For AHS 1602 The Future
Physician III: Experiences in Health, I chose to volunteer at the University of
Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview as a patient visitor. Fairview Health
Services is a nonprofit, academic health care system based in Minneapolis.
Since 1997, Fairview Health Services has been in partnership with the
University of Minnesota, largely dedicating efforts to research and teaching.
Fairview is composed of 7 hospitals and medical centers, 40-plus primary
care clinics, 55-plus specialty clinics, 53 senior housing locations, and
30-plus retail pharmacies, so the medical center on the East Bank of campus
that I volunteered at is only one of the many locations of the Fairview Health
Services. Fairview's mission is to improve the health of the communities
they serve, committing their skills and resources to the benefit of the whole
person by providing the finest in healthcare, while addressing the physical,
emotion and spiritual needs of individuals and their families. They value
dignity, integrity, service, and compassion while envisioning being the best
health care delivery system for America. Being able to volunteer for such
a passionate system was a really great opportunity.
At the University of
Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview- East Bank, I volunteered as a patient
visitor. Patient visitors provide support to patients and their families
during stressful periods of hospitalization. Our purpose was to provide
companionship for patients and diversion from patients' treatments and
procedures. Within the hospital, we were to visit with patients on floors
4-7. These floors house patients with various conditions ranging from
heart conditions and respiratory illnesses to cancer. Some of the patients
had short term stays of only a few days while some patients were in the
hospital for months. I would determine which patients to visit by talking
with the nurses in each of the units and asking them if they had any patients
they thought they would like a visitor that day. Typically they would
suggest patients who either had not had any family visit that day or those that
liked consistent company. I would knock on those patients' doors,
introduce myself, and ask if they would like a visitor. If a patient was
interested, I would stay and visit as long as they wanted me to. Normally
a visit would just include conversing with the patient, but sometimes I would
take them in a wheelchair outside or around the hospital so they could get out
of their room for a short time.
Likes/Dislikes in the Position
Like any other volunteer
position or job, there were certain things that I liked about my position as a
patient visitor and some things that I did not like. There was quite a
bit of flexibility within the position which was something that I liked.
I did not have to visit the units or floors in any particular order and
there was not a script that I had to follow when I went into patient rooms.
There was not a time limit for how long I could be with one patient,
which allowed for more quality visits. There were times that I would be
with one patient for almost an hour. Without a script, I could often let
the patients lead the conversation and let them talk to me about whatever they
wanted. The flexibility allowed for a deeper connection and fuller
engagement with each patient. Another thing that I liked about the
position is that every shift was different. While I was doing the same
general task every shift, there was never a conversation that was the exact
same as a previous one. Conversation topics were different depending on
the patient, the time of day, what was on television, and what happened that
day. I also liked that my position allowed me to interact with patients
directly. Some of the other volunteer positions that I could have taken
did not include interacting with the patient, or if they did it was in a more
indirect manner or for a little amount of time. As a patient visitor,
patients were who I communicated with the most.
One thing that I did not
like about being a patient visitor is that sometimes there were not enough
patients that wanted a visitor to fill up the three hour shift. Most of
the shifts I had were night shifts from 6-9pm so it was a time when patients
were finishing up dinner, or when they just wanted to hang out and watch
television or go to bed early. That was also a time for family members to
come visit after they got off of work. This was not a problem every week,
but it happened a few times. When I finished visiting all of the patients
on floors 4-7 who wanted a visitor, I would ask the nurses if they needed any
help. If anything, they would just have me clean some things or sort some
miscellaneous items in attempt to fill up the rest of my shift. I think
if I would have had an earlier shift where patients were more awake, I would
not have run into a problem finding patients to visit for the full three hours.
What I Learned About Being a Physician
While I enjoyed being
able to work with patients directly in my position, it did not allow me to
interact very much with any type of health professional. This gave me an
indirect perspective into the work of physicians in terms of communicating with
patients. I learned through talking with
patients that many of them did not completely understand why they were getting
the specific tests and care that they were.
In general, the patients’ knew what the name of the tests or care they
were getting but they did not really know why.
Their explanation would be that their doctor told them they needed
it. Being that I never spoke with the
physicians, I am not sure if this was a case of low health literacy or a case
of the physicians not explaining to their patients the reasoning behind why
they were prescribing certain tests and medications. Either way, this struck me as something that
needs attention. Patients should know
what is going on and why it is happening, every step of the way for as long as
they are receiving care.
