(REQUIRED) Community Service ...

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I am wondering how many of your programs have a community service requirement.

We do, and it seems to be horribly disorganized. We were just informed of the changes to the requirements last week at a mandatory meeting.

Basically, we are forced to do 50 hours of service to Red Cross. They take 16 into a disaster recovery team, and 45 to work blood drives. It is first come, first serve by email, so the first 16 people to email got on the disaster recovery team. (Immediately after the meeting half of the students ran to find a computer on campus to email).

That takes care of 61 students. There are 90 in our program. If you don't get on one of those teams, you have to wait and see if other opportunities come up, or you are forced to collect blankets for a blanket drive.

Each task is worth a certain number of hours. If you donate blood at the school blood drive, you get some hours, but only if your blood was good (if you try and they don't take you, too bad so sad - no hours for you!). For every 10 blankets you collect, you get 4 hours. Orientation counts for some hours, and then you get hours for your actual volunteer work.

We are all very frustrated with this disorganized program. None of us minds volunteering, but being forced to compete for volunteer hours is something none of us needs right now!

I was wondering if other programs do similar things and if so, how are they implemented?

Specializes in Med/Surg/Bariatrics.

Were you informed of this before starting? I ask because I dont start until Spring 2008 but attend all meetings and have yet to hear about this (at my school).

Well, sort of...

They do publicize their work on the college web site (as a public relations thing), so I knew informally.

It isn't in their student handbook (I just looked), nor was it discussed in the orientation before the program started.

I know of another college in the area that requires Community Service, but don't know the details. My husband worked at a soup kitchen one day last week through work, and there were several students there doing community service.

Specializes in NICU.

Our program requires community service. We were not told until the semester that it was due. We had to find our own way to serve the community and then have our instructor to approve the community service.

We aren't required to do any, although all students in the health schools receive constant e-mails about service oppotunities. The med students are required to do a certain amount per semester, although they can do it with any organization they want. Do you have to do all of your hours with just the Red Cross? The med students can earn hours with them, or they can volunteer for all kinds of other events - the med student-run clinic near campus, various other community screening programs, walks/runs to raise money for disease research, whatever. Could you contact another Red Cross outlet if there's one in the next nearest city to you? Can you ask your advisor or one of your professors for some ideas if the Red Cross is full? Can you get in touch with them directly? Maybe they need someone to stuff envelopes, or something else in the office.

Specializes in acute care.

We are required to do, I think, 100 hours, but I believe we look for it on our own.

Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.

We are required to do community service as well. Anywhere from 40-60 hours, just depending on what grade you want to get (40hrs=C, 50hrs=B,etc....I'm aiming for a C! LOL).

We have to find it on our own (Red Cross, etc) and it has to be nursing related (flu shot clinics, first aid booth,disaster relief, etc). It sucks because I work and go to school and have kids and adding forced community service on top of that just is not fun (I would rather do it by choice ya know?). I'm in a BSN program.

It is part of our Leadership class that also has 200 hours of clinicals!

Specializes in Burns, ICU.

we are required to do this too. We filled out a survey and it asked what types of people we would prefer working with and then we were assigned where to go. We now have to fulfill a time req. and also write papers, logs, and journals about our experience. Our location will be the same for the full 2 years.

We aren't required to do any, although all students in the health schools receive constant e-mails about service oppotunities. The med students are required to do a certain amount per semester, although they can do it with any organization they want. Do you have to do all of your hours with just the Red Cross? The med students can earn hours with them, or they can volunteer for all kinds of other events - the med student-run clinic near campus, various other community screening programs, walks/runs to raise money for disease research, whatever. Could you contact another Red Cross outlet if there's one in the next nearest city to you? Can you ask your advisor or one of your professors for some ideas if the Red Cross is full? Can you get in touch with them directly? Maybe they need someone to stuff envelopes, or something else in the office.

MB37, thanks for some ideas. I think I am set with the blood drives, but other people are having a lot of trouble and are really upset. It seems very rigid - you only get to do certain activities that they approve. One woman lives 30 miles away and wants to volunteer at her local center, but was told "no" because it is in a different county. I just don't think it is fair, but don't want to rock the boat, either, if you know what I mean!

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