Ashley's Reflection

Service-Learning Project Reflection Blog

My Growth Story

Introduction

Prior to beginning this service-learning project, I had never heard of this type of assignment before. I recall being somewhat confused as to how this was different from standard community service. After reading more about it, talking more about it with others, and completing the assignment myself, I now understand that there is so much more to this than donating my time to a cause. I remember being open to trying service-learning out, though I was afraid of doing it wrong. I believed the moral of the project was a positive one that would only help me develop my skills in providing for my community in the most accessible way possible. The amount of collaboration and reflection that took place was critical for the project’s success and, ultimately, its culmination.

For my service-learning project, I provided activity-based resources to physical therapy veteran outpatients at the VA Medical Center of Lexington, Kentucky. In collaboration with my community partner, physical therapist Ryan Montgomery, we created three music-based activity handouts. Understanding that I would be providing these to such a wide variety of people, I wanted to make sure that the resources were as accessible as possible. My other biggest concern was the need to avoid setting off any triggers the veteran patients might have. When Ryan and I initially spoke, he expressed the need for ideas over ways to help decrease patient insomnia and chronic pain symptoms and increase treatment compliance and motivation. Those needs became our target goals for the activities.

Outcomes About Myself

         One of the accomplishments that I am most proud of in this assignment was my ability to push through when my original plan did not work out. I had originally set out on a completely different path with different community partners and a different target population. Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control, that course of action was no longer an option. Three weeks in, I had to change everything. In general, I try to stay calm and collected when things like this happen; however, when time restraints are involved, calm, cool, and collected goes right out the window. After talking with my professor about what to do next, I canvased around to see who might be willing to work with me on this project. That led me to Ryan, the VA Medical Center, and working with his patients.

Even while working in this new direction, there was need for constant change in timeline due to the obscure nature of outpatient scheduling. This meant that I wouldn’t necessarily have a structured timeline for when patients could receive the activities and when I could receive feedback. I am glad that having to remain flexible did not deter me from finishing the project. I know that I tend to stress myself out when those things happen, but I was glad that I was able to work through that stress.

One step that I took during this project that I am proud of was my reaching out and collaborating with a community member. This was something that I had not ever done before and was very happy with the experience. I always have well-wishes of working together with members of my community for a common goal but have never known where to start. This project gave me the opportunity, as well as permission, to do something I have always wanted to try. It was also very rewarding to know that my efforts produced good results in the end as well.

One thing that I somewhat already knew about myself, and it was again confirmed through this project, was that I tend to overcomplicate things. The first thing I overcomplicated was the project itself. Knowing that the premise was somewhat vague made it difficult for me to know where to start. Once I figured that out, I overcomplicated the creation of the three activities. I made them way more intense than they needed to be. After correcting that, I had it in my mind that making the handouts broadly accessible was going to be fairly difficult. That ended up not being the case at all. I am glad that I went through these trials though because it helped me to see that I do not have to make things harder for myself. It also showed me that even when things are difficult, I have the ability to work through them.

Outcomes Regarding the Community Partner

Prior to working together on this project, I have known Ryan personally through church, occasionally playing together on the worship team. Ryan was an excellent community partner to work with on this project. With his being a musician, he was very enthusiastic about utilizing music to help his patients. Our communication was always timely and very consistent. I really appreciated how involved Ryan was throughout the entirety of the project as well. The collaboration aspect was genuinely my favorite part of doing this.

When reflecting on ways that our effectiveness could have improved, the only thing I could think of was Ryan’s want to provide feedback in person. I understood the intention behind it. Wanting to make sure electronic HIPAA laws were not broken and feeling it would be easier to filter identifiers by talking about results made meeting in person preferable. This did cause our timeline to need to shift from time to time. Finding a time in both of our busy schedules made it complicated to get together. Fortunately, we were able to find the time do so eventually.

One thing we did to enhance our effectiveness was collaborating on the resources together. This made the process of relaying the information to his patients significantly smoother. I would send a draft to Ryan; he would provide feedback; I would edit the draft; we would talk about how to explain the material to his patients; then, he would present them with the finished material. This way of going about the project made me feel way more confident that we were giving the veteran patients quality resources to use.

As far as the veteran patients’ responses to the resources, there was an overall sense of enjoyment. Ryan informed me that many of the patients expressed that they went on to personalize the activities, making playlists and using them for more than just physical therapy. This made me feel really good about the work Ryan and I were doing because it showed that they were transferring these skills to be used in other areas of their lives. Moreover, the resources met the goals we set out to achieve. Veteran patients stated that they were able to sleep better, were in less pain, and were able to remain compliant with their treatment plans. They stated this result was due to the enjoyment and relaxation the music component provided.

