Summer Pike

NURS 450
Service Learning Project
Reeths-Puffer Wellness Committee
November 25, 2014

Service learning has been identified by the FSU faculty as work done for others
preferably related to health care. It is designed to enhance professional development through
experiential learning and is a required assignment in NURS 450.
The service learning agency I chose to participate with is the Reeths-Puffer (RP)
Wellness Committee. The reason I chose this committee is because I believed it would provide
me a means to evaluate nursing practice interventions within a school system, as well as, within
the community. As healthcare is rapidly moving towards prevention, through care and population
management, I hope to gain insight about how the professional nursing role could look in future
school districts.
We know that population management plays a key role in determining the wellness of a
community and programs like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are dedicated to
improving the health and health care of all Americans (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014).
Fortunately, for Muskegon, community programs, such as 1 in 21 and The RP Wellness
Committee, were established after the 2012 RWJF in collaboration with the University of
Wisconsin Population Health Institute published, Michigan County Health Rankings and
Roadmaps, which ranked Muskegon County 82 out of 82 in the overall health behaviors and 64
out of 82 in overall health outcomes. The results, as well as, some funding from RWJF and
helped spark a community initiative dedicated to making Muskegon County a healthier place to
live.
The goal of the RP Wellness Committee is to improve the nutritional, mental, and
physical wellness of Reeths-Puffer Schools and community (Go Rocket City, 2014). As a
committee member my responsibilities include but are not limited to the following: identify ways
in which RP Wellness Committee can support the Wellville Grant, identify needs of 100 Mile,

mental conditioning education, Endurance Adventure, nutritional education, and consider

strategies for growth in all areas.
Initially, my thoughts about participating were more focused on how I could incorporate
the role of a school nurse into the curriculum, but what I discovered was far different. As a nurse,
working within a large organization, I am surrounded by similar subject matter experts dialoging
about much of the same. Its a routine, which I realize now more than ever before, because as I
participate in the RP Wellness Committee with other professionals, from various backgrounds
other than healthcare, I have begun to see my nursing role much differently. I learned how job
oriented my role had become, in the hospital/ambulatory care setting, and how much my voice
for the community had become absent as I continue to listen to the struggles, accomplishments,
future goals, and past failures this committee has been through. As the committee discusses next
steps in organizing the upcoming 2015 Seaway Run, which they won the Stinky Shoe Award
for last year by having the largest number of school entries in the Seaway Run, they brought up
the need for shoes, covering of entry fees, and even access to a washing machine for those kids
that would borrow school attire because they didnt have resources for clothes to train in. These
first hand experiences allow me to be more involved and thus empowers me to speak up
professionally within the community about such disparities.
I now see my role within the community, not as a job title of school nurse, but as a
professional nurse with the characteristics congruent with the inherent values, ethics, and
behaviors of the discipline of nursing, allowing me to represent and advocate for the community
through proactive wellness volunteering (Ferris State University School of Nursing, 2011). The
experience I have gained, thus far, from volunteering within a community setting has allowed me

to come full circle in this journey to achieving my BSN, as I feel I have regained that hunger that
brought me into nursing to start with.
Unfortunately, this requirement occurred after my participation in NURS 320 and though
I was able to establish a volunteer role within my community, I was unable to get the full 20
hours completed by the assignment due date. I will however, continue to participate and develop
a supportive relationship within the RP Wellness Committee as I have made a commitment and
have begun an exciting and unique journey with a great group of people. The RP School District,
in collaboration with Greater Muskegon, is to be part of the 1 of 5 nationally chosen winners of
The Way to Wellville, a national competition to select five communities to compete over five
years for the greatest improvement in five measures of health and economic vitality (The Way to
Wellville, 2014). It is a positive and encouraging time for Muskegon, and I feel fortunate to be a
part of it.

References
Catlin, B., Jovaag, A., Willems Van Dijk, J., & Remington, P. (2014). MICHIGAN. Retrieved
from A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Program:
http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/sites/default/files/state/downloads/CHR2014_MI_v
2.pdf
Crisp County Acres. (2014). Home Page. Retrieved from Crisp County Acres:
https://crispcountryacres.com/
Ferris State University School of Nursing. (2011, May 1). Portfolio. Retrieved from
MyFerrisConnect:
https://fsulearn.ferris.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2F
webapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1235
6_1%26url%3D
Go Rocket City. (2014). Go Rocket City. Retrieved from Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/gorocketcity
HICCup. (2014). Challenge. Retrieved from HICCup: http://hiccup.co/challenge/
Niklasch, A. (2014). Rocket City's 100 Mile Club. Retrieved from MAISD: http://blogs.reethspuffer.org/100mileclub/
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2014). About RWJF. Retrieved from Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation: http://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf.html