As a means to respect their privacy, the patient mentioned in the following will be referred to as “Mr. Bob.” “Mr. Bob” and mine relationship was the most meaningful out of the many patient relationships I had the opportunity to develop as a part of the Athena Hospice experience. When we first met, I remember gently tapping on his door and calling his name, “ Mr. Bob? Is it okay for me to come in,” being so nervous that I had to ask a nurse to open the door for me. “Mr. Bob” was peacefully lying down watching his usual true crime shows. Our first conversation was brief: filled with awkward pauses and surface-level mentions about the weather. Little did I know that our relationship would become the deepest out of my patients. As the weeks went by, “Mr. Bob” and I both opened up to each other: I learned about his lovely wife and how their romantic beginnings and his youthful days working as a salesman, and he learned about my struggles in organic chemistry and the beginnings of my very first relationship. I started to relish visiting him and our talks grew so long that on many occasions I had to cut it short to accommodate my other patients. As much as I came in to provide emotional and palliative care for “Mr. Bob”, he also helped me tremendously in overcoming my anxieties in speaking with patients and taught me how I could engage in meaningful interactions with my other patients. This past year getting to serve and get to know “Mr. Bob” has been truly amazing, and I believe that it serves as a perfect example of the value of the hospice program as well as my own personal growth throughout the year.
The hospice program has become such an invaluable tool for making me more well-rounded and prepared for medical school applications. Serving my patients at Haverford Sunrise has not only allowed me to practice providing palliative care but also allowed me to manage multiple of my own patients and their families. The program has also provided opportunities to meet with memory-impaired patients and taught me how I can care for patients like these who have more specific medical needs. On top of the volunteering opportunities, the program has also been so valuable in providing videos, books, and topics of discussion that strike specifically at medical issues that are not addressed enough. Specifically, one prompt this past year involved reading a couple of books that discussed the evolution of end-of-life care and hospice care as well as a new perspective on death. I read Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande and Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley, and both of these books have completely changed my perspective on death and hospice care. The first book showed me how much the topic of death is often brushed off or thought of as a taboo topic even amongst doctors—as they are often the ones who try to prevent or prolong the time till death. However, Atul Gawande’s book opened my eyes to the idea that truly listening to one’s patient and properly discussing one’s wishes leading to death is a crucial skill that needs to be taken on by more physicians. The second book by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley offered an even deeper insight into all of the curious and often unbelievable occurrences that occur in hospice patients leading up to death and how hospice workers can do their best to give their patients a good, desirable death.
With each passing visit as a part of the Hospice program, I’ve been learning so much every week: from growing my confidence in talking with different patients from varying health backgrounds to sharpening my focus on the small changes in my patients’ health every week. Additionally, the hospice program has opened my eyes to a whole part of healthcare (palliative and hospice care) that I had never known about before. The experience has shaped the way I aspire to care for patients in the future, and I plan to continue exploring end-of-life care as I enter the healthcare field.