Service-learning: deepening students' commitment to serve.

摘要

The first year I took a group of nursing students toMexico to study, I reasoned that they would emerge from the experience with enhanced cultural sensitivity. That was, in fact, one objective for this nursing elective. However, as I analyzed the journal entries students wrote while abroad, I realized it was the opportunity for service that had the greatest impact.Students wrote that volunteering their nursing services to the Mayan people in the Yucatan region of Mexico had changed them. All the students in this first group and the three cohorts to follow commented that seeing this level of need and sensing their ability to make a difference would have an impact on the way they practiced nursing. Their general perception was that they would be more empathic professionals and continue to volunteer and serve when they became registered nurses.