go to blackboard for finished journals

evaluation

Bryan Petty
04-30-07
Service Learning Final
The Honors Program requires its students to take a course in Service Learning, so they may better understand the workings of community relationships and develop an appreciation and understanding of social capital. The course is effective in teaching the theory behind social capital, as well as letting students experience the positive impact of community service and relationship building. The class's effectiveness must be evaluated. The subjective experiences of students is not enough for evaluation because these experiences are inherently biased and out of the control of the Honors Program, so objective reality must also be considered.
It took me several weeks to locate a volunteer position with a group that was willing to train me and have me work. Originally, I wanted to serve at the public library. I feel these are important institutions for the advancement of any person in the community who wishes to learn. I was turned down. I tried several other places, including the Boys and Girls Club of Joplin and Big Brother and Big Sister, before being accepted to work at the Freeman Hospital intensive care unit. I feel I was rejected from these former groups, not because people are not needed, but because these groups feel the need to acquire volunteers who are actually skilled workers that employers can have for free and had no interest in acquiring community support. This had a major impact on my subjective experience because I did not care strongly for the position in which I would be working, and because I was treated unfairly by the former groups considering my services, no matter how meager, were being offered free of charge and no explanation was given as to why they were no accepted. Had I been accepted to work for an institution that was important to my own causes, the social capital of relationship building could have been better understood.
Hospitals are critical parts of society, but I did not view them as places of compassion but rather as places of business. This view changes over the course of my stay at the hospital from the many wonderful volunteers and staff that I met. Many of these people could work in any position in many places, but instead devote themselves to the care of others. I did not particularly care for the hospital experience. I have already decided my degree in biology will not be used towards a medical profession. It is a high stress situation. This may seem contradictory because I willingly chose to work in the ICU. I did this because I felt working there would be a much greater experience, for good or bad, then working in any other place in the hospital.
Given that I spent only a few weeks working for the hospital, I did not have much time to develop relationships with the staff. My job consisted of sitting at the front desk and answering the phone. I realize I cannot do any sort of medical related work, but the position I was asked to fill was a complete misuse of staff. The ICU already had someone who filled this position on a regular basis. The ICU head nurses as well as the volunteer coordinator repeatedly emphasized how important volunteers were to Freeman and how the hospital tried to take care of them. This was not obvious in my treatment nor in the treatment of other volunteers I observed. I did, however, develop a relationship with a wonderful volunteer named of Martha. She was retired and spent several days a week helping in the ICU. She is the prime example of what James Coleman described in his article about people helping each other in order to work together for a better future and not because they owe each other. As for the other staff members and the lack of our relationship it can be attributed to several things. My original view of hospitals as places of business surely must have alienated a few, and others simply viewed me as a scab worker. Very few of them bothered talking to me unless it was to get me to run errands for them. I feel this lack of relationship only contributed to my impatience with the volunteer experience. The one thing I did appreciate was the administration did actively try to build a professional relationship with me. From the very beginning, they treated me not as a temporary volunteer, but as a Freeman employee. This reflects well on them, and if I knew people who were looking for work or a volunteer position, I would mention Freeman is very respectful.
I did not come into Service Learning as a fresh volunteer. In the past, I have done extensive work with Habitat for Humanity as well as Ronald McDonald House and private churches. I had no delusions that the work involved would always be pleasant or easy. This impacted several weeks of my service simply because I did not view it with fresh eyes. However, looking back onto my experiences and understanding the theory behind social capital, I do understand the purposes of all my work, despite not enjoying it.
My view of the experience did not change from negative to positive until after my volunteering ended. This change happened once I critically looked at my experience compared to the purpose of social capital and its origins listed in both John Colman's and Francis Fukuyama's essays. I do feel the volunteer work is important, but I would have gotten much more out of the entire experience had the class be able to discuss these essays sooner.