As a physician, it is
extremely important to understand the level of health literacy that each patient
has and tailor communication according to that level. Some patients get embarrassed if they do not
understand something and keep quiet. Physicians
need to recognize that this problem occurs and address it, even if it takes
longer to explain things. Prescribing
medications and providing care to someone is counterproductive if the patient
does not understand and therefore is unable to adhere to doctors’ orders. Someone can be a really intelligent physician,
but they cannot be a great physician if they do not communicate well with their
patients so that they understand the who, what, where, when, and why of their
care. In my volunteering, I learned that
the best conversations between me and the patients occurred when I was fully
engaged in the conversation. If I went
into the room very focused and dedicated to that one patient, conversation was
easy and so much more natural. It made
me happier to be talking to the patient and it appeared to have the reciprocal
effect as well. I think as a physician,
if I were to employ this same engagement, then I would more easily be able to
talk to my patients and address the issue of health literacy and minimize
misunderstanding.
What I Learned About the Field of Healthcare or
Health Professionals
Working directly with
patients taught me a lot about the field of healthcare and the relay of
information between health professionals.
I have learned that the field of healthcare is built on communication
and teamwork. Your mood when you walk
into a room is critical. If you are
angry, annoyed, inattentive, or upset, that will rub off onto the patient and
they are likely going to adopt that same emotion and attitude. The same goes with positive emotions as
well. If you walk into a room and are
very friendly, kind, compassionate, and positive, the patient is likely to
mirror your energy. If a patient is in a
lot of pain or extremely worried or anxious, it is expected that they might act
with a bit of negativity, therefore as a health professional, the patient will
respond best if you have a positive energy.
If you are engaged and positive, your patient will be able to sense
that. This will allow for the most effective
communication and interaction and will help you gauge your patients’ level of
health literacy.
While this is important
in health professional-patient communication, it is also extremely important
while communicating between health professionals. The healthcare field has teams of many health
professionals that need to work together and collaborate to provide the best
care possible. Depending on the patient,
there could be a doctor, a surgeon, a lab technician, a physical therapist, a
dietician, multiple nurses, and additional health professionals that were
working to better the health of one patient.
It is vital that each person on the health professions team is
knowledgeable about what is going on with the patient, where they are at in
terms of recovery or preparation for surgery, and what the plan is for the patient’s
care. In order for all of the health
professionals to be up to date with information, they all have to communicate. Being engaged and positive while
communicating will benefit the whole team because it is contagious. The healthcare setting can be very stressful
for everyone involved. Using effective
communication techniques can be helpful in alleviating that stress.
In a field that is built
around improving the health of sick and injured individuals, suffering is
inherent. It is important to be aware
and recognize that everyone is in a stressful situation. Nobody should ever act as if their suffering
is worse or more important than someone else’s.
Exhibiting compassion and empathy with patients and other healthcare
professionals aids in relieving some stress or at least acts as a coping
mechanism for stress. As a future health
professional, I know that I need to learn how to effectively cope with and
manage my stress for my own personal wellbeing and for the wellbeing of my
patients as well.
Personal Growth Goals, Progress Towards Meeting
Those Goals, and What I Learned
At the beginning of volunteering, I set personal growth goals that
included improving my confidence, my ability to give and receive feedback, and
my ability to communicate. With the
confidence goal, I specifically wanted to work on confidence in my
knowledge. I am often hesitant when
answering questions or speaking up because I am not one hundred percent sure
that I am correct. I wanted to work
towards being able to give people answers and correct information with
confidence, not hesitation. I definitely
made progress towards this goal, but there is still room for improvement. I built up confidence by asking the volunteer
coordinator many questions about my volunteer location and position. I also explored the hospital by myself and
became familiar with what each floor was designated as and where things like
the cafeteria, vending machines, lounges, and bathrooms were located. By the end of volunteering, I was able to
answer questions from visitors promptly.
Sometimes I did not know the answer and I learned that it was okay. People do not expect you to have the answer
to everything, all of the time. I could
still answer promptly by saying I am not sure but I would be happy to find out
for you. I would then seek help from a
hospital staff member. At the beginning,
I felt bad for not having all of the answers, but I learned to be more
comfortable with not knowing. While it
is important to be as educated and knowledgeable as possible, no one person can
possibly know everything. So throughout my
volunteering, I was able to build confidence in my knowledge as well as
confidence in not knowing, or not having the answer, and I am very satisfied
with that.
