Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers

Fadumo is a first-year student at a local community college. She is thinking about becoming a healthcare worker. She likes the idea of helping people and giving back to her community. Fadumo is also a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels is a program that delivers hot meals to people who are elderly or sick. Twice a week Fadumo picks up the meals and delivers them to the people on her route.

Fadumo’s first delivery is to an 85-year-old man named Bob. Bob’s wife died a few years ago, and his children don’t live nearby, so now he is alone. Fadumo knows that Bob is often lonely. He misses having people to talk to. When Fadumo delivers Bob’s meal, she spends a few minutes talking to him about the weather and current events. Because she knows that Bob likes football, she asks him if he watched the game last night. Talking about the football game makes Bob very happy, and he grins broadly. After a few more minutes, Fadumo has to leave to deliver the other meals.

Fadumo really cares about all of the people on her delivery route. She knows that they are all sick or lonely, and she has a great deal of compassion for them. Sometimes she thinks of her own grandmother who was extremely sick before she died. Fadumo knows that her grandmother missed being able to see her friends. When she thinks about her grandmother, Fadumo has empathy for the people she delivers meals to. She tries to be a friend to them. She asks them questions so that she can learn what they like and what interests them. Although the conversations she has with the people on her route are not very long, they make an important difference.