Over the past 6 months, I have experienced an entirely new side of medicine and healthcare. Through the connections I formed with my hospice patient, as well as group discussions and reflections throughout this period, I have gained invaluable experience and insight that has allowed me to develop my professional and personal skills. Moreover, my … Continue reading “Reflecting on Passage”
Category: Athena Hospice Program
this is for posts in the category of Athena Hospice
Changing My Perspective
Before I started my journey as a hospice volunteer, I was already set on the idea of medical school. I wanted to learn how people’s bodies worked, how disease affected them, and how I could save them. In a way, I guess you could say that I had a bit of a savior complex, as … Continue reading “Changing My Perspective”
With Compassion Comes Empathy
Volunteering for hospice during the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted several realizations about American healthcare as a system and myself as an individual. Initially, I wanted to interact with patients due to a shadowing experience in oncology and hematology. The physician leading the cases for that day spent time with the patients, not only going over … Continue reading “With Compassion Comes Empathy”
Journey Through Empathy
Throughout the Athena Hospice Program I have been able to learn the intricacies of care taking, how to cope with death, and how to support someone who has experienced a large loss in their life. Since I started the program I was excited for what was to come and what I would learn from this … Continue reading “Journey Through Empathy”
Light in the Darkest of Places: Finding Renewal Within the Pain of Loss
At twenty years of age, I feel fortunate that I have not yet lost someone in the only way in which they will never again walk this beautiful, vibrant, yet often unjust Earth. Nothing compares to that loss; just the same, we often find ourselves in the throes of the grieving process in other areas … Continue reading “Light in the Darkest of Places: Finding Renewal Within the Pain of Loss”
How I’ve Grown
While I have not had the experience of interacting with any Hospice patients yet, I know that I’ve learned a lot just from replying to the prompts and completing the training. Prior to this year, I never gave much thought to dying and the moments leading up to it, but now, I’m aware. I’m aware … Continue reading “How I’ve Grown”
Reflections of a Hospice Volunteer
I am very thankful to have been part of this program. I have learned a lot about end-of-life care and the role of physicians in this field, and I also feel that I have grown as an individual. Before this program, I always assumed that health professionals need to do everything they can to prolong … Continue reading “Reflections of a Hospice Volunteer”
Lessons that I learned from the program
The journey to medicine is often misleading. Medical schools recruit based on grades, research experience, and MCAT scores. This emphasis on scores and science more often than not makes pre-med students overlook other crucial aspects of medicine such as taking care of dying patients. As a premed student, I want to become a doctor and … Continue reading “Lessons that I learned from the program”
A Year Unlike Any Other
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 … Continue reading “A Year Unlike Any Other”
The Importance of Hospice Care Experience for Pre-Meds
In the past, I have spent countless hours volunteering in the hospital and working as a medical scribe. I would constantly be surrounded by patients, but have never been able to truly connect with any of these individuals; I would only see them once or twice before they would be discharged. Therefore, when I saw … Continue reading “The Importance of Hospice Care Experience for Pre-Meds”