Giving Back

For my community service I decided to visit King’s Manor Methodist Retirement Home in Hereford. I’ve volunteered there before in the past, and I can honestly say I love the atmosphere there. Both days I had the pleasure of assisting the residents with their recreational activities. In the morning I helped them to the activities room and gave them fresh coffee and cookies. I sat with them as they watched television. I also helped them with Bingo in the afternoon. The best part of volunteering was definitely just interacting with the residents and talking to them. They get so lonely sometimes so it’s nice to be able to give them company and just listen to their stories.  As a nursing student, I have always considered working in a retirement home as a possible path. After having clinical rotations at both nursing homes in Hereford, I’ve seen that it’s extremely rewarding work being able to care for an individual that has been the one to care for their family for their whole lives, but now they are the ones that are vulnerable and in need of assistance. It’s difficult for a lot of older people to have to rely so much on others when they’ve taken care of themselves up until fall or their stroke or their life-changing event that caused them to need assistance with activities of daily living. The most challenging part of volunteering was seeing elderly people have minimal interaction with family or loved ones. I’m the kind of person that sees senior citizens and thinks, “Aw, they’re so cute!”, so it was hard to not get emotionally invested in residents when I noticed that they don’t have many visitors. I gained so much from volunteering and hope to volunteer at King’s Manor again in the future. It’s always humbling to be able to give back to the community even if it’s just listening to a kind, elderly person’s stories.