Heartfelt Healthcare

How Experiential Learning in Healthcare Fosters Relationships, Appreciation, and Understanding

By Teagan Harris

Rylie and her coworkers sat in the cafeteria, reading the latest obituary. They had just finished serving lunch, and the group had a moment to spare. Through the sorrows of losing another resident, Rylie smiled fondly at the kind words. Whoever wrote this one had loved the woman. Rylie did too, even though she had known her for only a year. 

She was thoughtful, loving, and passionate, and each of those traits was painted beautifully in the obituary. The grief of losing a resident was painful. However, reading obituaries brought Rylie and her coworkers comfort.

Rylie Connolly, a first-year psychology major at the University of Iowa (UI), is a dietary aid at the Mill Pond Nursing Home in Ankeny, Iowa. She has worked there since 2022, caring for elderly residents.

Before Connolly began her job, she had no idea what she wanted to do with her future. College was quickly approaching, and she needed direction. She began the desperate search for a part-time job in hopes of finding a career interest. 

She scoured the web for job applications and asked her friends for recommendations. She looked through countless job descriptions, but none of them seemed to fit. She just wasn’t interested in her options. 

Following the advice of her peers, Connolly applied to the Mill Pond Nursing Home. Although she had no experience with the elderly, her friends assured her it would be fulfilling. Finally, Connolly had hope and a plan.

To her surprise, she was accepted. On the morning of her first day, she excitedly–and nervously–prepared for work. As she drove to the nursing home, she didn’t know what to expect. Was she cut out for working with the elderly? Would she enjoy her job? Would she even be good at it? What if the residents didn’t like her?

Connolly spent her day preparing and serving meals to the residents, introducing herself to each one and learning their names. They were kind, and her fears dissipated. This wouldn’t be too bad.

But working in healthcare is not an easy task, Connolly soon discovered. She struggled watching the residents she cared about age and deteriorate. 

“The longer you work there, the harder it gets,” she said. “You get to know people more, or they've just been around for as long as you have.”

As each obituary is posted – one or two each month – she takes a bittersweet moment to read them. A sad task, Connolly searches for comfort in seeing how her patients were able to hold onto those things they loved so much in life while spending their final days in the nursing home.

Over time, Connolly fell in love with her job. She adored checking in with each resident every day, asking them about their evenings or their feelings. As much as each day got harder, Connolly fell in love with her patients even more. 

Each and every one of these residents became family to her.

Caring for the elderly, Connolly discovered, is a “niche thing that I hadn't realized that I would be super passionate about.”

Before beginning her work at Mill Pond, Connolly didn’t know what career she wanted to pursue, but her experience gave her clarity. 

“Oh, yeah, 100 percent,” Connolly said of whether her job affected her plans for the future. “I do know that I want to work with the elderly, and that is all because of my job.”

Experience in healthcare is invaluable for students hoping to pursue a career in medicine. 

“Most medical schools that I've written letters of recommendation for want to know about a student beyond the classes that they've taken,” UI Honors Program Director Shaun Vecera said, which can be achieved through the program’s experiential learning requirement. “Being in a non-classroom context and seeing how classroom material is applied gives students a broader range of experiences.”

On a similar note, Kate Hampson, an honors student majoring in political science, completed her experiential learning by volunteering at the Stead Family Children's Hospital. Hampson shared in her personal narrative, a reflection required upon completion of an experiential learning experience, how she volunteered so she could pursue her interest in healthcare. 

Hampson faced difficulties at first. She was shy and struggled with seeing all that her patients had to go through. Hampson wrote, “I watched upset parents and very sick kids go in and out of surgery.”

“I wanted nothing more than to take everyone’s pain away,” Hampson said. “And knowing I couldn’t [do that] upset me.”

She persevered through these feelings, though, and her future became clear. She grew confident and felt at home in a hospital setting. Hampson now knows she has found her calling.

“I want to work in a hospital after college,” she said. “My hours dedicated to this experience have shown me that a hospital career is somewhere that I would thrive.”

Healthcare experience provides more than preparation for a future career. Students learn valuable lessons from their work and volunteering that develop their thinking both as students and as people. 

“To really get the most personal growth out of the experience means that you as a student will be more intentional about what you're doing and why you're doing it,” Vecera said. 

After her hours at Mill Pond, Connolly now practices reflection beyond the honors requirements by keeping a journal where she records life advice from her residents. 

One interaction she remembers vividly occurred before she left for university. Connolly bid farewell to her nursing home patients, as she was going to miss them. The residents, who declared they’d also miss her, took interest in her future and asked if she was excited. Connolly happily replied that she was.

Her residents were overjoyed. 

“I'd hate for you to be going on an adventure that you didn't want to be on,” one resident responded.

That phrase stood out to Connolly. She is now deliberate in her life choices, careful to only walk the paths that are meaningful to her. 

“I want to make sure that the decisions that I'm making are for me and that I am excited for them,” she said.

She has also come to adore the aging process. Connolly has seen her residents live fulfilling, inspiring lives through their old age, and she finds it beautiful. In fact, Connolly is excited to have wrinkles one day.

“[Wrinkles are] a very good testament to show both the good things that have happened and the hardships that people have faced in life,” she said.

A healthcare experience Connolly wandered into completely altered the course of her life. Taking a step out of her comfort zone gave her a career and taught her valuable lessons.

Connolly cares deeply for the people around her and strives to improve as many lives as possible. And as she reads of her past residents, she hopes these traits will one day be celebrated in her own future obituary.

Indeed, an obituary is more than words on a page. It’s a testament to all a person has accomplished and all the lives they have touched. Life is built on experiences, and unexpected opportunities can change everything for the better in the end.