Service Learning Project:

Reflection

Jordan Fordham

PUBH 3136

Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health

Georgia Southern University

Fall 2015

It was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Public

Health degree

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Abstract:

Dr. Eremmeva’s fall 2015 PUBH 3136 class participated in a service learning project.

With the assistance of Guy Hobbs, the students visited the City of Statesboro’s Housing

Authority to educate economically disadvantaged communities about the biology, transmission,

epidemiology, and prevention and control associated with bed bugs. Through this experience,

with working with diverse groups and doing this learning project, I have gained more information

about my career as a public health professional.

Key Words: Bed Bugs, service learning, low income community, personal experience, public

health

Introduction:

Learning while performing service, enables students to apply their critical thinking,

academic knowledge, and skills to meet the genuine needs of the community is what service

learning is all about (Office of Leadership and Community Engagement, 2015). With students

playing an important role as health professionals and citizens, they are able to transfer their role

from students to health professionals in a larger societal context. Many college students may

think that service learning is only for younger students, used as punishment assignments, or a

required activity to complete a class assignment. Service learning is actually for students being

able to apply what they are learning in their class, skills, and research transferring it into action

helping the community. There are also relationships that can be developed between the

community leader and student, as well as creating long-term partnerships between communities

and health professional schools. These opportunities will assist future Public Health

professionals’ progress into the workforce. Public Health professionals are here to protect and

educate the world through promoting healthy lifestyles, continuing research for diseases,

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sharing best practices regarding injury prevention and early detection, and controlling infectious

diseases. The professional is aware of how to share these critical issues in a smaller community

with even a small number of people (CDC, 2015).

The presence of bed bugs is a public health problem that is going on worldwide. Bed

bugs are small, oval insects that live on the blood of animals or humans (WebMD, 2005-2015).

They come out only when dark. Although they are a nuisance and have over 40 pathogens

detected in them, they are not known to transmit diseases (WebMD, 2005-2015). Bed bugs

have been detected in all 50 states in the United States (Doggett, 2012). Transported through

hotels, luggage, storage areas, movie theaters, cracks on the floor, and where people rest

(bedding) are where they are most often located. They bite repeatedly, as they suck human

blood. This eating allows them to survive and grow. The efforts of controlling the infestation of

bed bugs happens when public health professionals provide bed bug education to the

community sharing efforts like cleaning and protecting personal luggage, screening cloth items

before bringing them into the house, and cleaning the hiding places of bed bugs in cracks and

crevices (WebMD, 2005-2015). When there are bed bugs inside an area, early detection is

critical to prevent infestations from spreading (Vaidyanathan, 2013).

Experiences:

My experience with the service learning actually matched my expectations. As a future

public health professional, I discovered last year that attendance to informational health events

are relatively low. The professional must plan for an attendance to receive eight people or to

receive 108 depending on the way the event was announced to the public. When I arrived to the

planned event location, locating a parking spot nearby was difficult. Everything was so tightly

built together. The community apartments targeted for the presentation for were designated for

low income families offered by cities’ public housing authority.

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The attending participants were a diverse group from white to black, male to female, and

from old to young. The participants there were enlightened and enthused with the presentations

about bed bugs which was positive. The participants had insightful questions that helped them,

others that were listening, and the presenters as we became more informed about the public’s

thinking and awareness on the topic of bed bugs. The residents asked questions like “Where

did bed bugs come from?” and “What to do about bed bugs being in their community homes?”

The participants also shared some of their own personal stories and information that they knew

on bed bugs. One male participant, shared information on what he knew about bed bugs being

in movie theaters. Even though the population targeted for our presentation was towards low

income families, we made sure to inform them multiply times that beg bugs are a problem

everywhere not just in a low income areas.

Affect community served:

By the Public Health 3136 undergraduate class programmers doing a presentation,

informing the community is a big part of serving the community. We are letting the community

know what exactly is going on from the extended research that the programmers do.

Programmers educate the community of what signs to look for with potential bed bugs infesting

their home. Even though there was a low attendance, it only takes one person to become

educated and they will continue to share information to others. The one that attended the

community meeting will share with others in their family and the possible health risks.

The presentation could be of little benefit due to the fact that we didn’t provide them a

contact number for next steps or how to get someone to spray their living areas for little of no

cost. Cost may be a challenge for this community or an individual itself to pay an exterminator to

spray the home for bed bugs. If one person has the funds to pay for treatment, it wouldn’t be

effective because bed bugs can resurface from the home next door or the bugs simply pushed

over to the next closet home in the community. Even if the family receives a one-time treatment

for bed bugs, that one session is not always enough. To keep the problem from resurging,

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multiple pest treatments of at least three to four timely visits are needed there and in all

surrounding homes making sure that the bed bugs are eliminated from the community.

