After completing three shifts of volunteering, I have seen a lot about how the environment of healthcare systems can lead towards delirium. Many patients were reporting of underwhelming stimulation and boredom within their environment. This can be a leading factor to delirium as they are not experiencing normal activities of daily living as they would at home. Being confined to a bed with limited visitation and nothing to do can alter the orientation of geriatric patients. I didn’t see this aspect of patient living prior to volunteering. I understand that we are going through a pandemic, and creating activities can be difficult, but I believe activities coordinators should come around to patients who are able to participate with new activities for each day. This can decrease the patient’s sense of loneliness as well as stimulate their brain function.

The most valuable aspect of this experience for me was being able to practice my communication skills with patients other than in a medical aspect. I was able to ask patients about their feelings and what they thought about their opinion about the care that they are receiving within the hospital. My conversations with patients were not just based on lowering their risks of delirium, but also to make the patients feel heard in the quality of their care. If they were not happy about something, I would record it and let someone know about areas in which we can improve.

I am happy to acknowledge that I have achieved both goals that I set in the past reflection. My first goal was similar to what was noted above. I wanted to become comfortable entering a patient’s room without a clear task set in mind. This experience allowed me to practice this skill multiple times within each shift. Being able to confidently walk into a patient’s room is the first step towards providing care for patients. This will help me develop my communication skills to make me patients feel more comfortable with the care that I provide for them in the future. My second goal was to become more oriented to the hospital. The hospital in our local area is very large. It can be difficult for me to regularly find my way around all of the buildings. My volunteer sessions required me to find different units for each patient and allowed me to explore the hospital. By the last session, I was able to confidently find most units in the hospital on my own accord. I will use this knowledge in future clinical experience sessions that I may have for the next semester.

Overall, this volunteering experience has allowed me to achieve my goals and help me feel more confident for my future career field. I would like to thank the Hospital Elder Life Program for accepting our class into their program for the first time the semester. It was a great experience, and I hope the connection between our school and the program continues in the future.