Monday, February 10, 2014
First week's experience
Hello everyone, I have been out for a little while due to unforeseen circumstances which somehow overwhelmed me. Fortunately, the chips are falling at their rightful places and I am on recovery, determined to stay with you, and update you with my experiences.
I have met with three groups of clients in three different group homes.I have named the residences as "Grubb","Brandywine", and "Montrose". My experiences with these clients were awesome. i must admit that I have known about 85 percent of the clients from my place of work where they, at some times in their lives, resided as patients. In aii the three homes, some some of the residents readily identified me and where happy to see me. One particular resident remembered that I was serving her with ensure while she was a patient in the hospital.
The purpoe of my visit with them was to discuss dangers in the habit of smoking,to assess their functional levels and their cognitive levels. It is only after the assessment that I could plan and develop methods of interact with them.
After assessing these lovely residents, one thing became conspicuous to me; their attention spans are limited that one could barely get five (5) minutes from them. However, at Grubb, one resident was attentive and contributed immensely towards our conversation on smoking. At Brandywine, there were three (3) residents who ere active participants. One of them, in a span of 25 minutes went out to smoke. Montrose also has a client who does not smoke but was very active with the discussion.
This week will be my second week, and I will apprise you all with my experinces. One thing that I have to do is to make the group more interactive by using pictures to convey messages. I will keep you all posted.
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What a good campaign. Smoking is also linked to colorectal cancer. See you are helping me with CRC prevention, Kwame
ReplyDeleteWorking with these patients on smoking is a good service learning site. I look forward to following more of your blog postings.
ReplyDeleteYour Name: Kwame Opoku-Agyemang
ReplyDeleteDate, hours and objective addressed:
Grubb Road: March 24, 2014 (0930-1030).
Brandywine Hills: March 25, 2014 (0930-1030).
Montrose Drive: March 27, 2014 (1300-1400).
Objectives: To discuss triggers of smoking and possible ways out of smoking
The week’s discussion centered on factors which caused residents to start smoking. One transcending factor across residents in all the three homes was peer pressure. Most of the residents mentioned that they picked up smoking early from their teenage school years. One particular resident stated “all the guys in the school band smoked”. Another notable cause was that television was new in their era, and that john Wayne and other actors were all featured smoking cigarette. Smoking gave them a feeling of living at par with the standards at their time.
As to which way they could stop smoking, several of the residents suggesting to their doctors for smoke cessation help, for example, nicotine patch, nicotine lozenge and using gum. However, two of the residents indicated that they have smoked for many years and were unwilling to stop smoking.
Reflection and Future Plans
Reflecting on contributions from the residents, I could understand that smoking is addictive, and that giving up the habit is not always easy. I realized how fortunate I have been to have been able to kick the habit of smoking early in my life. I could see how many smokers have been held in psychic prisons and are unable to break free.
It is my hope that scientists would one day find ways and means to genetically modify the additive properties in nicotine with the hope to freeing many people from the arrest of nicotine.