To prepare for hospice I read essays and listened to interviews that reflected the intensity and gravity I expected from the experience. I watched documentaries from the perspective of hospice physicians and patients grappling with the heartbreaking decision to withdraw treatment. I imagined myself at the heart of these trying conversations and prepared myself for emotional visits that would confront the subject of death and dying openly.<\/p>\n
As is often the case, my experience was not what I had prepared for. The difficulty I encountered was rarely existential; rather, it often had to do with the mundane and awkward social interactions I experience everyday. I had prepared to provide emotional support, reassurance, and empathetic care, but I had forgotten that first I needed to make conversation, find common interests, and form a connection. During most of my visits I rarely thought about death; I was focused on remembering details of a patient\u2019s life and thinking of questions and anecdotes that might prompt a fond memory or soothing dialogue. I had expected to use emotional and intellectual competencies necessary for comforting a close friend or grappling with an upsetting topic. Instead, I found myself practicing skills I used when meeting new people and making conversation at dinner.<\/p>\n
Just as I was surprised to face these challenges, I didn\u2019t expect the marked impact they would have on me. I no longer feel as squirmish when a natural pause occurs in conversation. My experience with non-verbal and hard-of-hearing patients has shown me that spoken dialogue is only one way of communicating and forming a connection.<\/p>\n
As an aspiring physician, I tend to imagine the inspiring, emotional, and existential aspects of a career in medicine. However, my experience with hospice has illustrated that many challenges I\u2019ll face are likely more mundane than I expect, and though I may not anticipate them, my experiences outside of medicine and school have prepared me to approach them with passion and empathy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To prepare for hospice I read essays and listened to interviews that reflected the intensity and gravity I expected from the experience. I watched documentaries from the perspective of hospice physicians and patients grappling with the heartbreaking decision to withdraw treatment. I imagined myself at the heart of these trying conversations and prepared myself for … Continue reading “Reflections on hospice and mundanity”<\/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":[24],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hospice","school-princeton","program_year-24"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","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=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"program_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athenainstitute.com\/ahp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_year?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}