Community Service Importance

The importance of community service has been interlaced into the majority of the nursing classes I have had at the bachelor’s level and the master’s level of education. Being active in community service has been presented as a cornerstone of my nursing career in the work place as a leader within my organization. I am learning now that being involved in community service holds true for the nurse educator as well. Dawson & Freed (2008), state that “professional nurses have a commitment to society and a responsibility to advance the nursing profession by taking on leadership roles in the community” (p. 268). Studies have also supported that serving the community increases self-confidence by contributing to services to the community (MacIlvaine, …show more content…
It has been report that professionals may over extend themselves and may fail to recognize when their professional and personal life are not balanced, leading to the professional to be ineffective in either role (Bakal, Pappas, Smith, & Stern, 2003). Combatting this from occurring take deliberate actions with the first being to have a clear vision of what a balanced professional and personal life looks like. Once this has been established, identification of what is a priority and what, if need be, could be eliminated. Additional, goals of what is to accomplished need to be determined. Once these goals are in place, actions to achieve the goals will be created. The SMART goal format will be used to establish these goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (Lemine, 2014). Using this type of goal setting allows for refection and evaluation of the goal’s progress and what may need to be changed. I find it ironic, that I am writing about SMART goals and using them as I near the end of this educational journey. I first learned of SMART goals in the first class, Student Success, which I took at Grantham for my BSN