will this look bad if i include it in my activity section? (hospice volunteering and passing away)

[havil]

for one of my most meaningful activities i wanna talk about my time as a hopsice volunteer

i wanna talk about why i volunteer there (to provide 11th hour care),

I also wanna talk about a patient who i was close to, passing away and how i demonstrated and learned emotional resiliency afterward (ofcourse showing and not telling)

however i am afraid of a couple of things
1. does it sound too negative/bleak talking about this kind of stuff in your activity section? I remember dr grey once advised against talking about super negative stuff
2. does talking about providing 11th hour care detract from my pursuit of being a physician?


if someone is intrested in reading my description to lmk if there are any red flags, i will be more than happy to do so

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[ablanco]

Well for #2 I'd say no, not only is there a specialty of palliative medicine and doctors in general can be there for people in their final hours but being there for others and taking care of them when they are vulnerable is a common theme for people doing medicine, no matter the age of the pt. You could of course phrase it poorly and that would end up detracting but not the subject matter alone. For #1 don't get into the sad details of what you're seeing to try and tug on heartstrings. Don't describe graphic imagery. You can talk about the experience caring for someone, interacting with them, having a continued relationship, trust, etc etc. Not sure if saying you developed stronger resilience from being around dying people is necessarily the takeaway I'd expect to see from that activity but I suppose you could figure out a way to do that if you were so determined.

 

[LizzyM]

I can certainly see that feeling the loss of a patient with whom you've grown close and then compartmentalizing that and moving on to the next patient who needs your help is an important part of maturing as a physician or other health care worker. I wouldn't see it as negative at all. You wouldn't be focusing on the patient's death but how your relationship with the patient developed and how you reacted to the patient's expected death and grew from that experience.

 

[Goro]

Very few people are comfortable in dealing with their own mortality. That's why I place a very high value in hospice volunteering. This will not be an issue for you.

 

[nadalfan22]

It’s a great activity to have. I did it, and I was very grateful to have that experience. Other premeds do it too, but it’s still not super common because it does make people uncomfortable. I think this experience is one of the best you can have as a premed because it shows you a different side of medicine (one that’s not only about healing). As everyone else said, don’t get too emotional, talk about graphic stuff, but talk about your relationship with the patient and how this experience changed your view on medicine - this is what I did.