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 the opportunity to volunteer in hospice care and gain a deeper education in the medical field through social interactions with hospice patients, I jumped towards the opportunity. While I had a base knowledge of hospice care and its function, I never realized the importance of hospice care and the difference it can make for geriatric patients. However, over the past 7 months, I have learned and experienced firsthand the benefits hospice care brings to its patients and have been instilled with a sense of humanity and an understanding of end-of-life care that no other volunteer program could have achieved.
Throughout my volunteering with the Pre-Med Hospice Volunteer Program, I had one assigned patient named “Jerry”. My assignment was to write letters to Jerry to provide social interactions with new people, something hard to come by during hospice care. While I never received a response from Jerry, just being able to write letters and impact his life was enough to encourage me. My meaningful experience with Jerry was truly enlightening and I hope that my letter writing has helped comfort and improve his quality of life.
While I definitely have firsthand experience of end-of-life care through letter-writing, most of my learning came from the program’s prompts and teachings that were sent through emails. These prompts taught me the importance of hospice care, how to interact with hospice care patients, and the acceptance and understanding of death. Throughout these prompts, the one that resonated within me the most was the acceptance of death as a natural part of life. Fortunately, I had never experienced death within my family. However, through this program, I feel that I have gained a deeper understanding of death so that when it does occur, I will be as prepared as one can be. I have experienced personal growth on a deeper level than any other volunteer program could have achieved and have spent hours self-reflecting whenever given a prompt. I have come to the acceptance of mortality and through this acceptance have learned the importance of hospice care. Improving one’s quality of life during the passage toward death is a gift that I am blessed to give and cannot imagine going into the medical field without this experience. Therefore, I believe this program is extremely valuable for pre-med students as it instills an understanding of death that no amount of shadowing could prepare for.
Overall, my hospice work has changed who I am and has widened my perspective of the medical field. Through this program, I have discovered a deeper drive toward pursuing pre-med as a career and feel that I am now better prepared for future difficulties I am sure to encounter. I truly enjoyed this virtual volunteer program and hope to further my volunteering experience once in-person programs are offered again. Thank you for this grounding experience of hospice care.