COMMUNITY SERVICE REPORT

Chapter I

Introduction

Overview of community service work

Community service is a selfless way to contribute to the society and the mankind. I

personally believe in „karm‟ and that every person is assigned with some duty to perform in

one‟s mortal life. Serving others is probably the highest form of “karm” that one can offer

hence for me community service is like a medium to do what I am supposed to do and move

towards liberation. Community service in simple words is serving the community selflessly.

It means to address the issues faced by the people of the community and enable them to

outgrow them. Every individual though a single entity is a part of a larger community, the

community of mankind therefore it is every individual‟s duty to serve the mankind.

Experience Prior to starting community service work

I was not very directly exposed to community service work previously. Although I

have been a part of rotary services during my under-graduation and have visited

orphanages as well as old age homes from school to render social service. My experiences

of other community service has been limited to conducting donation drives in terms of

money, clothing and accessories, books and stationaries, food items etc. or psycho-

educating the people in different national government organisations on sex education,

diversity, mental health awareness etc. I have also been a part of literary programmes

organised by my school, DPS Newtown back in my school days which was an initiative to

literate as many as possible children in the slums and provide them with basic educational
kit (stationaries, alphabet books, colour-pencils, art books etc.). Being a part of such works

have always been fulfilling and left me feeling wholesome. There is a sense of

contentment that I have felt as if I am contributing something to the society as a human

being.

This was the first time I was being exposed to a hospital setting which involved attending

to real patients with serious health issues (mental as well as physical), hence I was a little

anxious and nervous. Prior to starting my work in St. Joseph Hospital I had many

questions but with the orientation I had an idea how to go about my work in the

organisation. The experience prior to the actual work was a very productive phase for me

as I was reading up on a lot of materials on health education and various activities that

would aid me to conduct the service.

Chapter II

Profile of the Organization

About the Organization

For my community service, I am working at St. Joseph‟s Hospital, Mariam Nagar,

Ghaziabad. It is located in Meerut Rd, Marium Nagar, Sewa Nagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

201003. St. Joseph‟s hospital, Mariam Nagar, Ghaziabad has been established in the year

1990 and is situated in the National Capital Region 2 Km from New bus Adda metro station

and 11 Km from Anand Vihar ISBT, of the Delhi - Meerut Highway.

“As long you did it to the least of my brethren you did it to me” Mt. 25:40 inspired

from this words of Jesus Christ, Our founder servant of God Msgr. Joseph C. Panjikaran

started the healing ministry by establishing hospitals and founding the congregation of

Medical Sisters of St. Joseph (MSJ) in the year 1944 in Kerala. We extended our services to

North India(Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu, North east, etc). St. joseph Hospital is one of

the hospitals run by M.S.J. sisters who focus on the care of poor, marginalised of the area,

without discrimination of caste, creed and sex.

ST. Joseph‟s Hospital is 150 bedded multispeciality Hospital and is registered under

the Charitable Society Act --- with registration No-699-1992-93 and under Chief Medical

officer (Municipal) with Registration No: GZB/00904. The hospital has achieved its fame by

performing excellent medical treatment and break through laparoscopic surgeries. It is in the

fore front of the region in providing advanced and quality medical care at affordable cost.

The hospital has fully equipped state of the art Modular Operation Theatre & Intensive care

unit. We have successfully completed Entry level NABH Accreditation in 2016 and on the

process of final level. This orgnisation serves people from various communities and spreads

their facilities to people belonging to all socio economic status specially the lower economic

strata. This hospital provides facilities related to all diseases and is inclusive. Doctors of this
hospital are experienced and focused on their work which makes the place reliable. The

hospital is located in an area near to the main road which makes it easily accessible to the

people in case of emergency. There are not much hospitals near this area, the next well

known hospital nearby is Naveen hospital which is 20 minutes away by road which is located

not in a busy area. This exposes St. Joseph hospital to render services to more people which

makes me in turn exposed to a large population.

Role and Responsibilities in the Organization

My role in the organisation was as a community service provider imparting health

education to the patients and making them aware about sanitization, personal hygiene,

importance of proper nutrition, importance of adequate water intake, awareness about

infections etc. alongside providing them and their families with emotional support.

