Week 8: Service Learning

This week for our service learning we went to the senior center and taught the clients there about skin care and the importance of taking good care of their skin. After teaching our mini lesson we helped each client correctly learn to wash their hands and then gave them hand massages and for those that wanted we painted their fingernails.

It's imperative for people to know how to properly take care of their skin and what practices promote healthy skin. As we age we lose skin elasticity and our skin becomes more fragile. Taking caution and preventing things that will damage the skin needs to be taught. In our lesson we taught a wide variety of the things but I feel that one of the most important things we taught about was protecting the skin from the sun. The generation we were teaching grew up in an era where they didn't know the negative effects of the sun. No one wore sunscreen or worried about what the sun was doing. Now that they have aged and their skin integrity is decreasing, I feel it's important for them to really understand the damaging effects of the sun.

Taking care of the skin is not only beneficial because it makes it look nice but also because good skin care helps get rid of bacteria and other harmful substances. Certain healthy practices can even benefit skin integrity and promote healing of injured skin. Something everyone can do is making sure they are getting the proper vitamins and minerals. The skin is the biggest organ in the body and has millions of cells that need good hydration and nutrition to stay vibrant and energized. Just drinking water and making sure to get proper nutrition can really benefit the skin.

This whole experience of teaching is really beneficial to me as a future nurse because I need to practice teaching patients. I'm learning through trial and error what really works while teaching and what doesn't. I'm also learning to engage my audience a little more. I know that when I am a nurse it's not necessarily important for me to be entertained but i think that when i am it helps the patients pay attention better and maybe receive the teaching a little better.

Something I've really learned while teaching the older adult is that while I'm teaching I need to refrain from being condescending. I have caught myself a few times speaking in that manner and noticed that when I was I was getting a negative response from the group. From this experienced I have learned ways that I can teach that give the message without being condescending. These communication skills will help me teach the patients I have in the future, especially those that are older than me.