2. Jordan and I found the Nursing Home without many problems by our third trip there. We were able to make it past the green button without the alarm going off. Once we were inside, we waited on a couch for the volunteer coordinator to come meet with us. She then brought us up to the third floor. We walked in to the independent cards game room and saw that two resident were already engaged in a game of Skipbo. Jordan and I sat next to the two ladies and made some small talk about the game that they were playing. I realized that this situation could be related to the Social Penetration Model. This model relates to self-disclosure. The first dimension in the model involves the breadth of information, or the range of subjects being discussed. The second dimension of the model is depth, and relates to the depth of the information being discussed. The residents, Jordan, and I did much better with the first dimension of the model than we did with the second. We are able to talk about a variety of topics such as school, home, friends, and activities that we participate in. Discussing any of these topics in depth is the difficult part. Because we do know know the residents on a personal level, and they do not know us on a personal level, it is difficult to share personal information with one another.
Once they had finished their game, Jordan and I joined in on the next game. Once this game had started, another resident entered the room. She brought the newspaper with her and casually mentioned how one of the residents at the nursing home had passed away. This is an example of a euphemism because the lady made the statement sound less harsh. She said that the man had "passed away" instead of saying that he died. One of the residents that was playing cards with us was very surprised by the news. The other lady already seemed to have known about the death. The lady that was surprised wondered why the other lady had not shared the news beforehand. She was upset by the poor communication skills of her friend. Once everyone had moved on from the sad news, we got back to the card game. However, we did not play long before it was time to head downstairs to play card bingo.
Card bingo is a game where the first person to have their 5 cards called out of the deck wins. I sat next to a resident named GiGi to help her with her cards since she is not able to talk or move very well. Since GiGi could not speak very well, she would point to one of her cards if she heard it called out. She used non-verbals since she was not able to use verbals effectively. This game made me think about how language is symbolic. So that the residents would not confuse "eight" and "ace," the woman calling out the cards would say "big a" for "ace." I had never heard this term before, but all of the residents knew what it meant because they had acquired a use for calling the card "big a" instead of "ace." This is a good example of how people assign meaning to words.
3. Through this visit to the Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, I learned even more ways that communication concepts can be tied into everyday life. It made me think about how concepts that I learn in my classes can be applied to the "real world." It is always important to try and connect things that you learn in class to the real world because it helps you to understand the importance of learning them. I hope to be able to apply concepts from this class to life events outside of my service learning as well. I will need to try to think about how communication concepts can be applied to all of my interpersonal communication, not just with the residents from service learning.
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