My roles and responsibilities also involved being aware of the organisation‟s

infrastructure so that I can provide assistance to the people in need. Apart from health

education the project also expected us to be oriented to the infrastructure of the building so

that we can guide the families and other patients in case of requirement. Providing emotional

support not only to the patients but also to their family members, guiding them through the

corridors to different wards or clinician‟s cabins etc. were also a part of the work under the

project assigned.
Chapter III

Community Service

Projects Assigned

The projects assigned to me were health education and stress management which I

feel is extremely important for the patients. Under health education there were several topics

that were touched upon such as sanitization, personal hygiene, importance of proper nutrition,

importance of adequate water intake, awareness about infections etc. while under stress

management, emotional support was provided by the use of basic counselling skills such as

empathy and active listening.

Every week we were assigned to different wards in the hospital. The wards we were

assigned to included female ward, male ward, surgical ward, medical ward, gynae ward,

semi-private ward, private ward and pediatric ward. Every week we had different supervisors

who looked upon our work and signed our log sheets.

Apart from health education the project also expected us to be oriented to the

infrastructure of the building so that we can guide the families and other patients in case of

requirement. Providing emotional support not only to the patients but also to their family

members, guiding them through the corridors to different wards or clinician‟s cabins etc.

were also a part of the work under the project assigned.

Your Contribution

Our work was to provide health education, psycho-educate them about maintaining

sanitisation and aid in stress management. I initiated my work by establishing a rapport with
the patients by greeting them, asking them about their day, their ailment, the reason that

brought them here etc. I ensured they felt comfortable in my presence.

Furthermore, I asked them about the hospital facilities provided to them and if they

have any complaints about it which they wish to address to which they shared that they felt

really hot inside the ward. I made sure to report this concern to the higher authorities. As we

moved ahead in our conversation, they shared about their loss of appetite and that they were

„feeling weak‟. Upon hearing this I asked them about their food intake, I briefed them about

the importance of having nutritious food even when they do not feel like. Most of the patients

were diabetic which is why there are many food items which they are not supposed to

consume. It limits their food intake. Within that limited arena of palate I tried to chalk out a

basic diet plan for them. I psycho-educated them about maintaining sanitisation since

„cleanliness is godliness‟. I tried to make them aware about the importance of sanitisation,

that it ensures that infections are not spread.

Moreover, I used my knowledge on „Health Psychology‟ and lessons from my

courses such as multicultural counselling to interact with them and gain insight about their

life which in turn made me feel emotionally satisfied as I was able to help them in some

manner.

Skills Acquired

The work of community service provides me with a lot of accomplishments in terms

of making myself skilled as a professional. Till date the major skills that I acquired through

the community service are the importance of social support, the role of family, virtue of love,

care, kindness, importance of nutrition, water intake , effectiveness of active listening,

multicultural sensitivity and the concept of intersectionality etc.

 Apart from these skills it also enabled me to incorporate the skill that are required to

work in an organisation or be a part of an hospital setting for example, writing reports,

planning activities ahead, time management, communication skills, incorporating divergent

thinking, expanding my vocabulary etc.

It enabled me to be skilled not only as a professional but also in my personal life as it

somewhere made a better human being at the end of the day and worthy of being a part of

the larger community of psychology.

Overall Learnings

As I interacted with various patients I realise that their family was a major source of

motivation for the older patients to recover and live. As they spoke they kept mentioning

about their family, their son/daughters and grandkids which showed the love they have for

them and receive from them which pushes them to recover faster and go back home. Social

support does not limits itself to family, I witnessed that patients in the common wards

empathised with each-other and found comfort or solace as they supported and consoled

each-other. The feeling of not being alone was explored very closely through the experiences

of the patients. Even when they were suffering with their own ailments they made sure to be

supportive and motivating towards other patients.

As I initiated conversations with them and inquired about their health and how they

are feeling, I could feel a change in their expressions as if they were happy to share their

experiences with someone. I incorporated the practice of active listening and intentionality

which helped me to move ahead in my conversation with them. With me being attentive

towards what they spoke, I could feel they were engaged in the conversation, they looked at

me for more questions, they shared about their few life experiences without me asking about
it. This community service acted as a platform for me to polish my skills and become a

skilled professional in the field of psychology or social service.

