School: Bryn Mawr

Caring for the Dying An excerpt from my untitled poem about my hospice experience: You are dying But you are still living Que sera sera All this time, we lived parallel lives. But for the past 8 months, our lives intersected every Saturday. Since the start of the Pre-med Hospice Program, I have visited one … Continue reading “Caring for the Dying”

Dr. Lucy Kalanithi said, “We’re at this weird point in history where we have all this technology and the impulse is to keep using it, even if it’s at times creating more suffering” (Prompt). As a future surgeon, I truly believed, and still do believe, that innovation and technology progresses the world we live in … Continue reading “Definition of time”

If you had asked me last October whether I would consider going into geriatric medicine or working exclusively with those who were dying when I became a physician, I would have said no – too depressing. Obviously, the work is valuable and important, but it is more suited for those who would be willing to … Continue reading “Making Connections”

Volunteering for hospice has been an incredible experience. It has provided me with insight and knowledge in what it takes to work with people who are close to death. Before this experience, death was a hard topic to discuss. I understood it was an essential component of being a physician, but my patient experience with … Continue reading “Hospice Reflection Essay”

This past academic year, my senior research thesis topic for my chemistry major was on the synthesis of enzyme inhibitors as potential anti-cancer drugs. I had chosen to work on this project because I knew there could be a deeper purpose in the work that I did. I knew that if these compounds that I … Continue reading “A Moment In Time With Ms. Kate”

The prospect of death has always been an unknown that has always brought about emotions of anxiety and fear for me. However, volunteering for Holisticare Hospice this past year has allowed me to view death in a different light than I once did. The different perceptions of death that I began to have were fostered … Continue reading “Death In A Different Light”

I have been seeing the same patient, Catherine Glenn, since November. She is 97 years old and has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She has some short-term memory loss but is often quite coherent and enjoys talking. My most meaningful interactions with Catherine were when she remembered me for the first time and when … Continue reading “Pre-med Hospice Experiences of an Aspiring Biomedical Researcher”

Since attending a Catholic high school, I have had the importance of social justice engrained in me. I see service to my fellow man as a way to express my compassion and decency. When signing up to join this hospice program this year, I saw this as a new experience to add to my previous … Continue reading “Hospice: The Caregiver and the Patient”

Throughout the span of the year, I have visited a single patient. She lived in her own home, a few houses down from one of her children. During the first semester, she had a consistent aid, but throughout the second semester, each time I visited there was a different aid. Throughout the year, there was … Continue reading “A Different Experience, but an Experience Nonetheless”

I was often told that one of the hardest challenges a medical practitioner will face is the death of their patients. A physician must accept that no matter how skilled they are or how hard they try, there will be a number of patients that they cannot save. This grim reality did not deter me … Continue reading “Death should not prevent a physician from interacting and giving emotional support to a patient”