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”
Learning How to Talk About Grief
When I first met “Janice” and her mother, I instantly connected in a meaningful and emotional way. I was not able to speak with the mother, who was ill, but I did talk to “Janice” quite a lot. She had a lot of things to take care of around the house and was getting stressed … Continue reading “Learning How to Talk About Grief”
To Listen and Not to Hear
The relationships that I have built with my two hospice caretakers, “Fred” and “Susie”, are unique connections that I cannot compare to anything I have experienced before, especially due to the strictly remote element of our interactions. Though our phone calls are devoid of any face-to-face contact, I feel that my conversations with Fred and … Continue reading “To Listen and Not to Hear”
Why We Do This
Though I was unable to visit hospice patients this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, I feel that I have grown exponentially as a person and a future health care professional. I thought that I understood death when I applied to the Athena Institute Pre-Med Hospice Volunteer Program, but suddenly the world is … Continue reading “Why We Do This”
Death is a Family Matter
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been talking with patient’s family members and caregivers rather than directly to the patient themselves. Through the Athena program, I have learned much about the role of hospice, the process of death and have been able to reflect on how I personally view death. Before entering this program, … Continue reading “Death is a Family Matter”
Impact of compassion in treating the patient over the disease
Before becoming a Hospice volunteer, I had just recently begun thinking more critically about my ingrained assumptions surrounding end of life care and death. An anthropology course I took in the spring of 2020, titled “Culture, Health and Illness”, made my beliefs more visible as it discussed many of the ways that biomedicine focuses on … Continue reading “Impact of compassion in treating the patient over the disease”
Acceptance of impermanence
Unfortunately, because of Corona I was unable to form a relationship with a patient, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t greatly impacted by this program. Throughout the course of this past year, and the reflection prompts that we have completed, I have greatly increased my knowledge about the dying process and have definitely become more … Continue reading “Acceptance of impermanence”