Media release from Atrium Health Floyd:
When Ishani Desai first volunteered at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center, she could not have known the village of supporters and encouragers she was joining.
When schools and colleges moved to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rome native and Georgia Tech graduate discovered that Atrium Health Floyd was one of the few hospital programs that continued to use volunteers.
Desai started by escorting patients and family members to and from the surgery suites on Floyd Medical Center’s second floor. While serving there, she had a chance encounter with Floyd chaplain Greg Cater. Greg needed someone to witness the signing of an Advance Directive. This important medical document helps patients by thoughtfully walking through a series of decisions regarding the kind of care they would like to receive should they become incapacitated and unable to answer questions about their care.
Floyd’s Pastoral Services team recognized her intelligence and sensitivity. Working with Carolyn Falcitelli, director of volunteer services, they asked if she’d like to learn more about Advance Directives and help execute them for patients in the hospital.
Desai didn’t exactly jump at the chance. The work was rewarding, but it is emotionally taxing. Did she want a volunteer role that added that kind of stress to her life?
Chaplains understand the deep level of personal connection and the emotional toll of leading Advance Directive conversations. To help her find balance, Jason Jordan, Greg Cater and Chris Barbieri offered her the opportunity to round on hospital floors, handing out candy to nurses and other clinical teammates as a way to encourage them to take a pause in their hectic, challenging work.
Desai agreed to give it try.
A pre-med major at the time, she said “I was trying to find my footing and whether I wanted to practice medicine or not.”
Her experiences with Advance Directives and rounding helped her mature. She learned important lessons about empathy, gaining trust and navigating difficult conversations. It was then that she had her “a-ha moment.”
“This experience is the very reason I solidified medicine as a career choice,” she said. “I was always interested in chemistry, and I loved that whole world. I had thought, ‘Maybe I’ll get a PhD. Maybe I’ll go to grad school or med school.’
Being with people at a critical time of life is gratifying, she said. It requires a leap of faith for both the patient and the person walking them through the process.
Desai volunteered at Floyd for three years, stopping only because she started medical school in Augusta.
This year, she returned to Floyd, not as a volunteer, but as a third-year medical student. She’s performing her core clinical rotations in northwest Georgia under the direction of Harbin Clinic surgeon Dr. Paul Brock. She expects to complete medical school in 2027.
In her practice, Ishani knows she wants to have direct patient interaction, and she knows she wants to specialize in a critical care field.
How is she so certain of that path? It stems from her volunteer work, a message especially important in April, which is National Volunteer Month. Ishani found her volunteer experience so gratifying that it helped her to make this monumentally important career decision.
“It is such an amazing part of human connection. I know then that whatever specialty I choose, I want to be in the hospital with people when they are scared for their lives. That brings a whole other level of caring and compassion.”
