Every patient that I have met so far has been amazingly sweet to me, though one patient was particularly memorable. I hadn’t met actually met her in person, but instead made a phone call because I was sick that week. She appreciated our simple, five minute conversation so much that she asked for my name so that she could remember it for next time and thanked me profusely for checking on her. Just taking five minutes of my time for her made her entire day, and it made me want to make that small difference for a lot more people in the future.
Another patient whom I loved volunteering was Bob. He was a 70 year old man, who seemed to hate talking to me at the beginning and just wanted to sit quietly. However, as I started visiting more often, he slowing started making small talk with me, conversing at first about the weather and his medical condition, and then discussing his interests and even requesting games for us to play. By the end of the semester, he gave me advice on my classes and my career, small hand-made gifts, and so on. We became so close that he would actually get worried and upset if I missed a week.
This hospice experience really opened my eyes to not just the rewarding parts of being a doctor, but also understanding the lows of the career, such as when you have to be the bearer of bad news. Before I was a hospice volunteer, I only thought about respect and awe that patients feel for doctors, but this experience really put things in perspective for me. I honestly want to become a doctor more now.
I have also learned a lot about how to control my emotions. After watching so many different loved ones dealing with the grief in so many different ways, I understood more about the reality of losing a loved one. I think I grew stronger by learning how to deliver bad news in a sympathetic way and just being there for either the patient or their loved ones. Once your fate is sealed, there’s nothing more to do other than just giving support.
Hospice has taught me to appreciate my family members more and showed me how important it is to just be there for friends and family too. There’s not always a way for us to make everything better for the people we love, no matter how badly we want to. So the next best thing is to provide comfort through our company. Hospice was a great experience for me, and I will never forget it.