Rachel on changing service sites this year

From my time with Hospice I have learned that the organization is not about death but the quality of life a patient should have while he or she still has life. Their goals are for the patient to be as pain free and comfortable as possible. They do these things by letting the patient stay at home and also by bringing the healthcare needs to them. They also provide medication that will alleviate the pain and yet make it possible for them to be cognitive to the outside world. They have a whole team of people that work with each individual patient and their families. They have social workers that make sure that the caretakers are treating the patient properly and also assess any outside help the family might need (food stamps, utility bills, etc). They have nurses that come twice to three times a week to assist the patient with any medical needs or complications. They have chaplains and volunteers who upon request will come and give spiritual support and companionship. This team of diverse people combines in unison to ensure that the patient feels loved and cared. As a volunteer it is really exciting to be part of the large picture that ensures people live an optimal life and die with dignity.

Since I plan to go into the medical profession and it would be in my best interest to be accustomed to the idea of death and to see if I am able to cope with it when it is happening around me, I chose this site at my Bonner work for the semester. Rarely do I think of dying or people in my family dying but the reality is that everyone will die eventually. In our society we rarely talk about it and therefore treat it as an unspoken disease, but the truth of the matter is that it is a natural part of life. We see it all around us in nature through the season every year as flowers blossom and wither after their time has ended. It makes me wonder why we avoid such an unavoidable part of life. I feel that we disregard it because of fear and uncertainty of what happens next. What I love about Hospice is that it is there to give you comfort in the hour of your highest need. It celebrates the life you have lived and allows you to live the rest of your life to a worthy ending like ending of the last chapter to a great book. Life should be cherished and celebrated; death should be seen as the end to a new beginning. It might be that through this experience I realize that I cannot cope well with people dying or that it takes too much of an emotional toll on me. If this is the case then it will give me a great insight in the type of career I should avoid and an understanding of my own limits. Regargless of the results, I will be glad for whatever the lesson might be.

A more personal reason I want to work at hospice is to perhaps get a better appreciation of life and what life truly means. Some days I get caught in the hustle and bustle of the day and forget to look at the beauty around me. I will at times get so engulfed in my work and my “to do list” that I miss time to spend with the people that matter most in my life (family and friends). Being there for people and sharing time with them is perhaps the noblest cause because time is the best resource we can give anybody. Either way this service site turns out I feel that I will have gained a lot more then I bargained for such a great experience.