The first solo visit I had with Hannah*, I couldn\u2019t get a word in. Literally. It was a Saturday morning and, after some confused wandering through the facility\u2019s winding halls, I arrived at the open door of my patient. She was napping, or at least I thought she had been when I arrived. As is usually the case when I visit a patient for the first time, I needed some time to gather up the courage to come in, disrupt the reverie, and make a good impression. After a few minutes, I strode through her door and gave a cheerful \u201chello! My name is\u2026\u201d.
\nHannah didn\u2019t even look at me. Embarrassed, I gave it another go while inching closer to her reclining chair, again receiving no response. Finally, standing beside her, I gave it another go, and gave her a bit of a fright. I tried to introduce myself a few times, but only got confused and annoyed stares. It became clear that Hannah couldn\u2019t hear me very well. I spoke to her attending nurse, and was reassured that I just needed to speak up and she would hear fine. I tried a few more times, but still could barely get anything across to her. Finally, seeing that my presence was starting to stress the patient, I gave an animated wave good bye and backed out the door. By all measures, a pretty bad first visit.<\/p>\n
Something about the quality of my voice (pitch? Timbre?) was making it really hard for my patient to hear me properly. After the difficulty of the first visit, I felt a little unenthusiastic about returning. It was obvious that I had been more of an annoyance than a help to Hannah. Nevertheless, I knew that a second attempt was necessary before I gave up on my assignment. So, the week after, I trudged back to Hannah\u2019s room and gave it another go. This time, I made a conscious, embarrassing effort to speak differently \u2013 loudly, slowly, and at a higher pitch. It was awkward to think about the nurse\u2019s deck just a few feet away hearing my words, but the payoff was immediate. \u00a0Hannah heard me much better, and I got a second chance to introduce myself and get to know her.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the semester, I had the opportunity to visit Hannah, meet her daughter, and hear about her life. Every time, I took an extra minute to prepare a loud, clear speaking voice. It was awkward, and not the kind of training I was expecting to be doing as a hospice volunteer, but it helped cement the importance of rounded commitment to the job as a caregiver. \u00a0I have a duty to work to my patients benefit, and sometimes that can push me out of a comfort zone. Had I chosen to get reassigned to someone who could hear me better, I would have been telling myself that personal comfort and ease comes first. To have a meaningful impact in this line of work, that cannot always be the case. Working through medical school, residency, and even college courses, it is easy to develop a \u2018me first\u2019 mindset. Stress and deadlines can degrade priorities outside of your own lofty goals. This year, I learned that it takes some effort to turn around and take stock of how my journey as a future doctor is not one that I embark alone, and is not one that ends with helping others. Through my actions, I can create a path that enables me to meaningfully support those around me, sick and healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first solo visit I had with Hannah*, I couldn\u2019t get a word in. Literally. It was a Saturday morning and, after some confused wandering through the facility\u2019s winding halls, I arrived at the open door of my patient. She was napping, or at least I thought she had been when I arrived. As is … Continue reading “Putting my voice into it: lessons from 2022”<\/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":[15],"program_year":[43],"class_list":["post-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-swarthmore","program_year-43"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","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=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}