University of New England medical student Caitlin Farrell, 27, shares a quiet moment with hospice patient Bud Crocker at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough.

Kelly McVan and Farrell take notes in the kitchen at the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House during the first day of a 48-hour immersion into the hospice world.

Jessica Duffy, the Gosnell House director, worked with UNE medical students during the volunteer immersion program.

Loved ones embrace after saying goodbye to a patient who died at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House on Jan. 30.

Farrell is comforted be fellow student Himanshu Malhotra as she tells an auditorium filled with medical students about the death of her father Friday. Farrell says her father died in the intensive care unit of a hospital, and that her interest in hospice is partly due to that experience.

Patient Bud Crocker shares a laugh with Farrell and McVan.

Farrell watches intently out the window as a body is loaded into a hearse outside Gosnell Memorial Hospice House. Farrell and McVan were in the first hour of a 48-hour volunteer immersion pilot program.

McVan and Caitlin Farrell, two UNE medical students, chat at the nurse's station at the Scarborough hospice house.

Farrell holds the hand of patient Bud Crocker as she makes rounds at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough.