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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Regional Journey Hospice strives to help community

    Regional Journey Hospice not only gives students the chance to build up their resume and gather experience, but the foundation also helps students aid the community and people in it. 

    Hospice is a volunteer program for students of any major. It is mainly compassion care, meaning students give emotional, mental and spiritual encouragement to terminally ill patients. This could include visiting them regularly and performing duties as a sitter, helping patients with certain tasks and making sure they remain in the best of conditions. The tasks volunteers perform ranges from reading to their patients to helping them around the house. The volunteer’s tasks are designed to fit the needs of the individual patent.

    Students with special talents can also donate them to the foundation to help patients. For example, one student played the piano for patients at the Assisted Living Home while another brought pets to their patient, providing a form of pet therapy.

    “Hospice volunteering is all about compassion caring for people who are terminally ill, so it is kind of heavy duty,” said volunteer coordinator of Regional Journey Hospice Jim Louviere. “This is serious. You are helping patients and families.”

    Students who are majoring in pre-med, nursing, physical therapy or psychology can get a special opportunity out of this. Hospice has a medical team that meets regularly with students interested in the medical world. 

    “We have a medical team, including a nurse, doctor and social worker,” said Louviere. “Sometimes the students come and sit in to get the experience of the medical side of Hospice care.”

    Hospice gives students who are pursuing a career in the medical field that chance to feel out what some of the components will be in their future jobs. This gives students the opportunity to see how they will react to certain aspects they will encounter later on. 

    “The variety of medical care gives students a little taste [of the medical world] and dealing with the sick, which all people in the medical area have to deal with,” said Louviere. “It gives them the taste of dealing with terminally ill patients, people who are processing the death and dying issue, which is what you will also face in the medical world. If that’s something you can’t handles then that’s something you should find out sooner than later. A lot of the times, major and medical schools require some community service so volunteering helps you in that aspect as well.”

    In addition to gaining access to the medical world, volunteering helps the patients.

    “It is an encouragement to them,” said Louviere. “They enjoy having company. They enjoy meeting young adults because you guys seem like kids. It also helps the family who can’t go all the time.”

    According to Louviere, compassion is the main component any volunteer needs because this involves end of life care.

    “We believe in dignity of life,” said Louviere. “The life  of a person is just as valuable, healthy or sick. Just because you’re sick doesn’t mean your less equal. We want to respect people and give the greatest care possible to the end.” 

    Volunteering for Hospice also can give students the chance to broaden their horizons and be exposed to the real world.

    “Your world is very different from somebody who is elderly and ill and faced with this cancer,” said Louviere. “That’s not your world most of the time so you are definitely out of your comfort zone. It’s a whole new world. It’s not your world so it’s something that stretches you and I think that’s a good thing for students.”

    Applying to volunteer for Hospice is a two-step process. A student who is interested must first contact Louviere either by phone or email. The next step involves meeting Louviere for an informal interview. If the student is accepted to volunteer, they will be assigned a certain amount of patients. Students can choose how many patients they want to help as well as where and when. 

    For more information, contact Louviere at [email protected].

     
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