Hospice Volunteering: A Year of Growth and Development

I am incredibly grateful to have participated in this program. My experiences with the patients that I visited have fostered my development of two crucial traits: empathy and compassion. I quickly learned that as a volunteer, my job was to assess what the patient needs at that moment of that particular day. Empathy was essential … Continue reading “Hospice Volunteering: A Year of Growth and Development”


Learning to Heal

Over the past year, I have had the pleasure of interacting with a couple of patients and their families in the Hospice program. Of all the meaningful conversations I had, I will never forget one family member. For privacy reasons, I will refer to him as “Ben” in this paper. “Ben’s” wife had ovarian cancer … Continue reading “Learning to Heal”


Hospice to Occupational Therapy- Putting People at the Center

I have developed the most meaningful relationship with the third person I was paired with in the Hospice volunteer program. When we first met over the phone in the fall, her mom was on hospice, but even since her mom passed away around Christmas time, we have continued to talk every week. With each call … Continue reading “Hospice to Occupational Therapy- Putting People at the Center”


Life Lessons at the End-of-Life

Undoubtedly, there is a general fear and discomfort surrounding death. People are quick to ask why I would ever want to volunteer to visit hospice patients instead of choosing something more uplifting. The answer is simple: The patients I’ve met are more than diagnoses and life expectancy calculations. My experience with hospice has taught me that … Continue reading “Life Lessons at the End-of-Life”


To be interpersonal requires acknowledgement of body, mind, and spirit.

Dealing with the mundane stress of the COVID-19 pandemic has been quite exhausting: academically, emotionally, spiritually. In these times of prolonged isolation, I am constantly reminded of the importance of human connection, something we have all been greatly deprived of over the past year. While I did not get the chance to build patient relationships … Continue reading “To be interpersonal requires acknowledgement of body, mind, and spirit.”


Death and Dying: What did I learn?

After completing the 2021 Pre-Med hospice program, I would like to emphasize how important this program is not only to our medical school applications, but to our personal perspectives and experience with death. This program provides the unique opportunity for students to develop a stronger understanding and more peaceful relationship with palliative care and death. … Continue reading “Death and Dying: What did I learn?”


The Journey and the Destination

I began looking into volunteering for hospice back at the end of my freshman year of college (almost two years ago which is crazy to think about). I decided I would wait to apply after doing some research on the emotional and mental maturity required to adequately care for those who would be ill and … Continue reading “The Journey and the Destination”


The Physician’s Role as an Advocate

During my first visit to the facility where I was assigned, the plan was to start at a random patient and cycle through the rest at equal time intervals. This plan went out the window as I ended up staying with my first patient that visit and all of the visits afterwards. When I entered … Continue reading “The Physician’s Role as an Advocate”


The Power of Storytelling

Throughout the hospice program I have learned more about death, myself, and the patients that I visited. One patient that has impacted my life is Lauren. She was always so happy when we would visit her. While some patients were moody or did not feel like talking that day, Lauren always caught sight of us … Continue reading “The Power of Storytelling”


Life and Death: Necessary Opposites

We don’t often acknowledge this idea, but opposites give one another meaning. They serve as reference points for one another, and we can only perceive one in the context of a life where the other exists. For example, the happy moments we experience can only be valuable to us once we know of sadness (and … Continue reading “Life and Death: Necessary Opposites”