Often in life, we come across situations that may stretch us and challenge us, finding ourselves forced to get out of our comfort zone. Volunteering is definitely not for everyone, people may not have the adequate time, confidence, knowledge. But that does not mean you avoid the situation at all times, you must allow yourself to step out of your comfort zone and experience things that you would never think about doing. On the first week of volunteering it was a bit intense for me, as I found it difficult and little bit sad to watch the women living the way they do, for some reason I felt that they were always missing their children and grandchildren. Some of the residents did not even have family so they never got visitations. It seemed like …show more content…
Prior to beginning this volunteer experience, I believed that I had a number of personal attributes and skills that fit this role such as having the necessary education about people, specifically older people if to work with elderly. As part of my college course, I have studied and learned about the development of people from conception to death, including how elderly people may act, think and perceive. All the knowledge I’ve attained from the lectures definitely came in handy whilst working in the nursing home. The ability to deal with mental illness properly is important when working in nursing homes as many people in nursing homes are there due to some kind of mental illness such as dementia and Alzheimer’s etc. Personal skills such as compassion, patience, being helpful, motivated, having good communication skills and being a good listener too. But after working at the nursing home with the women, showed me I hadn’t fully acquired some of the skills I thought I had, therefore helped me to further develop them. I definitely learned to be a much better listener, through listening to the women’s stories, and actually paying attention to it. I’ve became much more patient. Some of the women can be very slow in general, such as going on a walks. In some way it has forced me to become more patient than I ever was before. I feel I am much better at communicating, especially with elderly