Service Learning Reflection Paper on GIFT: Give It Fresh Today - Essay Example

When you serve other people you are bound to make some kind of empathy and connection with whom you have served. The way I connected to people I served was that I got satisfaction from fulfilling someone else’s nutritional needs, the way mine are fulfilled because I have been fortunate enough to have been blessed with different choices in my daily needs (JMRENNA, 2013). This nutrition would help us in preventing nutrition deficiency diseases in the less fortunate people. I believe it is our responsibility to not only look after our own health but we should also take care of the health of others.

I believe that this service was not only a source of getting essential nutrients for one's health, but it also served as a means of providing the required energy levels to the less affording class for their daily activities. (Google Books, 2013) Chaminade University of Hawaii’s School of Nursing care has several core values that help us in fulfilling our nursing duties towards people we serve. One of the core values is Holism. This indicates that we are bound to serve people as a whole in body, mind and spirit.

This value dictates how I served at the GIFT program because I did not only care for the nutritional needs of the individuals but also catered to their psychological needs by making them feel that they are connected to us by the bond of humanity and we are available to help them in their time of need. This emotional uplifting is mandatory to improve the social well being of socially deprived people. In my opinion, simply taking away one's worry about the next meal is a service which serves them as a whole (Stanfield & Hui, 2010).

Another value that influenced my service is Caring. This core value requires us to be compassionate and empathize with the people we interact or provide service to. The program instilled empathy and compassion in our service to the less fortunate where I was able to give my fullest to the 9 hours I spent at the program because I was able to empathize with the needs of other people.A value that is instilled in us by our School of Nursing is to promote the concept of Community. What this dictates is that we create an ohana (family) within the community that we live in.

This value helped me in treating the ones I was serving just as I would treat and serve my own family members in times of need; since they are a part of my community and my engagement with other people is one of my priorities (Stanfield & Hui, 2010). My Service allowed me to serve those in need without any thought of race, ethnicity or cultural background. All I knew was that every person that I am helping in the program deserves the same service boundless of what culture he or she comes from; because we are not taught to discriminate between the people we serve.

Our core value of Diversity also allowed me to serve different people with the respect that they deserve. The concept of Integrity is inscribed in our service to others where we abide by all the standards of social service and base all our actions on the ethical point of view. My service to people in GIFT was also based on this belief where I served the less fortunate people with all of my sincerity and truthfulness so that they were provided the best care possible. The value of Commitment allowed me to perform my services