Youth in Action, Essay Example

Helping others to improve their lives is important to me.  Providing service to someone encompasses so much more than assisting with a task.  To truly help another person, it is important that compassion and respect are felt for the recipient.  When I engage in activities that provide help to people, I am filled with a feeling of satisfaction and happiness.  While appreciation is always welcome, it is not necessary; happiness comes from knowing that I was able to provide assistance and care to another person.

Senior citizens are a group of individuals I enjoy working with and helping.  For the past two years, I have been providing community service to local senior citizens.  They are a population in need of care, and helping them makes me happy.  While I was in school, I volunteered to help them at a local clinic.  Currently, I am working with a group dedicated to raising awareness in our community about the plight of senior citizens.  Providing senior citizens with better access to nutritious foods, socialization opportunities, and exercise programs are some of the issues that we are currently addressing.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (2000), public awareness programs and education projects are effective ways to both address problems in communities, and to empower local people to take action.  My participation in public awareness programs has allowed me to develop strong leadership skills, as well as expose me to the value of teamwork.  Therefore, throughout my school and work history, I have dedicated myself to providing information to others in order to help improve the environment and make work easier for fellow employees.  By educating people at work and within the community, people become better informed and are more receptive to implanting policies that will improve conditions for both themselves and others.

Helping others improve their work performance benefits everyone surrounding the recipient of assistance.  Employees benefit, because as their performance improves, so does their self-confidence and compensation.  Co-workers and managers benefit from working with more competent employees.  Customers and patients benefit because when employees are better-prepared and happy, the quality of service naturally increases.

When I worked as a preceptor for graduate nurses, I had the opportunity to provide support and coaching.  As a preceptor, I was able to guide students “into the real world of specialty practice, allowing the student to try new skills, while gaining confidence and validation” (Case Di Leonardi & Gulanick, 2008).  Seeing the difference that my guidance made in the lives of graduates and in the care received by the patients, provided me with a sense of excitement that I was helping to improve the quality of health care.

My passion for helping others has allowed me to provide assistance to senior citizens, graduate nurses, and other individuals in the surrounding community and work environment.  While it is impossible to know how far one small deed travels, it is still important to provide service to people in need because we are all interconnected to one another.

Resources

Case Di Leonardi, B., & Gulanick, M. (2008). Precepting graduate students in the clinical setting: What you would like to know… Chicago: Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Retrieved from http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/nursing/preceptor/Di%20Leonardi%20and%20Gulanick%20Precepting%20Graduate%20Students.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice. (2000). Youth in action. (No. NCJ–178926, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/178926.pdf