Almost approaching the end of the volunteering and looking back, I know that I have learned and grown a lot in many aspects. This experience provided me with an opportunity to gain a variety of medical knowledge but also it impacted my personal growth. I cherish this volunteering experience a lot because, all together, I sincerely figured that patients value a better quality of life rather than being cured of the disease. And, I believe this experience would benefit my future career as a doctor because I would become a doctor who leans focus toward fulfilling patients’ needs.
“I” had two patients at the beginning. One person was a COPD patient and another person with a dementia patient. After my first visit with each of them, I noticed that I was not prepared well enough to treat both COPD and dementia patients. Especially, with the”dementia patient”. I did not know about dementia and realized I should study more about it since I noticed the dementia patient is a lot different than other types of patients. Studying dementia on the internet was helpful, but still, I felt reality was different than learning from the cyber community, which it took me several weeks to finally understand what I could do for the dementia patient. For the first two or three months of my volunteering, I had spent my time introducing myself repeatedly for every visit. Every week was new for my visit to my patient, so I would always have to start by telling my name and introducing who I am. Surprisingly, visiting every week became routine to her, and the moment she realized my presence was remarkably unforgettable, even though she still did not recognize me. Another thing I learned from her was that there is no need to continue the conversation to fill the silence. I felt awkward when no one was talking, and I tried to ask many questions just to avoid the silence. However, I realized asking too many questions can bother her, especially since she has dementia and often doesn’t remember anything for most of the time. It was just my presence that was more important than any other. Every single second I spent with my dementia patient was valuable and meaningful as I was able to reflect on myself every day seeing gratitude in my life and study to provide what I could do better than my last visit.
Before I began my hospice volunteering, I did not realize this volunteering would increase my personal growth. In the medical aspect, it fulfilled my knowledge of dementia patient that everything takes time for their understanding, and it is important to have a repeated routine. In my aspect, I gained a variety of skills such as patience and communication. I also learned a lot that nothing is more important than staying healthy both physically and mentally. All we accumulate throughout our lives is to have a better happy and comfortable life and this is guaranteed when our body is healthy. I made up my mind again that I want to support people to conserve what they value in their lives, which comes after being healthy. This experience had a great impact on my standpoint of living life, and I believe a variety of things I gained from this volunteering was a great investment to me, which will enable my ability to interact with patients more closely after I have reached my dream as a doctor.