Since August 2023, I have been working in various healthcare roles in Beijing, including as a nurse intern (August 2023–October 2024) in a general healthcare setting, as well as a volunteer (September 2023–present) and a medical social worker assistant (December 2023–present) in hospice and palliative care. At the Hospice and Palliative Care Centers of Peking University Shougang Hospital and Gulou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I help design and implement social work-based palliative care programs, coordinate volunteer training, and facilitate ward activities for terminally ill patients, including hair washing, artistic companionship, and aroma care. I also offer psychological and spiritual support through narrative and dignity therapy.
While Beijing is generally well-resourced, my work reflects that “all health is global health, all medicine is social medicine” (Kasper et al., 2016) by addressing persistent healthcare disparities within seemingly resource-rich settings. Vulnerable populations—particularly terminally ill children and the elderly—face significant barriers to care. The gaps in hospice care are striking: a Lancet report reveals that only 16% of painkiller needs in China are met, compared to 3150% in the U.S. (Knaul et al., 2018). My work therefore addresses critical gaps in palliative care resources and the pressing needs of vulnerable populations, advocating for equitable care.
Artistic Companionship
Singing and dancing to the patient's favorite songs.
He happily claps, sings along, and taps to the rhythm.
New Year Blessings
During Chinese New Year, many terminally ill patients are unable to return home. I visited their rooms to bring them New Year wishes and, with a brush in hand, wrote 30 different versions of the character '福' (blessing) to give them a piece of joy and hope.
Casework Services
Using the techniques of narrative therapy, I guide patients to deeply share their life stories and uncover the inner energy within them. The most powerful internal force is their attitude toward life and death.
Community Advocacy for Palliative Care
Collaborated with a community health service center and promoted palliative care concepts to the elderly during the WHO World Hospice and Palliative Care Day.
"Family Blessing Photo" Social Work Project Design and Team Leader
Bringing the warmth of home into the ward, creating a sense of belonging for the patients. The core of the activity involves decorating the ward and capturing a beautiful "family portrait" photograph.
Haircut and Hair Washing
Providing haircuts and washing for long-term bedridden patients. This helps maintain their comfort and personal bearing, while also easing the caregivers' burden.
Home-Based Program
Visiting home-based patients as a medical social worker assistant. This elderly gentleman, who loved practicing Tai Chi in his younger years, now happily teaches us the "sword-finger" hand gesture.
Aroma Care
For patients in the final stages of life, their ability to communicate through language and visual symbols may gradually decline, but their sense of touch and hearing often remain until the very end. Therefore, a multimodal approach, with a special emphasis on tactile-based aroma care, is used to provide physical and psychological comfort, enhancing their quality of life.
Caring for Caregivers
Providing massages for hospice caregivers, offering them a moment of respite and relief.
Celebrating the Last Birthday
In the hospice ward, we held a final birthday celebration for a long-lived elder—a moment where life and death intertwined in both tension and harmony. A doctor watching the scene remarked, “This is the grandest birthday we’ve ever had in our hospice.” Death takes nothing away; it is a retelling of life. Surrounded by loved ones, he was passing as he lived.
Crafting & Companionship for Children
Ward Choir
Dancing with Children
Alongside my clinical work, I conducted independent research, The Institutional and Cultural Context of Hospice Care Localization in China. The project culminated in 150,000 words of fieldwork notes and 14,000 words of ethnography.
Mentored by Prof. Guo Jinhua, a medical anthropologist at Peking University, I explored the lived experiences of end-of-life patients and their families to shed light on the cultural deterrents and facilitators of hospice care localization. In one case, while interning at a CCU, the family of a deceased woman insisted on keeping her endotracheal tube in place until her body could be transported to her natal village. They feared removing the tube would cause her to lose “qi” (life force represented by breath) before reaching her ancestral home, condemning her spirit to wander. I was overwhelmed by the compounded suffering of the patient, her family, and clinicians—much of which could have been alleviated with better access to palliative care. At Shougang Hospice, despite having adequate access to analgesics, many patients declined pain relief, viewing endurance of suffering as a virtue and expressing reluctance to burden their families or utilize public healthcare resources. At Gulou Hospice, volunteers affectionately called senior patients “yeye” or “nainai,” terms used for biological grandparents. This fictive kinship reflects that though the marketization and institutionalization of care, inherently defamiliarize, they nonetheless remain deeply rooted in Chinese familial culture. However, this cultural emphasis on family carries uneven implications, as familial paternalism often discourages open discussion about dying.
These experiences underscored that the notion “death is fair” is a myth—inequities in palliative care stem from the complex interplay between cultural and structural forces.