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 of the grief the family must be feeling, and the confusion, anger, or peace the patient must feel. As of now, I haven’t experienced a close death, but my grandmother suffers from Dementia and I’ve seen how difficult it is to lose someone that’s still physically here. Watching her mental decline and reverting back to an almost child-like mind has been sad to watch, but going through Hospice has changed my perspective on the issue. Instead of comparing my grandmother to what she once was, I should embrace every moment I have with her as who she is now. In training, when we went over how to deal with patients with Dementia, it gave me closure knowing I wasn’t alone in what I was going through. Already, my perspective has changed on how I view and handle approaching death, and I can only imagine how much further I’ll grow when I get more experience.
Being a part of this program is invaluable to my future medical school application because it offers me a different perspective and experience that other applicants wouldn’t have. I’m able to experience the part of medical care where medicine can’t solve the problem, and patients have resigned to that thought. They’ve accepted the thought of dying, and I believe in that acceptance there’s a clarity that’s rarely seen in other parts of the medical field. Being able to describe that experience and having the responsibility of passing along memories and stories the family would love to hear is an enriching responsibility. By participating in this program, I’m gaining more face-to-face interaction with the patients and able to form a relationship with them, or at least more so than other volunteer medical positions. I‘m also able to see how patient care is done when the object isn’t treatment, but making the patients as comfortable as possible. Talking about this program offers a unique experience that will set me apart from other applicants.