As this program comes to a close, I would like to take the time to reflect on my experiences as a hospice volunteer. The patient that I would like to talk about is named “JR” for the sake of her privacy and to ensure confidentiality. My patient and I got very close over the course of this semester, and I believe that we both would have considered each other friends. She would always make me laugh and I would do my best to make her laugh as well. I would absolutely love when I would walk in her room, and she would smile when she saw me. We had some amazing conversations about her childhood and her family. It was pretty apparent too that as we got closer, she became much more comfortable sharing stories and often times she would start sharing a story that I did not prompt her to tell me about.
I think the part of the training for me that was most helpful when trying my best to become an effective Hospice volunteer were the prompts that led to meaningful conversations. When I first met “JR”, I was nervous because I was scared that I would not know what to ask, but after learning from the prompts, observing her room and her photos, and then getting to know her pretty quickly, that concern became a pretty distant thought. I learned so much from “JR”. She talked to me about the importance of family and friends and how important it is to try to live life to the fullest. Life is short and if we do not grasp every moment, there is a chance that it will pass us by. She told me about how religion was super important for her throughout her entire life too and how that shaped her into the person that she was.
Being a hospice volunteer has strengthened my desire to go to medical school. The interactions that I had with my patient “JR” and the people that I met along the way made the experience incredibly special for me. I had enlightening conversations and provided a listening ear to someone who became really important to me, which was a very rewarding experience. I learned a lot from my Chaplain and my volunteer director as well. The conversations that were facilitated by the Chaplain and the other students in the program were helpful when it came to learning how to navigate being a volunteer and understanding the dying process. My volunteer director helped introduce me to “JR” and was always there to answer my questions if anything came up.
I believe for me the experience was transformational because of the relationship that I was able to develop with my patient. She became someone I looked forward to seeing and talking to and I think that is really special. When she entered the active dying process she began to have a lot of panic attacks, and while I was not there when most of these happened, her family had informed me that she was calling for me. I think this goes to show the close-knit bond that we were able to form after countless visits and chats. If I were to describe the benefit of Hospice volunteering on a medical school application, I would talk about the bond that I formed with “JR” and how special that it was. I think that patient relationships are really important and being able to provide a listening ear to someone and talk about things that they want to talk about could make their day. I think that it really showed the importance of patient care and prioritizing the patient over everything. The importance of empathy and compassion also shined through with these experiences as well. You never know the impact that you can make on someone’s life, but I know “JR” made a lasting one on mine.