This past year truly has been unprecedented as the entire globe and all of its institutions navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic. However, hospice care as well as the elderly might have been the hardest impacted experiences that provide an overall negative outcome. COVID-19 has a particularly high fatality rate for elderly individuals and those who have vulnerable illnesses. This increases the risk caused by interactions with the outside world to become that much more unattainable. When these issues arose our society had to seek new avenues in order to maintain the quality of life that those in hospice still deserve. Due to this inability to see any patients in-person, I had the opportunity to make phone calls with patients in order to become acquainted with the experience of hospice patients. During one of these phone calls, I had the opportunity to speak to a patient who was unable to see many of their close family members due to COVID-19 regulations. Our phone calls would consist of speaking of their day, how they were feeling, and anything they wanted to discuss. However, through this phone call, I could feel a sense of uneasiness as I quickly realized the importance of human interaction, which was lacking, that my patient longed for. In a state of health that requires a high level of care, providing that increase of human interaction helps to increase the quality of life for patients that are in hospice. Our inability to engage in these experiences, unfortunately makes these particular situations that much more difficult than this work already is to successfully care for our patients.
The value of this program for a medical school application is incalculable as I firmly believe that I will reflect back on these experiences through the rest of my life as I attempt to pursue a career in medicine. The ability to engage and reflect on these prompts has allowed me to work and understand complex situations to make a more calculated decision on what is best for both a patient and their family. I firmly believe that my ability to comprehend these situations has increased immensely as I try to improve the care that I hope to provide to those that are the most vulnerable.
On a more personal note, as someone who has not experienced loss within my own family, this program has allowed me to become more prepared for those experiences when these moments will arise. Many of these difficult questions and answers regarding end of life care are absolutely inevitable, however by being prepared for these situations, we can accept death as a natural phenomenon that must occur. My ability to handle these situations has increased significantly and I am able to better prepare for the everlasting change that will occur in life.