Summer working

Coming into the hospital setting has been a definite adjustment for me. I am so used to working with kids that I feel like most of the time what I do with them just comes naturally. In the hospital setting working with adults, I feel out of place and uncomfortable. I have to think very hard and even then I am often left feeling uncertain or frustrated with my lack of knowledge/skills. Further, the patients not only have physical needs that we are addressing, but they also have emotional needs that add a whole different dimension to the task. One of my first days we began seeing an elderly woman who was very frail, had a huge medical history, and swallowing problems. She hadn’t been eating much due to lack of appetite and we were in doing a meal check, trying to encourage her to eat and helping her with the food. She began talking a little bit about her life and history and problems she’s had in the past, etc. She made the statement “I’m afraid to live and I’m afraid to die,” and I was left speechless. Someone so vulnerable laying it all out there, admitting her fear…what was I supposed to say? Thankfully at this point my supervisor was still leading the sessions and she replied in some way (I don’t even fully remember what she said). But I am still left with the question of what to say to someone as they are very likely nearing the end of their life.