of the fundamental aspects of ensuring proper healthcare. It denounces the usage of any biological, chemical, nuclear, or conventional weapon that may compromise human survival.

Finally, ICN believes in ensuring patient safety by the hiring of well trained and competent professionals. Nurses are bequeathed with the responsibility of facilitating infection prevention and control initiatives. They should inform the patients and their communities of any potential risks of getting infected. They should always communicate with the patients and other healthcare workers so that high-quality care is guaranteed.

Service Learning Plan in Sentinel Town

Nursing Roles in Healthcare Services

Nurses do play a critical role in disease prevention. The most significant way healthcare workers can use to control the spread of disease is by controlling the spread of the micro-organism responsible for the disease. One of ICN's program statements concerning the role of nurses is anti-microbial resistance, which endangers the health of humans since some of these micro-organisms become resistant to existing medicines. This couldn’t have come at a better time than this period we are battling the Covid-19 virus which is currently not curable by the existing medications. The only existing control measure is combating the spread of the virus from one person to the other. The area picked for the service learning plan is Sentinel town which is the most densely populated therefore making the area high risk for the spread of the airborne disease.

To implement the plan we will be volunteering to sensitize the public within the town on the recommended control measures for one month in order to curb the spread of the virus. The rate of new infections will be recorded weekly till the end of the exercise to compare the impact of the sensitization. Through this we will get to acquire the practical skills of community healthcare while the community will benefit from the services and expertise we will be offering concerning the spread of the virus. We will install hand washing stations in strategic places for sanitization as well as providing and educating the public on safe usage of face masks. We will generally be providing information of ensuring personal hygiene as a means of combating the spread of the virus. We will be educating the public on the essence of social distancing and we will as well report those not observing the social gathering regulations to the responsible authorities. Sensitization of voluntary tests for the virus will also be offered to the public to ensure those infected seek medical treatment early enough.

Through the different initiatives we will employ we will be able to achieve the ICNs program statement concerning the role of nurses in providing healthcare. The public sensitization will provide the much needed information on controlling the disease. Our initiative of reporting grouped flouting the rules set to control the virus spread in Sentinel city will strengthen the government surveillance and enforcement of control regulations. The nursing team that will take part in the initiative will get to have the practical experience of handling a pandemic in such a big city. The initiative being a free exercise it will benefit the vulnerable within Sentinel city such as refugees and homeless people who otherwise could not get access to information and services such as sanitization and masks making them more exposed to the disease.

Reference

Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for faculty.

International Council of Nurses, ICN. (n.d.). Position statements. Retrieved from https://www.icn.ch/nursing-policy/position-statements

Sentinel Town: Community Health Nursing Simulation. (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.sentinelu.com/virtual-clinical/simulations/sentinel-town-community-health/

Stewart, D., Kennedy, A., Schober, M., & Duignan, M. (2020). International Council of Nurses. In Advanced Practice Nursing Leadership: A Global Perspective (pp. 15-23). Springer, Cham.