Through my major, I was given the opportunity to volunteer at a few different hospice centers near Slippery Rock. My major is Health Care Administration so most volunteer opportunities I will be given will be though hospice care. At first, I was kind of nervous to volunteer. I had not had much experience dealing with the elderly up until this point and I wanted it to go well. I believe anytime you are working with a different group of people that you are not used to, there is always that nervous feeling of how it could go. If you are anything like myself, you may think of all the worst case scenarios that could happen and just over think it all in general. I think it is okay to be nervous though because it shows you actually care and genuinely want things to go well. As expected, I over thought everything and the whole day went very well. When I arrived. it was decided that we were all going to play bingo. There were about 15 people and that all introduced themselves to me. They were all super kind and were very interested in my life, my major and my interests. As we played bingo, everyone got very competitive, which I thought was really humorous but all in all they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. By the end, everyone had won a prize and few stayed after just to hangout with me and talk with me a little longer. I know this volunteer opportunity does not sound like much and you are probably wondering why I felt nervous considering I just played bingo with these people and hung out, but something to remember is, you are coming in to these people's home. This is where they stay and they probably don't see many different people very often. Knowing these things made me just want to make the best first impression and possibly make their day a little better if I could. To me, that is a lot of pressure and I did not want to disappoint or upset anyone. Overall this was a great experience and I can't wait to continue volunteering at different hospice centers through Slippery Rock. I felt this was a very rewarding and eyeopening experience. I truly enjoyed my time and can't wait to continue volunteering.
Hey Maddy, this sounds like such a great opportunity for you and a great learning experience, especially for a major like yours. And it is totally normal to be nervous, everyone is at one point or another. At least you got the first encounter over with, so you wont be as nervous the next time around!
ReplyDeleteI think this was a wonderful opportunity for you. I used to volunteer at a nursing home in my hometown and this reminded me of that. We also played bingo with the residents, along with craft building and cookie decorating. I was nervous my first time going in because it was a different generation than what I was used too, like you. As we continued to volunteer there I did get more comfortable with the residents, and like you said it is very rewarding. Great Post!!
ReplyDelete