No One Dies Alone (EC opportunity++)

[mimelim]

As some of you know, I am currently in the middle of my resident orientation. Today we had a 2 hours lecture/talk by one of the hospital chaplains about how and when to ask for their help on different issues. One of the services that he talked about was the "No One Dies Alone" (NODA) Volunteers. It was the first time that I had heard of such a service, but I later found out that it is by no means only in the hospital I am at. There are many memories of medical school that will stick with me, but there are few that I can honestly say really changed me as an individual.

One of them, however, was spending about 3 hours of my call shift sitting with a man dying of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm who was too high of a risk to operate on. His AAA had tampenaded itself off, at least partially and he was very much conscious for most of the time I spent with him. He had no family still alive and he was in town for a friend's funeral. He was about as alone as you could get. Since he had become DNR that day, he was moved out to the floor where there are a considerably fewer number of people running around compared to the ICU. I'm writing an essay about that experience and I won't go through the details of that night, but I can easily say that it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my pre-med and medical school career and I also feel like I actually did some good in this world by doing it.

When I heard about this program where volunteers would take turns sitting with patients who had nobody else, it immediately reminded me of that experience. I see threads on this forum all the time about extracurricular activities and volunteering. Many times people get carried away with the number of hours that they are getting and miss the point of EC experiences. I certainly have not made and reviewed a list of all the possible ECs a pre-med can do. However, I can say with out a doubt in my mind that if I saw on an application that someone had spent time doing training for this and doing this I would be incredibly impressed. Not only that, it is hard to imagine not leaving with an incredible story about being a small part, but a very human part of the hospital machine.

A quick google search revealed this link: http://www.sacreddying.org/nodavts/ I could not find much else online about this, but I only searched for a little bit. They say that this has been implemented in over 400 hospitals in the US. If you know about it, there are probably hospitals near you or where you will spend your undergrad Summers that will have training in NODA.

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[UCFKnight]

Thanks for the post. This sounds like a very rewarding experience all around. I am definitely going to look into it. Thanks again for the insight!

 

[nancy mcgunter]

Pretty cool program. 🙂 I wouldn't be very good at it since I cry like a baby at even the idea of death. Free Willy, My Dog Skip, Avatar, every funeral I've been to ... cue the waterworks. I wouldn't want to depress the patient.

 

[Nebby]

Hospice volunteering is very similar and probably a bit more available if this particular program isn't in one's location.

The main difference is that with hospice, you occasionally get family/friends who simply don't want you to be with the patient.

 

[MedPR]

Going to look into this as well. I've done something like this at the children's hospital I volunteer at and it is truly an amazing experience.

 

[Disinence2]

Your writing an essay with your free time during intern year.... sounds fun.....

 

[qwerty2012]

Did something like that for a semester. Unfortunately, the person I volunteered under never remembered my name...kept giving me a new name everytime i went.

It is thoughts that count the most.

 

[mimelim]

Your writing an essay with your free time during intern year.... sounds fun.....

Still in orientation, start on Sunday. I have a list of things that I want to write about as well as research topics/ideas that I want to explore. About 10-12 things on each list. When I find the time I'll try to knock them out. I enjoy writing, it relaxes me. Plus I tend to dictate thoughts and essays while walking places. It fills in the 10-15 minute gaps in my day when commuting.

 

[dbeast]

This seems a little weird to me. What you did for that patient was wonderful, but sending a handful of pre-meds whose job is to watch people die seems unnecessarily traumatizing for the student and awkward for the dying... not that they're worried about awkwardness, but I'd imagine they'd prefer to be with someone who has a good amount of experience on the subject of death, which leads me to my point:

I think any medical *professional* (physician, nurse, PA, chaplain, ND... maybe not ND) should be afforded some free time to sit with a dying patient who otherwise would be alone. I just think having some qualifications beyond pre-med would be vastly more comforting, and I would hope that physicians and nurses are inherently kind enough to cover a couple hours of somebody else's work to let that person sit with a patient, just like somebody did for you, OP (I'm inferring from your story... but if you just got behind on work to be there for your patient, more power to you). This program has it's heart in the right place though, and I'm glad it is available.