Challenges:

This service learning project impacted me before my research. I did not really know what

bed bugs were and if they were only confined to only bedding furniture. I was ready to make

sure that I didn’t have bed bugs as well. The learning was beneficial because now I can

knowledgeably discuss the public plague of bed bugs to others who are clueless, relaying the

message to more and more people in the community. There were not significant challenges

participating in the project. The only challenge was making sure that there was a sufficient

attendance so that at least one person was there to hear our informative presentation. We were

unaware of possible incentives like business donations, free coupons, or partnering with a

business to encourage more people to attend. Many times in order to get a good number of

participants, incentives are encouraged to get the targeted population to come out to hear your

information. We presented the program once; providing a second opportunity to present would

allow us to determine if the attendance and participant outcomes would have a significant

change or not in the community which is unknown. We should have returned to represent the

project for others who wanted to come out or who didn’t know to come to hear this needed

presentation that was presented the first time.

Improvement:

There are some minor suggestions for improvement with this service learning project. A

designated person should verify that all technical equipment is working properly before one

starts speaking in front of their audience. The television was nice and large, but the speakers

connected to the computer had very low sound to the video. Those attending could barely hear

what the video was saying. Next time, doing a run through and testing the speakers will

eliminate possible sound issues. I actually had some speakers in my trunk that we could have

used that night but without a practice of the presentation, I did not know that there was a need

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to change speakers. The venue was adequate for the number of people present but the area

was small. If more people had attended, space would have been a challenge. I felt that a larger

room at the facility was needed or a different location, but we made due. There should have

been more time work on the project. We did a great job with the time given, but not enough to

gather additional information and put it all together.

Group/Individual work:

My group was Group B with members Jasmine Scott, Johnleekia Little, and Sa’sha

Moody. We were in charge of the research of Epidemiology, prevention, and control. I think that

my group collaborated well with each other. We all did equal amount of work making sure what

we did was manageable and reliable information for the community.

When presenting, everyone sharing in speaking but Sa’sha Moody was more

experienced and stronger with public speaking. She spoke first to capture the audience’s

attention. Jasmine Scott was strong with guiding us on what information was needed for the

presentation slides and the order of how to present it. After we were finished with putting the

information on the slides, she spent quality time proofing and editing the PowerPoint. Johnleekia

and myself designed the information on the PowerPoint slides and shared our slides to the

people there. My research discussion was on the subtopics, “How this was a problem

worldwide” and “what states the infestation existed.” Johnleekia’s part was the prevention. We

equally contributed to this project with our personal areas of expertise. We dressed in business

casual for the presentation day along with a practice run through with Dr. Eremeeva earlier that

day making sure we were ready for to present.

Conclusion:

I am not aware of family of friends who have bed bugs. My mother has not had any

experiences on bed bugs in her home. Having this conversation with her was great so that

comfortably she can share with others about this public issue. Since no one close to me was

aware about this problem, it was good to learn and do research on this topic.

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This experience helped me to evolve as a future public health professional and I am

thankful for the experience. When you do not get a large turnout, many times you get nervous. I

thought that they were not going to be engaged in the presentation but I was wrong. They were

all engaged in the presentation and the information that was being provided to them about bed

bugs. Sometimes you even think the hard research and preparation will be wasted but the

opposite happened. Someone will always hears your message. I have learned to always be

prepared for any question. You may not know the answer but know how to locate the resources

to find the answer. When presenting making sure that your guests are engaged and understand

the message you are relaying to them with clarity and it will result to a positive outcome. This

service learning project was a great experience to have done as an undergraduate student.

Engagement in this service learning project has helped me, the student, and the teacher

to meet a community need and give a better understanding of the course content (Seifer SD,

1998). The programmer's, attendants, and professor all taught each other about bed bugs.

Service learning continues to maintain a balance between learning and service.

References:

What is Service-Learning? (2015, July 22). Retrieved November 24, 2015, from

http://students.georgiasouthern.edu/LeadServe/service-learning/

Seifer SD. (1998). Service-learning: Community-campus partnerships for health

professions education. Academic Medicine, 73(3):273-277

CDC. (2015). What is Public Health? Retrieved November 24, 2015, from

http://www.cdcfoundation.org/content/what-public-health

WebMD. (n.d.). Bedbugs: Infestations, Bedbug Bites, and Getting Rid of Bedbugs.

Retrieved November 24, 2015, from

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/guide/bedbugs-infestation

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Doggett, S. L., Dwyer, D. E., Peñas, P. F., & Russell, R. C. (2012). Bed Bugs: Clinical

Relevance and Control Options. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 25(1), 164–192.

http://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.05015-11

Vaidyanathan, R., & Feldlaufer, M. F. (2013). Bed Bug Detection: Current Technologies

and Future Directions. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 88(4), 619–

625. http://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.12-0493

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