Service Learning: Blog 2

My first day of service was fun. I met the other volunteers I was going to be working with, and they were all very kind and helpful. Most of them were seniors, and most of them were veterans too. Daniel, one of the other volunteers took me on as trainee so to speak. He took me with him on his runs and showed me where all the different parts of the hospital were, radiology, the laboratory, the ICU, etc. Daniel seemed to be quite the popular guy! He knew most all of the desk workers and lots of the nurses and some of the patients too. He would make sure to include all the details about each part of the hospital, what had changed recently, who worked where and what workers had relatives as patients. I didn't mind listening. He seemed to be very proud about all of his knowledge and the fact that he could remember everything. Which I could understand.
As I would make my way around the hospital, I discovered what a cheerful place it was. Everyone is very polite and nice and asking how each other is doing, making small talk here and there. Even the patients, I noticed a lot of them cracking silly jokes about the equipment they carried or about their wheelchairs. In past experiences, I have found hospitals to have dry atmospheres, where most people are quiet and the most you can get out of a person is a nod or smirk. But at this hospital it was different. I think it may be because the patients at the VA hospital share a common bond because they all served in the military. And that bond creates a family like atmostphere between the patients, staff, and volunteers.
The fact that the patients were talkative made it a lot easier to interact with them and carry on conversation. I have always been uncomfortable around sick people and hesitant because I don't want to hurt them or say the wrong thing. But most of the patients that I escorted were very nice and fun to talk to, and it put me at ease and not as nervous when I was wheeling their huge beds around the tight corners of the hospital. I realized that if you just talk to them like you would any other person, that they really appreciate it and respond well.
Although I was sent on lots of escort runs, there was down time where the volunteers and I would be in the escort room waiting to be sent out. It was fun getting to know the older volunteers. They were all pretty silly. They like to poke fun at one another and tease one another. Which made me laugh because at times they reminded me of little kids. It was nice to see their high spirits. I think that some may stereotype older people as grumpy, unfriendly, or boring. But it was nice to see the high spirted personalities of this group, they seemed to enjoy helping out so much and kind of embrace their oldness.
Working in this environment and doing service learning has helped me to gain insight into the atmostphere of a care-facility. I beleive that learning theories and concepts about communication is ineffective unless it is applied to real world situations. Service learning allows me to see how patients interact and respond to their situation, and in turn I can have that in mind during lecture and bring examples to class discussion. It also allows me to think about further areas of research or study. For instance, in class we studyed social supports and health, and when I was at the hospital, I felt like some of the patients at the hospital were creating a social support, some were related and some were friends, but as I said before, they seem to have a pre-existent bond because of their veteran status. This made me wonder if a hospital would be factored into the social support model in health communication study. Service learning, through its hands-on nature allows for an expansion of inquiry in the study of health communication theories and topics, and goes beyond the preliminary reaches of the classroom.