The Spirit of Volunteer Work

The first part of this blog provided me with an opportunity to introduce you to the Good Neighbours’ Club, an organization making a difference in the downtown Toronto community.  I would like to take an opportunity now, to share the accomplishments of the day.  My hope is that by sharing the experience, more dental hygienists will feel inspired to contribute their expertise in the form of volunteer work as well.

            I was never really involved in volunteer work as a dental hygienist until about a year ago.  I have been practicing for about 5 years now.  I remember that when I was in school, I often said that volunteering is something that I wanted to do.  However, I think that my situation is not different from that of many other dental hygienists, as soon as I graduated and obtained my registration, I wanted to get to work as soon as possible.  My definition of work was limited by a private practice type of environment.  Of course I knew about the other roles that a dental hygienist could fulfill, such as:  advocate, educator and change agent, but those roles were for other dental hygienists- not me.

            It wasn’t until I became more involved and passionate about dental hygiene education and met other dental hygienists who shared the same passion for education, that I really began to realize that the dental hygienist is not bound by the private practice environment and that there is a whole world of opportunity to realize those “other” roles.  A fellow dental hygienist, Joanne, shared the spirit of volunteerism with me and we collaborated on the Good Neighbours’ Club project together.  I was intimidated at first, but quickly realized that this was the best type of dental hygiene work I have ever done. 

On our first visit to the Good Neighbours’ Club my partner was unable to join me due to an emergency at her workplace.  Luckily, we were able to contact a former student and new dental hygienist Amanda to assist on our first day (we also had some great help from my significant other, thank-you Geoff!).  Amanda’s willingness to help was a refreshing reflection on the future of the dental hygiene profession.   She was happy to help; she documented findings accurately and professionally, and compassionately communicated with the members of the club.  

I honestly thought that the first day would not provide much of turnout with the club members.  However, to my surprise we completed thirteen oral cancer screenings.  We soon found out that we could not use the words “oral cancer screening”, due this demographics sensitivity surrounding the subject.  We quickly re-thought our approach and changed it to “oral health screenings”.  Geoff, who originally thought that he was there to only help us carry boxes, quickly took on the role of administrator!  He was busy organizing club members and taking names. 

An interesting reflection of the implications of dental hygiene being a feminized profession also manifested that day.  Several of the club members assumed that Geoff was a dentist because he was a “man” that was with us.  Although, he was quick to correct their assumption, this provided me with some food for thought on the fact that, although dental hygiene has come a long way in terms of educating the public, we can always do more.  In fact, projects like this one are what educates people- dental hygienists are a lot more than tooth cleaners!

I was rather surprised at the lack of donations and response to our numerous calls for dental supplies on our blog, facebook and twitter social networking sites.  It is our hope that as we continue to promote this project in the community, more people and organizations will be willing to donate supplies.  Having said that, generous supply donations were provided by Dr. Emma Hernandez of Etobicoke, ON and Dr. Susan Johnston of Toronto, ON and for that we are very thankful. 

Since that first visit we have recently gone back to the club.  Our project continues to improve and we are continuously determining what is working and what we could potentially do differently next time around.  One thing that is surely working is the relationships that we are building with club members.  The fact that an otherwise marginalized individual takes the time to have his mouth checked demonstrates a value on oral health- no matter how small, is still worth something. 

I encourage all dental hygienists to try volunteer work at least once because I know that there will always be a second time.  Volunteer work helps the profession of dental hygiene, helps the community, but most of all strengthens the spirit of both.

I would love to hear about your volunteer experiences!