WDS Service Spotlight

WDS SERVICE SPOTLIGHT

What is our impact? Feedback from our service event attendees!

 

Over the past year the Woman’s Dermatologic Society organized fifty-five service events. These included forty-two Transforming Interconnecting Program Project (TIPP), nine Coast-2-Coast, and four Play Safe in the Sun events. These events took place across the nation including the following locations:

WDS’s Play Safe in the Sun and Coast-2-Coast events focus on sun safety and skin cancer prevention whereas TIPP events cover a variety of educational topics including skincare basics, nutrition, hygiene, self-care, social & interview skills, pregnancy & newborn skincare, study skills, how to be drugstore savvy, self-treating, teenage acne, and hair & scalp basics.

The Transforming Interconnecting Project Program (TIPP): Total Women's Health Via the Dermatology Gateway events take place at woman’s shelters with a primary aim to “lift up women in need.” The mission statement explains, “By treating the total woman, we will address all her needs. We will teach them skin care, oral hygiene, self-care habits, nutrition, social skills and more so that they may go out into the world and be the best versions of themselves, inside and out.”

Although service activities at baseline are viewed as meaningful, often the most challenging part of implementing service work is understanding how service initiatives align with and support community needs. It is essential to tailor the focus and goals of service events to the unique needs of the target population. To accomplish this, we compare the intended impact of service initiatives to the actual and perceived impact. Obtaining feedback from those receiving the service initiative is an important part of this process.

Therefore, the WDS Community Service & Public Education Committee recently implemented a new initiative which involves obtaining participant feedback in an attempt to assess how our events are being received. Feedback cards were handed out after completion of TIPP event presentations, and attendees were instructed to provide honest feedback which was collected anonymously. Below we share feedback that was received from two pilot TIPPS that took place over the past few months. Comment cards were not filtered or eliminated after collection.

“The students were more than information and helpful. Thank you for bringing sunshine to my day.”

“I liked the presentation. It was easy to understand. I appreciate the time and information.”

“I thought the seminar was very informational and also educational.”

“It was very helpful even though I am deaf I could read the board and understand clearly.”

“The presenter was so organized. She communicated promptly and presented wonderfully. Loved working with her!”

“It was helpful. Short and sweet so we weren't bored. Gave us enough information and showed where to get said things! 10/10”

“Thank you for your information and products! J”

“I liked all of it and you guys did a great job. Thank you!”

“PowerPoints with larger text and more descriptions. More quiz questions!”

“Thank you”

“The ideas, suggestions and guidelines presented I thought were well-thought and covered every area that influences our overall health and eventually our skin. It is after all our biggest organ of elimination and protection. They will be used to improve several areas of my health. Thank you so much and for the gifts.”

“Very informative and learned a lot.”

“Excellent. Thank you!”

“It was a great reminder on skin and scalp care!”

“Better if a microphone was used. The presentation was great!”

Overall, the feedback gathered from event attendees was very positive. The information presented was well received and content appears to be easy to understand, informative, and educational. Presentations appeared to be of an appropriate duration of time and covered topics of interest. Areas for improvement that were mentioned included incorporation of quiz type questions and increasing the audiovisual quality of the presentations. 

The WDS Community Service & Public Education Committee plans to continue with our new feedback initiative over the years to come. Appropriate recommendations and suggestions will be implemented into our TIPPS event curriculum with a long-term goal of incorporating feedback into other types of service and organization wide events in the future.

For more information on the service opportunities provided through the Woman’s Dermatologic Society, please visit the following page: https://www.womensderm.org/community/service-and-outreach-programs