Comparing Hospital Volunteering And Job Shadowing

My mom has worked in hospitals since before I was born. From being a nurse to becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, she spent a lot of time in hospitals, which meant her family did too. After spending many nights and even holidays at them, hospitals became like a second home to me; and the staff, a family. I learned to love everything about hospitals: the smell, cleanliness, layout, and even the chaos. I saw how controlled yet sincere everything was. I saw and learned things wandering around hospitals that many others will never understand.

Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre provided me with life lessons I will never forget—kindness and humbleness. Spending my free time in this facility has given me bliss. The patients became my family; I knew their families, their kids, and even their grand-kids. I spent hours getting to know these patients—their stories, their likes, their dislikes. It was refreshing to do their errands, to help them, to feed them, to care for them. At this hospital I learned more than what the doctors and nurses do. I learned more than the mechanics of a hospital. I learned about the patients. I learned what I want to do in life. I learned that eventually I would like to become a medical doctor—to combine my love of biology and assisting

I had been instructed to introduce myself to the patients, so I started with the first room and began to work my way down the long and dimly lit hallway. Popping my head into each room, I quickly muttered my name and half of a greeting before rushing over to the next one. Many of the patients in the unit didn’t acknowledge me, and for that, I was grateful. It wasn’t until I had gotten to the last room, in fact, that I was even met with a

Back when I was not sure, I aimed to find out more about what healthcare means for people today by volunteering. It was through this at the Orlando Regional Medical Center that I began to understand. I witnessed firsthand the kindness and empathy medicine requires of its practitioners. Consoling and guiding patients were my primary responsibilities, along with restocking supplies, helping transfer patients, and guiding visitors to their loved ones. I learned to work with people recovering from surgery, terminal patients, and many others only wanting company; I listened to them, wished them a happy birthday, or simply sat with them while they told me about their lives, their struggles, or how they met their spouses. A human connection was essential.

While working on the Acute Medicine floor at Victoria Hospital, I have had many patient encounters that have allowed for me to reflect upon many aspects of the care I was providing. One particular encounter in which I found myself critically reflecting upon involved a situation in which my co-caring nurse and I were struggling to move an elderly female patient with limited lower body strength from her bed to the chair. For confidentiality reasons, this patient will be referred to as Rosemary for this reflection.

Working as a Patient Care Technician has taught me that hospitals are a special kind of library. The halls are not lined with books, but are still lined with stories. Every patient I encounter has a unique story; some are triumphant, and others heart wrenching. Nonetheless, there is something meaningful to be learned from each one. What I love most about my job is that my care becomes part of their story. Sometimes all I can offer to my terminal cancer patients is a warm blanket in the middle of the night. Seeing a patient’s eyes glisten and mouth widen in appreciation of something that you have done is rewarding. Knowing that I have eased even one story makes the less glamorous aspects of my job worthwhile. Through this experience I have encountered many stories with different plots, characters, and settings. Every time I walk in the hospital I am overcome with excitement at the prospect of learning a new story where the characters are tangible. It is a privilege to be a part of someone’s story, even if all we can offer is an act of kindness. One thing is certain,the stories I have encountered will always remain on my

At a young age I grew to understand how important hospitals were. From my younger brother constantly receiving aid to alleviate his lung condition to my younger cousin hospitalized due to pancreatitis; I understood how hospitals could heavily affect people’s lives. This drew my attention towards how I wanted to pursue in the medical field. Seeing how hospitals and individuals in the health care industry had not only affected my family’s lives but others as well caused me to strive to have the desire to help others. I can perceive that being in the medical field when I’m an adult can achieve this goal that I have initiated onto myself. Hopefully by volunteering in this program, it will enrich my knowledge on how hospitals function. I feel that the hands on experience in this stimulating program would motivate my interest in medical field furthermore. Not only to expand this knowledge but to strengthen my

Working as a scribe in the San Bernardino Emergency Room has provided me with many different types of medical experiences, from seeing gunshot wounds and various lacerations to strokes and ST elevated myocardial infarctions to hypoglycemia and hyperkalemia. Observing the treatment process from triage to disposition has been an exciting experience, in which every patient encounter has only taught me more about the field of medicine and spiked my interests in learning more about the human body. It is truly an amazing experience watching people come in scared and worried, but in the matter of a few hours after various medications, diagnostic studies and procedures they are more comfortable than when they came in. Through this experience, I have

As I interact with my patients, I can’t help but think to myself “this is why I became a nurse.” During critical moments of a patients life I am there holding their hand, listening to stories about the “olden” days and giving them the encouragement it takes to leave the hospital healthier than they arrived. Nursing is not just giving medications on time, educating the patients and answering the call light; to me, nursing it so much more.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to experience the emergency department at Houston Methodist Hospital first hand. There, I got to sit at the nurses station, help transport patients to and from their rooms and the CT scanner, and prepare new bed for the ongoing flow of patients. Even performing menial tasks, all of the patients and other hospital staff were so grateful for my time. It really taught me how important every team member is a hospital setting and how much nurses really cherish working with their fellow staff and patients.

“Hospitals are the epicentre of pain and suffering. Here you’ll find that everyone has their own story, and that man you see standing over at the far corner, with his elbow sticking out at the wrong angle shares the same surrow as his terminally ill neighbour - merely twelve years of age.” I wasn’t prepared for this. A summer spent catering to a diverse branch of individuals, some bordering on the edge of passing on to the next life. It was a co-op placement, for God's sake. But standing there, listening to the words of my supervisor made me realize that it didn’t matter whether I was prepared, it was now my responsibility. It was more than I could say compared to the ten-year-old whisked away from the reaches of his mother, crying out in anguish

One day, while sitting in one of the St. Luke hospital rooms in downtown Boise, a nurse had softly knocked on the door after Mom had clicked a red button on the side of Anthony’s bed that had called her. The nurse, dressed in blue scrubs, entered quietly, noticing my brother was asleep before making her way over to the machine that was currently emitting a loud, monotonous beep. After stopping the annoying sound and changing the IV bag hanging off of the rack on the machine, she looked over at Mom, exchanging a few words with her that caught my interest.

Since last year, I have volunteered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and until recently the Emergency Room. My time there has brought to my attention the more unpleasant side of medicine. Whether escorting patients or attending to their needs, I noticed that many of them were quiet and avoided eye contact. Several of the doctors spoke to and treated these patients in a brute manner which I found quite upsetting. These sick or injured patients were worried and scared, and were served with the promise that no one would be turned away. Yet many were silent as they were afraid of “bothering” the doctors. In spite of this, I did my best giving patients some peace of mind by just spending a few moments of my time to chat and to listen their needs as liasion and support. Seeing them smile and at ease has shown me that I have done my job but more

As I moved from one area of the building to the next – from the main entrance, to the surgical waiting room, to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit – and spoke with other patients’ family members from all across the country, I realized the true extent of the UW Hospital’s greatness. The ill came from Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, and several additional far-away states so that the physicians and nurses at the UW Hospital could treat them. Having had a keen interest in the medical field since middle school, I set a substantial goal for myself: I would, one day, work alongside them; I would follow in their footsteps, do the impossible, and recondition people’s grandpas, role models, and best

I was inspired by what I observed at the hospital. It was amazing to see the passion that these people have for what they do. Whether they are physicians, surgeons, nurses or other professionals in the medical field, they all want to help patients in every way they possibly can. Seeing their commitment to their patients was contagious. They were the people who ultimately secured my mom’s life; they were the people who made the hospital feel like my home for the time being; and they were the people who provided optimism