{"id":1020,"date":"2018-07-05T01:16:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T05:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2018-08-21T14:08:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T18:08:33","slug":"the-power-of-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/the-power-of-simplicity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a great experience to be a part of the Pre-Med Hospice Volunteer Program and every visit was very meaningful. However, the one that stood out the most was the interaction I had with James<\/em>. I had arrived for an evening shift and I remember being asked to interact with James<\/em>. The expression on his face was of boredom. James<\/em> had been sitting in a wheelchair and as I began to walk away with him, I had been warned that he liked to pull on hair and had previously hit another volunteer earlier that day. I was a bit nervous because I certainly did not want to get hit nor get my hair pulled. I also was not sure how exactly to entertain him. I walked with him around the facility trying to find things that he would be interested in, but nothing I offered was intriguing. I finally ended up in the music room, where I offered him instruments to play with. But, again, he did not care to much for them.<\/p>\n

Before leaving the music room, I became interested in trying to play the piano. I had previously played when I was younger and wanted to know if I had remembered anything. As I began to play, James’<\/em> expression changed, and he began to smile. I ended up spending the remaining hours of my shift playing piano for him and the entire time he listened with the biggest grin on his face. I really enjoyed and appreciate the time I got to spend with him.<\/p>\n

Having this experience has shaped my understanding of death and dying in a way that I feel more at ease with it. Going into the program I felt that I was in a good place with the understanding of death, but yet I still felt fearful of it. Now looking back, I realized that I was fearful of it because I did not know how to approach it. This experience has taught me that in situations of death the most important thing is the comfort of the patient and family. I learned that comfort is different for everyone and even the simplicity of being there for someone, even in silence, can be very powerful.<\/p>\n

During the course of my hospice experience, I feel that I have become more humble and appreciative for what I have. The work I did at hospice has ensured me of my career path. At times I would feel helpless and begin to feel frustrated with myself because all I wanted to do was help the patient, but I did not know how other than calling for help. The times I was able to help, the enjoyment I felt was better than anything I can ask for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a great experience to be a part of the Pre-Med Hospice Volunteer Program and every visit was very meaningful. However, the one that stood out the most was the interaction I had with James. I had arrived for an evening shift and I remember being asked to interact with James. The expression on … Continue reading “The Power of Simplicity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"school":[26],"program_year":[27],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-arizona","program_year-27"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1034,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}