Before I began my hospice experience, I rarely thought about dying and the aging process. Even when I applied to the program, I thought about hospice care as a relatively stagnant experience. Everyone I talked to about hospice had a sad reaction, as if being placed in hospice care were one of the worst things that could be happening in someone\u2019s life. During and throughout the program, I learned that hospice is palliative care oriented around treating symptoms and improving comfort, rather than trying to cure a disease. After watching “Being Mortal” in the beginning of the semester, I began to understand that quality of life matters in old age as well as thoughtful care and consideration when dealing with the topic of death.<\/p>\n
I have been lucky enough to have had the same patient, I will call her Rose<\/em>, throughout this entire year. Rose<\/em> has been an absolute joy to spend time with, and she has also given me first-hand experience with elderly care, particularly related to memory loss. Rose<\/em> has dementia so her memories have been scrambled throughout the year, yet she seems to remember me a little every time I visit. Throughout the year, Rose’s<\/em> feelings about being away from her home and family\u00a0fluctuated. When feeling frustrated one day, she said something to the effect of “I mean, what do you know? You’re just a college student.” This was the first time Rose<\/em> indicated that I may be annoying her in some way, but it made me think about my role in her life. I felt bad that I couldn’t do more for her.<\/p>\n Sunita Pura’s writing resonated with me about my relationship with my patient: \u201cBy accepting my patients\u2019 circumstances, rather than fixating on their inherent tragedy, I could focus instead on changing what I could.\u201d I couldn\u2019t change anything about Rose\u2019s<\/em> circumstances, but I could do my best to help improve her mood. While I often wish I could do more for her, I have learned to accept her situation in life, so I just try to comfort her to the best of my ability.<\/p>\n Talking about death can be an awkward conversation. Doctors must be aware of how important it is to clearly explain to a patient and their family when death is imminent. Before this program,\u00a0I didn\u2019t realize that addressing death was such an issue in the medical field today. After this experience, I understand that honesty about the reality of a situation and its outlook is essential. Quality of life in the later years is often more important than extension of life. I am very grateful for this experience and everything it has taught me about dying and the medical field as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I began my hospice experience, I rarely thought about dying and the aging process. Even when I applied to the program, I thought about hospice care as a relatively stagnant experience. Everyone I talked to about hospice had a sad reaction, as if being placed in hospice care were one of the worst things … Continue reading “My Hospice Experience”<\/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":[14],"program_year":[30],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-haverford","program_year-30"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","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=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1187,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions\/1187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}