Objectively, the course did very well in communicating the need for community service in the building of social capital and interpersonal relationships. I blame myself for choosing an area I did not care much for. I was even given in the instructions that one would have an easier time if the volunteer work was pertinent. The hospital did, however, offer great examples of social capital. Although many doctors become such because of the pay check attached to it, the situation was very different with the nurses the worked in the ICU. All of them cared deeply for the patients and the families. When a nurse tried to build a personal relationship with either group, the stay was easier on everybody, and many of the deaths that occurred in the ICU were easier to cope with. The families of patients who had a nurse who developed these relationships were always well informed and accommodated. Nurses who were there for work purposes only, generally had difficult patients or families. These difficulties translated into even more difficulties for the rest of the staff that had to deal with these people.
Although the official mission statement of Freeman Hospital says nothing about community outreach beyond improving health, the hospital does go out of its way to be accommodating to everyone. During training, all employees and volunteers were informed it was policy for us to greet and talk to every patient or visitor we ran into. The hospital felt this was the best way to build positive relationships with the community. It worked. All of the employees appeared friendly and visitors were not nearly as high strung as I have seen in other state hospitals.
Because a hospital is such an integral part of a community, it is important it not appear isolated in its internal practices. The ICU did an exceptional job in allowing visitors to go into patients rooms whenever they desired, within the constraints of personal privacy. The ICU was only closed for nine hours a day.
In Coleman's article, he offered two basic forms of social capital relationships. On was the “godfather” relationship and the other was more of a “let's hold hands for a better tomorrow” relationship. I feel the majority of social capital follows the former. The latter is not unrepresented though. It belongs closer to family dynamics and less of a community.
Within the community that is the intensive care unit staff, I observed a very close knit form of social capital. Despite the fact there are nearly 100 nurses working within the unit, everyone knew everyone else, and was also aware of each patients health status. Nurses would help each other whenever possible even though they were weighed down by their own responsibilities. The head nurse position was also a perfect example of everyone working together, similar to Coleman's “holding hand for a better tomorrow” relationship. The head nurse for every shift is responsible for compiling all patient information from each nurse as well as instructing and overseeing her own patients and special cases. This position is not permanent. There is a constant rotation of who in the unit is head nurse for the shift. This allows each nurse to be responsible to and for every other nurse. It also creates a very knowledgeable staff in that all nurses know what is expected of them.
The class itself did a good job with educating its students about social capital, but it still needs improvement. Early in the class, the concept of the “godfather” relationship was brought up. In this relationship, a godfather figure asks for a service from a person he has supported in the past. Although this broadly applies to the community, it was used in reference to the university asking the Honors students to volunteer. I think this idea needs to be expanded.
As far as Honors students are concerned, not only do they attend class here, many of them live on campus. More could be learned about the “godfather” relationship of social capital if students were made to do community service for the university. The university is our patron and our community, and we should feel obligated to repay our debt.
Another aspect of the class that needs to be modified is the discussion on the theory of social capital. It was both rushed and delayed. As I've said before, I did not appreciate my volunteer experience and critically examine it until after I had read and discussed the articles by Coleman and Fukuyama. Neither of these articles were brought up until the end of the class. It is feasible for students to volunteer, especially on campus, as well as attend weekly classes about the importance of, and theory behind, social capital. It is also necessary to discuss more of the articles available on blackboard. Understanding of the subject material was lacking up until the very last days.
Although the hospital offers great examples of social capital, I still feel that as a private business it, by itself, offers no social capital to the community as a whole. I know some would disagree because of the invaluable service they provide. However, any private business that benefits society falls into a category similar to the peoples of Omelas. Yes, there is a feeling of social capital, and yes society function, but the “capital” created is at the expense of others. The people of Omelas were caring for sure, but the society itself was not. The nurses and volunteers of Freeman face a similar situation. They are caring and build wonderful relationships with the people around them, but the institution is still a company that functions at the expense of other.
The Service Learning class has overall been a positive experience. I can honestly say before this class, I had no idea what social capital was. I can also honestly say I have difficulty comprehending it now, but I do have a grasp. The hospital, not including the few wonderful staff member and volunteers I encountered, was a nightmare and I would not choose to volunteer there again. Of course, it did offer once in a lifetime for me, such as witnessing several deaths. And listening to a suicide patient scream at me to kill her. My overall satisfaction with the class ranks a four out of ten. This low rank has little to do with overall class work, although class discussion needed to be regulated so as to further understanding of social capital, and very much to do with my poor hospital experience.

