{"id":1941,"date":"2023-04-16T02:12:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T06:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2023-05-24T15:41:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T19:41:12","slug":"greeting-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/greeting-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Greeting card"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember the monitor beeps as I first walked into the room. It looked stale, the walls were white along with the sheets and the floor. I turned to my patient, her eyes kind, but her voice shaky. Her blue eyes were the only form of communication we had at our first meeting. I could tell she couldn\u2019t speak. I thought maybe she was uncomfortable or maybe she was in pain? Thinking on my feet, I notice vibrant greeting cards by her bed and tentatively pick one up with care. I asked her if she wanted me to read it, and she answered with a smile. I opened it and realized it was a Christmas card, from her dear friend \u2018Jenna<\/em>‘. Along with a card was a picture of my patient before hospice care during holiday times. I show her the picture and she stares at the photo with a pensive expression. That visit I read my patient that greeting card at least a dozen times. Each time she smiled lovingly and stared at the card again, signaling that she wanted me to read it another time. From that visit, I realized how much my patient valued my time even though I just sat there rereading the same greeting card with the same message. Each time she smiled so brightly with tears in her eyes. I never knew my presence could mean so much to anyone.
\nWhen I came back for each visit I learned little by little more about my patient through reading the greeting cards by her bed. I learned about her family and kids, and what she used to like back home, all through these cards signed by her dear friend \u2018Jenna<\/em>\u2019 on each one. Each card was written in a different season and a promise to visit. I could tell how much \u2018Jenna<\/em>\u2019 meant to my patient by the look on her face when I reread the card each time. We would talk about the color and images on the card. There were images of animals and flowers, but the ones I remember most were holiday greeting cards. These cards reflected the decoration in my patient\u2019s room which was covered in Santa and little reindeers. My patient\u2019s blanket was even a Christmas Santa with a Reindeer on it. We would talk and laugh about the little stuffed toys scattered around the room. Using these greeting cards I was able to connect on a personal level to the patient I was seeing.
\nI will never forget what my patient said to me while I was visiting a few weeks ago. She told me to \u201cStay Safe\u201d and to \u201cBe Good\u201d as I was leaving the visit. It was something that shocked me as I only spoke to my patient using these greeting cards, but to know my patient shared a deep connection with me as well. It was nice to know that the visits I was making with my patients made a little bit of a difference in her life when her family couldn\u2019t visit. It was nice to know I brought a little bit of joy each day in that stale hospital bedroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember the monitor beeps as I first walked into the room. It looked stale, the walls were white along with the sheets and the floor. I turned to my patient, her eyes kind, but her voice shaky. Her blue eyes were the only form of communication we had at our first meeting. I could … Continue reading “Greeting card”<\/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":[45],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-haverford","program_year-45"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","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=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1998,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}