Running head: SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL

Service Learning Proposal Shannon Sheffer Ferris State University NURS 320

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL Abstract In this paper, I will address the importance of community and service learning, where I will be conducting my service learning, and what is expected of me as a participating volunteer at the Oral Cleft Clinic. I will lay out my possible outcomes from my experience and how these experiences will give me insight and skills for the future.

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL Service Learning Proposal

As a returning student, it is important to try and gleam new cutting edge information from any source I can. There is no better way than with hands on experience. Service learning can provide me with this opportunity. Service learning will provide me with positive, real, and meaningful experiences that I might not have had the opportunity to have. Service learning will give me the chance to experience new situations for critical thinking, problem solving, and emotional growth in a new environment. Description The service learning that I have chosen to complete my 20 hours of service is with the oral cleft clinic in Traverse City. The oral cleft clinic is a resource to people of the community with oral facial anomalies who are under 21 years of age and have financial need or qualify for Childrens Special Health Care Service (Oral Cleft Clinic, 2012). Childrens Special Health Care Service (CSHCS) is a program within the Michigan Department of Community Health that is available for children and young adults with special health care needs and their families regardless of income (Michigan Department of Community Health, 2012). These are individuals with special needs that cannot be managed by only pediatricians, family doctors, or internists. CSHCS provides these individuals with coverage for referrals to specialty services bases on the medical condition. The oral cleft clinic offers a specialized, cohesive, multidisciplinary team to evaluate and treat patients systematically through the course of their growth and development through skeletal maturity (Oral Cleft Clinic, 2012). This team of volunteers consists of two plastic surgeons, an oral maxillofacial surgeon, a registered dietitian, an audiologist, two social workers, a pediatric

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL dentist, an orthodontist, a speech therapist, and an occupational therapist. All of the volunteers on the team are from the community hospital that services the region. Each member of the team is in a separate room and the patients and their families rotate through each room, seeing and talking to each of the specialty providers. After all the patients and their families have been seen, at the end of the clinic the team meets and they go patient by patient down the list and talk about a plan of care for each one of them. Once the team has a plan in place for a patient, a letter is generated and sent to the patient and their family, the State of Michigan, and another to any other doctor, surgeon, or ancillary personnel the patient may

need to see or speak with for further help or assistance and also future follow up appointments to return to the clinic. Role Description As a volunteer at the oral cleft clinic, I will be helping the patients in any aspect the team requires of me. Each part of the team is so important to the picture as a whole, so I will do a number of interesting jobs while I am there. I will be rotating around with the different volunteers on the team to see what the different specialties do across each special child. I will also on one day, follow a child through the whole process of each different specialty offered to the patient. I will be side by side with them during the entire trip through the clinic offering my individual advocacy to each of them. All volunteers at the clinic must be 18 years or older and be enrolled in a school or have a degree in the field of medicine. There is no special training for the volunteers that are involved in the clinic as of yet, but may be in the future.

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL Each day will be a different experience for me depending on the types of patients that come in to the clinic that day. My experience will be customized depending on the staff and patients for that day also. Objectives Related To Program I love the concept of the team approach. I have a very tender place in my heart for these

types of special needs children and their families. So to be able to help them navigate their way through these touchy tenuous times and find just the right resources and options that best fit their situation is a patient advocates dream come true. I am glad to be a part of a clinic that is making a difference in young peoples lives. I hope to learn how to be a better resource for the pediatric population and their family members. Living in northern Michigan, it does not give too many nurses the opportunity to work with these patients, so to be able to help them and their families figure out the best resources available to them and where to find the latest products out there to help better the life of the child will be a reward all itself for me. I have gone to the clinic once already, and when I was there we saw an 8 year old boy with Threater Collins disease. This young man had been a part of the clinic since he was a baby and each of these clinic volunteers had been able to watch him grow and go through all of his trials and tribulations along the way. It was absolutely amazing to witness such a family feel from the volunteers when he went through and was telling each of them how he was doing in school, his brand new smaller feeding tube and the new BAJA hearing implants that he had just upgraded from his old version. I was amazing to look at the pictures of this young man as he progressed through the clinic year after year, changing and developing. All of the volunteers and

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL his family members chatted as if old friends and just talked about this young guy. It was a great feeling and very humbling moment. Activity to Meet Objectives I will help the patients at the clinic as the director requests of me. I will talk, answer questions, be a friendly face, or just be a listening ear to any patient and their families. I will keep to the code of nursing with confidentiality and a professional attitude. I will hopefully make a difference by forging trusting relationships with the patients and their families that

frequent the clinic. I will help in a positive way to better listen to the frustrations of the patients parents and help find solutions. I may even continue to volunteer at the clinic after my service learning time is done. Most of the patients and their families that come to the clinic do not just come one time. These are usually patients that are long term participants with the clinic. They become family after years of coming to see the clinic volunteers and become a lifetime friend. Evaluation Plan Once becoming an active volunteer to the oral cleft clinic, I will be able to see my practice as a nurse encompass the younger population. As a nurse, I will be able to incorporate the knowledge of new resources and departments as well as new outlook on some different specialties that are offered in our community. Even though I am there to provide support to these patients and families during these difficult years filled with surgeries, rehabilitation, and recovery, will I be able to accept a patient outcome that is less than optimal? What if the State of Michigan denies what these volunteers have recommended for a child and he/she does not get the most beneficial care that could be provided? What then? I believe that being a patient advocate is never an easy job, but can have

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL tremendous rewards and relationships. In my opinion, there is nothing better than the trust of another human being. Trust forms all types of relationships. These relationships, if I can be the advocate these patients and families need, can be beneficial to the entire community. If these patients and family members are telling others of what a positive helping experience they are having at the clinic, it may bring in more children with oral facial anomalies that would have gone elsewhere before. This will help boost the communitys cohesiveness and financial rewards. If, through this clinic, we are able to make the community grow and be a resource for these families, there can be no better reward. Contact Information Agency: Oral Cleft Clinic Contact Person: Dr. Adam Smith Contact Phone: 231-421-6599 Contact E-mail: absmithmd@gmail.com Contact Address: 4977 Skyview Court, Traverse City, MI. 49684 Conclusion

This service learning project will give me experience to help me make lasting changes in my current practice as a nurse. This experience will also give me a glimpse into the lives of these special needs children and truly see the daily struggles these little ones and their families go through. These days in the clinic will help give me that glimpse and give me a positive experience for my future.

SERVICE LEARNING PROPOSAL References Michigan Department of Community Health (2012). Information for families about childrens special health care services. Retrieved from www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,4612,7-1322942_4911_35698-15087--,00.html Oral Cleft Clinic (2012). Clinic information. Retrieved from www.nmpediatriccoalition.org/clinics.html#oral_cleft