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“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Are your teens looking for something meaningful and enjoyable to do over the long weeks of summer break? I have the perfect solution in this popular post from last year.
Here are 7 great reasons why your teenager should consider volunteering at a nursing home:
- This is an excellent opportunity to explore health-related careers. As an example, I started out volunteering in a nursing home at age 14. This ultimately helped confirm my decision to become an RN.
- In this day and age of social media, teens don’t get a lot of opportunities to refine their interpersonal skills. At the nursing home, smartphones are put away. As a result, teens learn to communicate with the residents face to face.
- Experience as a nursing home volunteer looks good on a resume. I know this because it stood out when I interviewed nurses and nursing assistants during my years of working as a nurse manager. It’s also a plus for scholarship applications.
- Teens and residents learn from one another. I’ve seen teen volunteers help residents understand how to use computers. I also watched a resident teaching a teen how to knit.
- It helps teens put their problems into perspective. Even seemingly small problems often feel overwhelming to a teenager. Seeing and hearing stories of how nursing home residents deal with challenges positively gives teens a new perspective on life.
- Aging and disability seem less scary. I remember visiting a nursing home for the first time as a child. The sights, sounds, and smells were unnerving. But once I got to know the residents as unique and precious individuals the fear went away.
- Volunteering boosts self-esteem. Your teen leaves the nursing home each day knowing that someone’s life is just a little bit better because they were there.
Need ideas for activities to do while you’re at the nursing home? Check out this extensive list!
Erin @ burdenfreecaregiving.com says
I completely agree! And, if you go with your children to the nursing home when they are younger, they can get their bearings. It is not very scary for teens to volunteer at a facility that they have been to many times, while they were children. My grandmother always took me to the nursing home to volunteer and our church took us children to volunteer. When I was older, my friends were terrified of nursing homes, but I was not.
Thank you for all your support of my blog. 😀😀 I wanted to point others to your blog, so I left your website information on my blog.
Diane says
Hi Erin,
That’s very sweet of you. Thank you! Again, I wish you well in the future, and I hope we can keep in touch from time to time.