Seeing Beyond the Cure
One of the main questions I had when starting out in the Athena Hospice program was do I have what it takes to make a good hospice volunteer? I started my visits and set out to figure out which characteristics would best equip someone to be a great hospice volunteer. I soon realized that there is not a single right answer to the mission I had set out on. It was applying the right set of skills and qualities for your specific visit and patient at the time. For instance, ‘Lola’, one of my first patients, loved having conversations about all sorts of topics, while ‘Mary’, a more recent patient, is much quieter and tends to like the silence in the visit. If I brought the same mindset and set of skills from one patient to the next, I would not be thinking of that individual’s needs. It is critical to personalize the type of care and presence you offer to your patients based on their individual personality and stage of acceptance they are in. One of the most beautiful parts of being a hospice volunteer is learning more about my patient and appreciating how they each come from different walks of life. Their unique perspective on life and way they interact with those around them not only gives me glimpses into who they are as people, but I found myself feeling grateful to be the audience of their life’s anecdotes. Most of the time, these were embedded in the random conversations we would have. But occasionally, people or a time of their life that was important and meaningful enough was able to pierce through the more mundane talk. The experience has allowed me to appreciate that medicine has more to offer than a cure. Healthcare providers have the opportunity to listen and tend to a patients need outside their diagnosis, helping them heal rather than cure them. Hospice care has allowed me to see dimensions of healthcare that I wasn’t able to appreciate prior and highlighted the importance of centralizing the patient and their experience in palliative care.
While tailoring the type of presence/form of care is important, I found myself gravitating to 2 practices from visit to visit. The first one was holding space. Prior to entering a patient’s room, I prepared for the visit by putting my own personal troubles/thoughts to the side and finding space in my head to align myself with the needs and priorities of my patient. In my routine, I did a quick box breathing exercise, wrote down anything that was worrying me onto a piece of paper, and put my mask on. These all helped me to metaphorically leave my personal worries outside the facility and lock into my role as a hospice volunteer. Along these same lines, I practiced centralizing the patient and staying focused on the patient. Listening to my patient’s breathing and noticing if my patient is adjusting their position in bed/wheelchair frequently are two ways I routinely and non-verbally ensured my patient’s comfort. The hospice program has equipped me with skills that allow me to think of medicine beyond the cutting-edge technology and most update-to-date treatment options. It has situated patient-centered care in the heart of my perspective of what it means to be a doctor, and I believe carrying this with me as I embark on my next steps in becoming a doctor will prove to be invaluable to me.