Outcomes Regarding My Knowledge and Skills

One thing that caused some unease was not knowing what materials the veteran patients would have to complete these activities. With that in mind, I tried to keep material requirements as bare-minimum as possible. At the end of the day, all that was required was some way to listen to music, the handout, possibly a watch or timer, and a location to do the activity. Anything more than that and I would have started unintentionally excluding anyone who might not have what was needed to participate.

Knowing how successful the resources ended up being, it makes me wonder if it would be possible to extend the scope by providing them to all the patients – not just Ryan’s. Furthermore, it would be quite interesting to try and continue to collect feedback on how those added patients used the resources. It could inform new adaptations or ideas for further study. It might even call for continued utilization of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies with the broader participation pool.

Learning how to use UDL and SEL was helpful in this project, and I have started to use it more in my everyday life. With the new job that I recently started, I work with a broad range of ages, genders, and diagnoses. This atmosphere has created the perfect opportunity to use these competencies to best serve my patients. I know that I will continue to look back at the sources I have been using this entire semester to strengthen my session plans. I enjoyed learning how to make accessible products like the handouts and this site page. Knowing that I created things that can be accessed by many different people with varying abilities makes me feel like I am doing something right.

Outcomes About My Values

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, I am a huge proponent of reaching out and providing access to as many people as possible. If I am going to provide a service, I want everyone to feel welcome in receiving it. This was something I kept in mind when picking pictures for the handouts. I knew that the patients would be different genders, ages, races, and ethnicities and wanted to make sure I represented as many different people as I could manage. I also took into consideration the colors, font sizes, and alt-text in the pictures for those with differing abilities. It is incredibly important to me for people to know they deserve the best, in the best way that works for them.

I feel that this project has enforced my personal philosophy of wanting to help others in the best way I can. I know that I may have only been an indirect part of the veteran patients' lives for a short time, but I hope that it was a part that made it a little bit better. I have always wanted to add value to peoples’ lives, to try and make them a little bit better than I found them. I know I will not always succeed, but it is important for me to try. This project gave me the opportunity to do just that, and I am very appreciative for it.

I think the biggest thing that I have learned is that collaboration is key. If I was trying to do this all on my own, I would have failed from the start. There were so many times when I had to reach out for help, clarification, edification, feedback, and more. If it was not for the people who helped, these activities would have never come to be. I think this is an important lesson to learn because I can take it with me into any circumstance. Solid communication and the ability to work together with others will always take me farther than keeping to myself and doing things on my own.

Outcomes About Action

I think the most logical next step would be to continue to provide resources to my community partner as needs arise and time allows. Maintaining that partnership could manifest into a plethora of opportunities. I hope that one of those might be to present a seminar or lunch-and-learn to describe how music might be beneficial for all patients in the outpatient office and/or the entire hospital. This could be an opportunity to connect with many different providers and present a case for why music therapy should be utilized by the VA Medical Center of Lexington, Kentucky.

If I had to give advice to someone who wanted to pick this project up in the future, I would say to remain flexible. Scheduling is difficult due to the nature of the business. It may take more time than you think to get the resources out there and then to also get feedback on how the resources were received. I would also say to keep an open mind about the needs of the population. It can be a little tricky to work with populations who suffer from life-altering triggers and co-morbidities. I think it is important to make sure you leave enough room for choice, but enough structure to clearly follow.

Outcomes and Conclusion

This project has a special place in my heart because of the population I have been serving. My family has a military history and I have felt proud to give back, even if it has been just a little bit for a little while. I believe strongly in giving back to and helping our troops in the best way we can because they deserve it after all the sacrifices they have made for the citizens of this country.

In the end, this project met its goals of decreasing insomnia and chronic pain symptoms and increasing treatment compliance and motivation. According to Ryan, his patients have continued to improve with addition of each new activity and that he will continue to use these resources in the future. In the same vein, I plan to slightly modify these activities and use them for my new job. I think they could be very useful for the patients that I am working with and have been created in a way that will easily transition to a new target population.

I have learned a lot this semester. When I was in school for music education, my program had only touched on a couple of topics that we covered in this class. I will forever be grateful for the in-depth perspectives and considerations our course materials brought. I also appreciated the varying ways of learning (e.g., reading, watching, listening, etc.). It has provided great resources that I intend to use in my future endeavors. It also sparked in me the want to be intentional in all that I do. I want to remain active in looking for ways to improve my community, whether that be in my neighborhood, at church, my job, or within myself.