As I reflect on my experiences thus far in hospice volunteering, one of my more meaningful Hospice patient relationships was with a patient, who I\u2019ll refer to as “John”, a middle aged man who had a very joyful disposition on life. As a New Yorker, I attended high school in Tribeca, near the World Trade Center. His story resonated with me because he was on Ground Zero at the time of the 9\/11 attacks, and was instrumental in saving lives, later developing PTSD. The way I approach patient care has been influenced by him and his family, because they mentioned to the other volunteers and I that we should smile and say hello to all the patients we come across, not just our assigned patients, as even small interactions could lift people’s spirits and make them feel seen, even if we only thought of it as a small, fleeting interaction.<\/p>\n
At the same time, one of the more challenging aspects of hospice was wanting to be useful in situations where it often felt like there wasn\u2019t much you could do, especially knowing that recovery is unlikely, even if it does happen sometimes. This was compounded by the fact that general ideas of just conversing with patients did not always apply. Many patients were nonverbal, experienced memory loss, or, in one case, there was also a language barrier. Navigating these interactions forced me to sit with the discomfort of not being able to contribute in the ways I was used to. I had to rethink what it meant to actually be helpful. After working closely with my patients, something that has changed within me is my interpersonal skills and approach to communication and active listening in practice.<\/p>\n
This transformation has impacted my personal life in terms of how I comfort friends who might be experiencing periods of stress, by understanding that sometimes I might not be able to suggest a clear solution, but can still validate their feelings by listening and offering support. More broadly, I have come to realize that presence itself can be a form of care, even when it feels small or intangible. These experiences also shifted the way I view my role in patient care. While hospice volunteering has emphasized empathy, individualized attention, and the importance of simply being there for patients, it has also clarified what draws me to medicine. I want to build on these aspects of care while also taking on a more active role in helping patients navigate their conditions. As a provider, I will of course need to walk patients through their options to make informed choices, but bedside manner is a crucial component of the job. Hospice showed me that meaningful care is not only about treatment, but also about how patients experience that care, and I hope to carry both of these perspectives forward in my future as a physician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I reflect on my experiences thus far in hospice volunteering, one of my more meaningful Hospice patient relationships was with a patient, who I\u2019ll refer to as “John”, a middle aged man who had a very joyful disposition on life. As a New Yorker, I attended high school in Tribeca, near the World Trade … Continue reading “Care Beyond Intervention”<\/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":[7],"program_year":[56],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-princeton","program_year-56"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651","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=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2797,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}