Upon revisiting my previous blogs a number of themes became evident throughout my writing. In each of my diverse blog posts I touched on the theme of social inclusion as a way to reduce social inequities in the community. Recognizing the unique needs of different social and cultural groups would make people feel more empowered to take control of their own health while reducing the heavy burden on the health care system. By reaching people in the context of their everyday lives, we can shift our focus on the social determinants of health to meet the needs of community members and increase their quality of life. After all, healthy individuals= healthy communities. As a future dietitian, I think it is critical for me to learn more about the varying needs of difficult social and cultural groups. Growing up in Thornhill, everyone in the community was of the same cultural background and socioeconomic status. It was not until I came to Ryerson in the midst of downtown Toronto that I was exposed to different community lifestyles and the assets/needs that go along with it.
Looking back on my five blog posts, I can see a clear progression in my ability to incorporate critical thinking and analysis into my writing. For example, my first and second blog posts were highly based on current events in the news as well as personal experience. In these blog posts I wrote about two recent newspaper articles that I had come across that related to class concepts and theories I was learning. In my third blog post I began to reflect on and question what I was reading in the news which added to the argument I was trying to make about priorities in medical care for Canadians. This blogging experience allowed me to dig deeper into what I was writing about where I received positive feedback from the course TA. When writing my fourth blog post, I was able to integrate ideas and concepts from previous courses which I felt helped bring pieces of the puzzle together. This post introduced me to the inner workings of community kitchens which I was unfamiliar with before this course. For my fifth and final blog post I investigated the assets and needs of my community, living in the City of Vaughan. When I sat down to write this post I was actually surprised at how little I knew about the way my community had an impact on my overall health. Living in the same neighbourhood all of my life, I have become very comfortable and used to my surroundings and have never questioned what could be done better to improve the lives of the community members, even though there is room for improvement.
Creating a blog for this course was my very first blogging experience. Having never blogged before, I was a little nervous to get started but quickly realized that there was no “right or wrong” way to write a blog. I found that writing the weekly blogs supported my learning of the course content and helped to put all of the concepts and theories I was learning into context. Blogging allowed me to apply real life situations to what I was learning theoretically which made it more relevant and easier for me to understand. Being used to lecture, labs and note-taking, blogging gave me the opportunity to be creative and actually have some fun in my writing. Since the blogs were very informal, the flow of my writing became very natural and unscripted, which is something that I continue to work on professionally. In addition, I found it fascinating to read my classmate’s blogs as it brought forward different experiences and perspectives into what I was learning which enhanced my knowledge on the topic. At the present time, I do not wish to continue writing my personal blog once the assignment is complete but would like to revisit this possibility once the school year is over.
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