Research Paper on Combining Academic Goals and Community Service for Learning

Introduction

This project analysis is a form of learning method whereby there is a combination of academic goals and community service projects. The students usually combine relevant community issues with their educational experience. This helps the students to gain more knowledge when performing these community service projects. The solve the issues affecting the community and make positive results. Therefore, the task will review more about this method of learning to the interdisciplinary team, community as well.

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Interdisciplinary Process of Service Learning Project as well as Emerged Roles

Inventory and Investigation

The service-learning project normally follows a certain process. The process consists of five different stages that were observed by our team. We started with the investigation analysis. Most of the people in the society were interviewed, and they gave different opinions. In this process, every team member was required to use his skills and talents to identify a need in that particular community. After the need is identified, one was expected to analyze that particular problem as well as establishing the baseline of that need and accumulate it to the partners.

Preparation and Planning

From what we had learned from the class, we were expected to apply the acquired knowledge and skills in a practical form. The new information which we had acquired from the community members helped us to develop a plan for our project. Our responsibility and aim were to provide a meaningful service to the community; thus, we divided responsivities as well as roles among yourself. This helped users to provide some realistic parameters for implementation (Rutti et al., 2016).

Action

The third step was to take action into the hand. All the approaches were combined, and every student was expected to take action, which would be of value to the project. Thus, we used academic knowledge as well as skills to provide a conclusion on which action should be taken. Also, every person was expected to offer a safe environment for the community.

Reflection

As said earlier, the project was done in the form of groups. At the reflection stage, all the teams joined together to discuss their findings. Thus, every student participated in this by explanting and describing what happened at the fieldwork. All the differences which come out from different groups were examined. Later, the ideas were generated so that the project can be improved and become better.

Demonstration

Demonstrations were our last step in this process. The students demonstrated the outcomes of the project towards the community members. We wrote some articles discussing our results, which affects the public in a community. The reason as to why we decided to create these publications was, to help other students in the academic (Brown & Schmidt, 2016).

Positive and Negative Aspects Which Emerged When Working with Interdisciplinary Team

In the team, we had different professionals with different specialized and specific disciplines. The aim of the team was to provide a certain service to the community members. Thus, every individual had a role towards his or her responsibility according to his or her specific interdisciplinary. However, there were negative and positive aspects raised during the project.

Positive Aspects

The community members were given an opportunity to interact with all the expert professionals in the group. According to some studies, multidisciplinary teams allow the patients to interact and receive supports from different experts (Jones, Trusedell, Oakes & Cardella, 2016). The process normally ensures that every patient has full access to the best treatment options that are available.

The coordination of the service was excellent as the professionals were working together. This helped in the improvement of treatment delivery as the services were offered together. Thus, the community members were happy about the services.

Negative Aspects

As professionals, we experienced time pressure when providing these services to the people. Most of the time was consumed when one is talking to an individual when giving his or her issues. Some of these people were old, and we were expected to handle them carefully.

Some team members had come from different backgrounds; thus, it profoundly affected them. For example, the community members were communicating with us using their local language, and some could not understand that. Therefore, there was a lot of miscommunication.

Some Strengths and Weakness of this Interdisciplinary Team

Strengths

Our interdisciplinary team had a leader who was very committed. Thus, he could encourage every member of the group to be effective. Before performing the project, we hand set and agreed on some of the policies each person was expected to observe. The project went for a whole week, and we use to meet every evening to discuss and share our knowledge. Lastly, the communication between members of the groups as well as the community members was very effective.

Weaknesses

In every group, there must be some weaknesses which normally arise. Although we did not have many issues in our group, there were several problems that reviewed. These are; there were communication challenges as the community members who were being served were using their local language. To some points, the team had to look for a person who would translate the language to the interdisciplinary team members. Some of the team members would not come to every evening meeting to share their knowledge.

The Roles of Different Health Teams in Providing Services

Health professionals normally have different roles when providing health services to patients. According to some of the studies, the role of the individual health profession is to expand goals that health workers should ensure when caring for the patient. The different roles expand the integration of health care to the patients. The three main aims of an individual health professional are; Improving the care towards the patients, reducing the health cost to the people, and ensuring that the population health is improved. These aims help in solving people's challenges that might hinder them from enjoying the health services.

On the other hand, there are also specific roles of the interdisciplinary health team when providing services to the community. The team members have a role of caring for the patients when performing for their duties. For example, a high number of community individuals usually have many older people who need more care when being treated.

It's a duty for every team member to have applied his or her interpersonal skills while handling the patients. Some older people in the community may not be knowing that they are using the wrong language when they are being handled. To prevent issues from occurring, team members should communicate with discipline while serving them.

Grant Writing in Connection with the Health Specialists

Most of the communities in the United States have health challenges as they may not be able to access innovative health facilities (Jones et al., 2016). Many healthcare providers, as well as the non-making organizations, normally rely on government and foundations to help them bring up new projects so as to provide their services. It's very hard to get a grant, and the process requires various steps.

The health professionals were selected to perform and participate in this project in the community because most of the organizations in these areas normally have fewer members who have a willingness to grant writing. Many of the individuals in the community with enough knowledge of writing are in business based, and they are responsible for funds securing.

The primary purpose of grant proposals is not just based on requesting of funds, but some good grant applications should build a very sustainable and long-term program (Guarino, Albanesi, Zani & Compare, 2019). These programs should increase health services to community members. Thus, this can act as clear guidance to all those who are willing to begin a grant writing process only because it gives clear tips on how the preparation of grant proposal should be, specific community to be provided with funding and all the plans connected with the project, so as it can be successful.

The Reflection of Service-Learning Experience

My opinion on how the project Experience Impacted the All People Who Were involved

The service-learning experience highly impacted the lives of all those individuals who were involved. For example, to the interdisciplinary team, all professionals learned a lot, and their skills were improved. Thus, they were able to get practical skills in addition to what they had learned in the class. I think the community members also enjoyed being served by the health teams as they were able to interact with different specialists. Also, most of them are not well up, thus getting to an opportunity to visit health professional in hospitals it can be expensive, and they have no medical fee.

How the Project Impacted My Life?

Also, being part of the interdisciplinary team, it really impacted my life in different ways. For example, as a student, I was able to apply my class knowledge in practice. Also, when interacting with the community members when I was delivering the service, I learned how I am expected to handle a patient. For the whole program, we worked as a team; thus, I was able to understand the importance of teamwork. Also, discussing with the members about our experience in the field every evening was a benefit to me, as I was able to know what to do in case there is a certain problem.

Conclusion

To sum up, the service-learning projects are essential, and they should be encouraged. These projects normally help the students to get both the book's knowledge and skills when they are performing fieldwork. The projects prepare the students for what is in real life of their careers. Also, in the interdisciplinary teams, students gain a lot from their colleagues, i.e., how to deal with a patient, how to deliver services as well as roles they should play in their specialized career.

References

Brown, J. M., & Schmidt, N. A. (2016). Service-learning in undergraduate nursing education: Where is the reflection?. Journal of Professional Nursing, 32(1), 48-53.

Guarino, A., Albanesi, C., Zani, B., & Compare, C. (2019). Quality of participation in Service-Learning projects. PSICOLOGIA DI COMUNITA'.

Jones, T. R., Trusedell, J. M., Oakes, W. C., & Cardella, M. E. (2016). Measuring the Impact of Service-Learning Projects in Engineering: High School Students' Perspectives. In ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Rutti, R. M., LaBonte, J., Helms, M. M., Hervani, A. A., & Sarkarat, S. (2016). The service-learning projects: Stakeholder benefits and potential class topics-education + Training.