I also wanted to improve on giving and receiving feedback while
taking part in my volunteer position. Giving
and receiving feedback is a part of any job or position when you are
responsible for doing something. As I read
my personal growth goals assignment from the beginning of volunteering, I talked
about how I felt uncomfortable when receiving feedback because I did not want
to hear that I was doing something wrong.
I said that I always try my best and sometimes receiving constructive feedback
felt like a way of telling me that my best was not good enough. I have a slightly different viewpoint now
after I have finished volunteering. I have
learned that constructive feedback is not a way of telling me that my best was
not good enough, but a way of offering suggestions in order to improve the
entire team. As long as feedback is not
directly personal, but rather related to my work, it is easier to absorb and
respond to. The feedback is intended to
help me better myself and improve my performance, but more importantly it is
intended to improve the whole team. As I talked about before, the healthcare
field is built on many different teams of healthcare professionals, patients,
and families. In order to offer the best
healthcare and improve the health of patients, teams need to be effective and
efficient. Feedback is one important mechanism
to ensure that teams are working to that extent. Throughout my volunteering experience, I was
not able to receive very much feedback due to the fact that it was a fairly
independent position. I did not have a
supervisor that observed what I did all of the time and the patients were
hardly ever the same from week to week. So,
rather than practicing giving and receiving feedback, I was able to learn more
about it and the reasoning and importance behind it while I was a volunteer.
My third personal growth goal was to improve my communication
skills. I wanted to improve my ability
to start a conversation with someone I do not know as well as become better at
engaging in small talk with people. I used
to be very self-conscious that people might think I am weird because I was
talking about random things like the weather but I realized that everyone
engages in small talk, especially when they do not know the other person
well. A go-to small talk topic is the weather,
and a lot of patients actually enjoy talking about the weather while they are
stuck inside the hospital. Older patients
love talking about their kids or grandchildren and if the television was on in
a patient room, that was always a good subject too. By creating a mental set of topics that I am
comfortable talking about with strangers, I improved my communication skills
immensely. I practiced being very
present and engaged with each of the patients that I visited and that made a
big difference. It allowed conversation
to flow naturally and made me feel much more comfortable around strangers. When I did this, I did not find myself
feeling awkward or worried that I was bad at small talk. I felt that when I was more engaged, patients
were more trusting of me and then they began to feel more comfortable talking
to me as well. Showing the patient a
more focused and personal presence strengthened the temporary bond between
us. I made sure to take our interaction
beyond surface level and put meaning, curiosity, and was genuine with our
conversations. Practicing this made my volunteer shifts more
enjoyable. By the end of my volunteering experience, I was not afraid to go up
to a patient, nurse, or fellow volunteer and strike up a conversation. I think I made great strides in improving my
communication skills, and will continue working on them to improve
further.
Advice I Would Give to Others About Getting the
Most From Their Volunteer Experience
There are a number of things that I would
advise others of in order to get the most from their volunteer experience. First, I would advise is to get started right
away. Do not wait until the last minute
to apply to a position and try to research different options available to find
the best fit for you, instead of just doing the common volunteering
options. I encourage future volunteers
to do something out of their comfort zone.
I did something that made me really nervous at first, but I ended up
loving it and growing a lot from it. Go into
each volunteer shift with an open mind.
Try to leave any problems, stressors, or worries at home and really be
engaged while you are volunteering. If
you have to be there anyway, you should make the most of it and really be
present and focused while there. That
will provide the greatest benefit for you and anyone you interact with. My last piece of advice would be to try and
complete your hours for the class as soon as possible and within the semester
if possible. I had to split my hours up
between semesters because I started my volunteering late and then I went abroad
for the summer. When I got back, there
was not a slot available for me to take every week so I could only do random
shifts to try and finish my hours. It
also makes for a longer time period to reflect on for the end of the class,
which makes it a little difficult. My
last piece of advice to future volunteers is to make volunteering a priority because
when you do not, it makes it so easy to push aside and say you will do it another
day. Making volunteering a priority and approaching
it with a positive attitude will help you get the most for your volunteer
experience.