Week 8 recap

I finished my hours last week so I guess ill recap what i did for the whole time. It took more than a week to find a place to volunteer. It seems that although people want volunteers, what they really want is free skilled labor or at a bare minimum, a mule that wont require training. The library refused me despite the fact that i use to work in a library, Boys and Girls club was tired of their volunteers and there contract with Big Brothers. This i know because i actually know employees at Boys and Girls Club. The works don't like Thursdays because that's the day when they have to put up with volunteers. Working at Freeman started out fun. The employees that i trained with were very nice and so were the other volunteers. You could tell that they cared. However, the employees I worked under were very direct in showing me that they didn't want me there. For this reason alone I'm glad I'm done with the entire ordeal. If i had to redo this class, i wouldn't re-volunteer at Freeman or at any place that was considered high stress. The nurses wanted to do their own thing and the families of patients wanted the rules bent to accommodate them. After all of these weeks, I understand even less about social capital. In the beginning I agreed that we all need to help each other out. Out of my previous personal experience in volunteering I knew that people needed help despite the fact that they were ingrates. Working for this class has only re-established this feeling and I must re-examine how I feel about whether or not it is noble to help others.

Week 7

I have completed my 24 hours of volunteer work at the freeman ICU. It wasn't a pleasant experience on my last day. We had a suicide watch, and the woman kept screaming at me to kill her...for several hours. We had one patient die. The nurses we continuously rude as were the visiting families, who apparently cant read a visitation hours sign. The good news is that i got stickers and did word puzzles. I will not be returning to the freeman ICU unless I am dying. I will also not be volunteering anywhere again unless it is court ordered.

Week 6 (i think)

Nothing to report. I alerted the volunteer program at the hospital that i would be gone for spring break and so they didnt have nay work for me when i got back. Im not worried becaus ei only have a few hours left and i plan to do them this next week (possibly current). Hopefully my last few hours wont be as bad as my last ones. Im just trying to help, so i dont need rude hospital staff to make my life hard.

volunteers

Im getting the distint impression that Freeman doesnt reallyw ant volunterrs. Yes, they have a volunteer dinner every year and the administration puts on a big show, but the employees themselves would much rather us (the volunteers) be there. In the ICU this week, I found out that the nurses hold me directly responsible if the ICU visitors dont follow all of their rules, and that Im pretty useless because i havent yet memorized all of the employees that work in the hospital... In other news, i was talking to a few of the employees at the Boy's and Girl's Club (where I tried to volunteer and was rejected). I found out thet the Boys and Girls Cub employees generally dont like thier volunteers ro the Big Brother Big Sister volunteers. They only mess things up and interfere in business. So, taking my personal experiences and that of others into account, Im going to say that NO, no one really wants volunteers, they just dont want to pay workers, and i resent the idealism of the Honor's Prgram in preaching about how much volunteering is essential to society

Volunteering and Sickness.

Well, i worked a few hours last week, but my days were cut short. For those of you who didn't notice me missing fro a week, i had the flu and just now am starting to feel well enough to move.
My week started on Monday and i was not looking forward to the volunteer work. I spent 8 hours in training and meeting various co-workers. Ill say this: the employees that i work with are not very nice people, however, the volunteers are the sweetest people on the planet. On Tuesday i was actually allowed to work in the ICU for a few hours and met this wonderful woman named Linda. Her and her husband, Bill, both volunteer around 20 hours a week at the hospital. Both of them are retired and both really like their work. Linda and I chatted for a few hours as she showed me the how-to of my specific tasks. Unfortunately, someone was on their death bed just as I got there. Seeing his children rush to him and having to get the nurses permission to let them in was heartbreaking.
On a side note, i also found out that there are a lot of suicides in Joplin and they come to my dept. I'm not allowed to tell their families that they are there.
I'm seriously thinking about continuing to work at the hospital after this class, even if its only a few hours a week.

finally i found some work.

Okay, I am now volunteering at the Intensive Care Unit at Freeman Hospital. I found this position thanks to Ursula. Of course, me not finding a place to help out after 3 weeks of searching says something in itself. I tried the library, Boys and Girls club and Big bro big sis and was turned down all three times. It seems to me that although people like to say that they need volunteers or really need help, what they really want is skilled labor that they don't have to pay for because they are greedy and/or lazy. Take the library for example. When i went to ask about volunteering, i got a job application that had the word "employee" replaced with "volunteer". Besides those two differences, the applications were identical.
Anyway, Ive been put at the hospital. They actually seemed like they need help. the woman that interviewed me talked about how they rarely have people working evenings and weekends.
In the ICU I'm the go between for the staff and the grieving/upset families. I was told to expect threats and verbal abuse. Oh well.
I have an 8 hour shift tomorrow under the guise of "orientation". I'm a little indignant about it. There is no way they can fill up 8 hours of my time with things i need to know about filing and dealing with upset families.