It helped me build tolerance and taught me to be patient with people around since I

realised that there was a generation gap, the way they pronounce words were different from

mine which is why patience was needed to understand what they tried to communicate.

The most important learning for me was intersectionality and multicultural sensitivity.

Interacting with people from different sections of the society instills within me the skill to be

culturally sensitive and be more open towards new people and experiences. It gives me a

scope to work upon my biases and hesitations towards meeting people from culture vastly

different from mine.

Challenges Faced

Any hospital environment brings before you, people with various kinds of ailments

which is a challenge to face since ailments are not something we see so closely in our daily

life. To hear their journey and empathizing with them is difficult because one can never

understand how it feels to be bed ridden, having a constant physical pain, living on

medications etc. For example, in my 3rd week (8th hour ) I was allotted to the surgical ward

where I interacted with people who had to do away with their limbs, some had to undergo

major surgeries related to kidney stones etc. and it was difficult relating to them since I have

never faced such a situation in life and I would not feel the physical agony they must be

going through.

People in the hospital mostly belonged to the lower economic strata, a section of the

society with whom I personally did not interact a lot , they did not understand English and it

was a challenge for me to put forward my thoughts to them and understand what they are
trying to say. The challenge was to break the socioeconomic and communication barriers to a

larger cause of community service.

Not every patient was willing to speak and to overcome the awkwardness to build the

rapport with the patients who are basically strangers was a task. With the community service

I am providing, I am responsible to take care of the patient‟s needs and complaints. It comes

to me as a challenge because I have never attended to any patient before and all my life I

have lived in a very protective, comfortable zone which makes this task difficult for me. My

work propels me to give them support in the very minimalistic daily activities like taking

them till the washroom etc. and sometimes it is uncomfortable but that is the need of the

patient which I am supposed to attend to. Sometimes it was very disturbing for me to see

patients in such terrible condition but I had to maintain my calm and be there for them which

was challenging for me. It was overwhelming but I knew it was crucial.

Integration with the theoretical concepts learned (2-3 paragraphs)

My work in the community service include a lot of application of what I learnt in

my MCS classes and in my previous schooling days about Health psychology or basic

healthy habits. Alongside it also incorporated my theoretical concepts learned during my

school days in biology or life skill classes.

My MCS lectures have enabled me to be empathetic, be an active listener, use my

attending behaviour while communicating with the patients, using the right questions at

the right time to explore what is going on within them etc. While my knowledge from

health psychology helped me to form my learning objectives for the community service..

My lifespan development classes also enabled me to understand why different

patients react or perceive things differently and their coping mechanisms for example,
psychosocial theory of Erickson enables me to relate the concepts of conflict resolution

and its impact on a person‟s life at a later stage. The learnings from the Vygotsky‟s theory

also play a huge role in my understanding related to different people and their ways to

conduct life etc. Overall all these learnings helped me to integrate my work and be a

responsible servant leader and add to the society as a whole.

Chapter IV

Summary & Conclusion

There were several insights that were the hallmark of the community service. It made

me wonder how little behaviours of helping someone could make the self so delighted. It

feels so good to be serving people and to cater their needs. To be selfless felt like engaging in

self-care. There was a sudden realisation of the duties I have as an individual towards the

society or towards the world, the sense of social responsibility was somewhere awakened. I

realised that I am priviledged in terms of finance and health and this thoughts compels me to

offer the minimum I have in terms of knowledge and emotional support. Working in a

hospital set up makes me feel grateful for the life I have. I feel thankful to the almighty that I

am functioning on my own and am capable enough to be helpful to others and aid them in

their life processes. We often speak about love and care but working with people in such

close proximity gives me an insight about how love and care speaks volumes and has the

capacity to heal or make people smile. My work included providing community service to the

patients but as I proceed with my work, I felt that it not only included rendering help but also

making you feel happy about the work you do. The most insightful moment was when the

elderly women raised both her hands to bless me as I was taking my leave for the day (in

week 2). She blessed me and told that may I be happy and successfull in what I aim to do.

This made me realise how important it is to be kind, my small little helps, moments of

interaction lead me to receive their blessings. Man is after-all a social animal and it is the

inter-relationships that keeps a person going.

Annexures

Pictures of community service work