 

[1289]

This seems a little weird to me. What you did for that patient was wonderful, but sending a handful of pre-meds whose job is to watch people die seems unnecessarily traumatizing for the student and awkward for the dying... not that they're worried about awkwardness, but I'd imagine they'd prefer to be with someone who has a good amount of experience on the subject of death, which leads me to my point:

I think any medical *professional* (physician, nurse, PA, chaplain, ND... maybe not ND) should be afforded some free time to sit with a dying patient who otherwise would be alone. I just think having some qualifications beyond pre-med would be vastly more comforting, and I would hope that physicians and nurses are inherently kind enough to cover a couple hours of somebody else's work to let that person sit with a patient, just like somebody did for you, OP (I'm inferring from your story... but if you just got behind on work to be there for your patient, more power to you). This program has it's heart in the right place though, and I'm glad it is available.

A lot of the vigil volunteers (same idea as NODA) at the hospice I volunteer at are not premeds, just regular ppl who want to be there for someone who doesn't have anyone else. The ppl who you're visiting w a program like this are ACTIVELY dying, they're probably sleeping or not really that aware of their surroundings. I agree that it could be "traumatizing", but you def get trained before hand (upwards of 40 training hours + 6 mo previous hospice volunteering) at my hospice

 

[saveourpens]

While this seems like a great opportunity I'd encourage people to think long and hard before starting something like this. I currently work as a home health aide for seniors and i know Id tear to shreds premeds who are only doing it for brownie points.

 

[lobo.solo]

Wow, thank you for this. I think this requires a certain personality and although sad, death is part of the cycle of life. I would feel privileged to volunteer in something like that.

 

[AestheticGod]

This actually sounds really amazing...
And not cause it'll look good for us in our app, but the fact that we might actually be able to help someone emotionally in their toughest time.

 

[Ruhroh]

Whenever I think of hospice volutneering or end of life volunteering, I just think it would be a backhanded insult to the patient that the only person in the world who will spend time is the pre-med who only wants to do it so he can have a killer experience to write a PS around. I think these types of situations, in the absence of friends or family, should be handled by real healthcare professionals who carry some amount of authority to insert themselves into that type of situation.

Also, I think being with someone at the end of their life requires an extraordinaory commitment that simply isn't reasonable for a pre-med. I remember when someone in my famil died last year, my mother and aunt (both working non-healthcare jobs) basically took a month off of work each, at the very high risk of getting fired, to be with that person 24/7 and make sure he was lacking nothing in his final days. How is a volunteer supposed to provide any kind of end of life closure by being there for a few hours a week? For me it just feels completely inappropriate for a pre-med.

 

[rzoo14]

Whenever I think of hospice volutneering or end of life volunteering, I just think it would be a backhanded insult to the patient that the only person in the world who will spend time is the pre-med who only wants to do it so he can have a killer experience to write a PS around. I think these types of situations, in the absence of friends or family, should be handled by real healthcare professionals who carry some amount of authority to insert themselves into that type of situation.

Also, I think being with someone at the end of their life requires an extraordinaory commitment that simply isn't reasonable for a pre-med. I remember when someone in my famil died last year, my mother and aunt (both working non-healthcare jobs) basically took a month off of work each, at the very high risk of getting fired, to be with that person 24/7 and make sure he was lacking nothing in his final days. How is a volunteer supposed to provide any kind of end of life closure by being there for a few hours a week? For me it just feels completely inappropriate for a pre-med.

A terminally ill patient who doesn't have any family will not think that the premed volunteer is only there to get a killer experience for his personal statement. [Most of us will not do that].
They appreciate the gesture that we put out there. I have done some very minor volunteer work like this and I agree, it is very difficult but at the same time, being there with someone who's so close to dying can help you see things in a different light. It can be a life changing experience for the better. Outside of the whole med school app process.

 

[1289]

A terminally ill patient who doesn't have any family will not think that the premed volunteer is only there to get a killer experience for his personal statement. [Most of us will not do that].
They appreciate the gesture that we put out there. I have done some very minor volunteer work like this and I agree, it is very difficult but at the same time, being there with someone who's so close to dying can help you see things in a different light. It can be a life changing experience for the better. Outside of the whole med school app process.

agreed. a lot of the work of hospice volunteers is also respite, just sitting with a patient for a few hours so that the family members can have a break/run errands, etc. you're not necessarily assuming responsibility for the patient's emotional well being/happiness at the end of their life.