ESCALERA, EVER MARY JOY

XUJPRSM - Level 4
GROUP 3A

Palliative and hospice care have been associated with improved patient symptoms
control and quality of life as well as increased satisfaction with care, according to Ariel Shalev
et. al. Despite my very little experience in the department, I was able to get a glimpse of how
hospice and palliative care is being done in the institution.
2 days before the end of clerkship, we were assigned to hospice and palliative care. It
was as if fate knew that we were only 2 days away from ending clerkship that on our first day at
hospice and palliative care, we were given a lot of referrals. I was not sure if I should be grateful
or not because even though we were only able to experience hospice and palliative care for 2
days, we were still able to learn a few things from the many referrals. Hospice and palliative
care was not easy. It was complicated mentally processing a lot of emotions in one day and
physically, as a person who does not exercise.
After the morning endorsements, we are tasked to get the latest vital signs of the
patients currently under us. Most of these patients are paralyzed, catching their breaths or in
pain. We weren’t able to know them more because of the limited time that we had but seeing
them in their current state was painful to watch even just being there with them for just a few
minutes. Aside from getting vital signs, we were also able to interview some of these patients
and somehow able to get them to answer the family APGAR tool which assesses their
satisfaction in terms of the social support they are getting from their family.
Overall, the experience was just the tip of the iceberg but already very complicated. I am
hopeful to get some more experience to be able to understand how the doctors are able to cope
up with hospice and palliative care daily.