Representative Student Work

Guest Speaker Reflections
Learning Through Lived Experience

Assignment Context

Guest speaker reflections follow sessions with donor families, transplant recipients, donation coordinators, clinicians, and others working within the organ donation and transplantation system. Students listen without taking notes. The absence of note-taking is intentional. It requires students to remain present, to tolerate uncertainty, and to resist the impulse to immediately organize lived experience into arguments, themes, or conclusions.

After each session, students write a reflective piece focused not on summarizing what was said, but on how the encounter reshaped their understanding of ethics, care, responsibility, and system design. Strong submissions demonstrate disciplined listening, ethical restraint, and an ability to remain thoughtful in the presence of grief, generosity, disagreement, and loss.

The excerpts below are shared as exemplars. They are not templates or model answers. They are anonymized to preserve privacy and to keep the focus on the quality of thinking rather than authorship.

Witnessing the System From the Inside

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2025

“When the donor family spoke, I felt an immediate urge to organize their story into arguments and themes. Not being able to take notes made that impossible. I had to sit with the weight of what they were saying instead of turning it into something useful. I noticed how uncomfortable that was, and how often I rely on structure to protect myself from emotion.

I kept waiting for the moment where the story would resolve into something clear or instructive, but it never did. That unsettled me. I realized how much I expect learning to feel tidy, and how unprepared I was to simply witness something painful without trying to fix it.

What stayed with me most was the silence afterward. No one rushed to speak. It felt heavy, but also respectful. In that moment, I understood why you told us that silence was part of the work. It created space for the experience to land rather than be immediately processed away.”

Comment
This excerpt demonstrates disciplined listening and restraint. The student notices the impulse to convert lived experience into something manageable and chooses instead to remain present long enough for complexity to do its work.

The Coordinator’s Work Is Relational, Not Transactional

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2024

“Before this session, I believed the role of the donation coordinator was primarily logistical, ensuring steps were completed efficiently and accurately. Hearing directly from a coordinator reframed this understanding entirely. The work described was emotional, relational, and often invisible.

The coordinator spoke about holding multiple truths at once: advocating for the donor’s wishes, supporting families in acute grief, and navigating institutional pressures. What became clear was that coordination is less about moving cases forward and more about holding space when no direction feels right.

This challenged my tendency to evaluate effectiveness through measurable outcomes. Much of the coordinator’s labor cannot be quantified. Its success is reflected in how families remember the experience months or years later, long after clinical metrics have been archived.”

Comment
This reflection shows a shift from procedural evaluation to relational evaluation. The student recognizes moral and emotional labor as a core feature of the system rather than an accessory to it.

Receiving a Second Life

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2025

“The transplant recipient described their experience not as a single moment of salvation, but as an ongoing responsibility. Survival came with gratitude, guilt, and a persistent awareness of another family’s loss. This complexity was not something I had previously associated with successful transplantation.

What stood out was the recipient’s insistence that donation should never be framed as purely heroic or redemptive. Doing so risks flattening the reality of grief and placing unspoken expectations on recipients to be endlessly grateful. Their honesty complicated my understanding of ‘benefit’ in transplantation.

This reframing forced me to reconsider how narratives of success are constructed within healthcare. Celebrating survival without acknowledging loss may protect institutions, but it does little to honor the full human cost of transplantation.”

Comment
This excerpt demonstrates ethical maturity through refusal to simplify. The student recognizes how institutional success narratives can obscure loss that continues to matter.

What It Means to Be Listened To

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2024

“Across all speakers, a common theme emerged: the desire to be heard without being managed. Whether donor family, coordinator, or recipient, each described moments where being listened to mattered more than what was said in response.

This challenged my belief that difficult conversations require answers. Instead, the speakers emphasized restraint, humility, and presence. The most meaningful interactions were those where professionals resisted the urge to explain, justify, or move forward too quickly.

I am left questioning how often systems prioritize resolution over recognition. The guest speakers revealed that healing is not always about closure, but about being allowed to tell the story in one’s own time and language.”

Comment
This excerpt shows synthesis across roles and perspectives. The student identifies listening as an ethical practice rather than a communication technique.

Care Did Not End With the Decision

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2025

“What struck me most in listening to the donor family was the way care extended well beyond the moment of consent. Cheryl described how, even in the depths of her own grief, she remained attentive to how others were experiencing the process—nurses, physicians, coordinators, and even future recipients she would never meet.

She spoke about choosing words carefully, correcting misconceptions gently, and advocating for dignity not only for her loved one but for other families who would come after her. This was not framed as obligation, but as meaning-making. Donation became a way of staying connected while also protecting others from unnecessary harm.

What challenged me was realizing that the system often treats donor families as recipients of care alone. Cheryl’s narrative revealed something much more reciprocal: families often provide emotional regulation, moral clarity, and generosity to the system at a time when it is least deserved.”

Comment
This reflection positions donor families as ethical stewards rather than passive participants. The student recognizes care as reciprocal, moral, and relational.

Teaching Us How to Hold Grief

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2024

“Michele reframed grief as something that can be held, rather than resolved. She described moments where clinicians attempted to make things better through reassurance or efficiency, and how those moments often felt misaligned with what she needed.

What she offered instead was a model of presence: slowing conversations, allowing silence, and acknowledging uncertainty. The most meaningful care came from those who did not try to take pain away, but who were willing to sit beside it.

I was struck by how often Michele described herself as protecting others—explaining donation to extended family, correcting harmful narratives, and even supporting staff who were visibly affected. Her care was quiet and unrecognized, yet deeply formative.”

Comment
This excerpt demonstrates recognition of care as presence rather than reassurance. The student identifies donor families as providers of containment and ethical guidance.

Choosing Generosity Without Erasing Loss

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2025

“One of the most powerful insights from the donor family session was the refusal to frame donation as closure. Cheryl explicitly rejected the idea that donation made things better. Instead, she described it as a decision that lived alongsidepermanent loss.

What felt most instructive was how she modeled generosity without minimizing pain. She spoke openly about moments of anger, exhaustion, and doubt, while still expressing a commitment to honesty and compassion toward the healthcare team.

This challenged my assumption that generosity requires emotional resolution. The donor family demonstrated that care can coexist with unresolved grief, and that ethical engagement does not require emotional neatness.”

Comment
This excerpt shows the student learning that generosity can coexist with grief and that ethical clarity does not require emotional closure.

Care as Legacy

HTHSCI 3DT3 student, 2024

“Both donor family speakers described care as something that could be carried forward, not as a task, but as a legacy. They spoke about future families they would never meet, and how sharing their stories was meant to shape a kinder system.

What became clear was that their participation as guest speakers was itself an act of care. They returned to painful memories not for personal benefit, but to educate, challenge, and humanize those of us who may one day occupy positions of authority.

This forced me to reconsider what responsibility looks like in healthcare education. The donor families were doing work that institutions rarely compensate or formally recognize, yet that work may be among the most influential learning experiences we encounter.”

Comment
This excerpt frames testimony as ethical labor. The student recognizes donor families as co-educators and names the moral weight of that role.

Summary

Across these reflections, students learn to listen without instrumentalizing lived experience and to remain present without rushing to interpretation. The strongest work holds grief and generosity together, treats silence as meaningful, and recognizes how donor families, coordinators, and recipients provide care to the system even while carrying profound loss themselves.

Please Note: Attribution and Student Recognition

All excerpts are presented anonymously to protect privacy and support intellectual risk-taking. If a student recognizes their work and would like to be credited, they are welcome to contact the course instructor directly and share the original submission. With permission, attribution can be added.

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