personal statement
as of this evening... my apps are officially submitted. Here's my essay:
Making the decision to become a physician has been an aspect of my life that guides many of my daily activities. At Arizona State, I focused on two essential areas of life: both the knowledge and the practice of subjects within the fields of science and culture. Studying biology has given me the tools to understand the structure of the world and how it works in processes, while studying Spanish has helped me to communicate and understand various cultural situations and their interactions on many levels. Communication is a universal process, yet it can be drastically different within cultural boundaries. In order to further my own cultural awareness, I have studied and spoken Spanish for the past six years and I look forward to the opportunity to connect with multicultural patients on a daily basis as a physician.
Many of the experiences in medicine that remain with me have been the result of patient interaction through my job as a medical secretary at a private internal medicine practice. With this job, I experience both the joy and the disappointments that primary care medicine currently faces. Working with patients is a truly rewarding experience, and having the opportunity to interact with them on a daily basis gives me a great insight into my desire and capacity for the field of medicine; it has also shown me the often subtle interaction between the aspects of the body and the mind and the significance of good communication. Patience, respect, and good listening skills seem to have more of an influence than any medication prescribed. My experiences have helped me to understand the importance of compassion and shown me how essential it is to be the kind of person that embodies these qualities, both for my own sake and the sake of others.
As a community college biology and chemistry tutor, my experiences have helped me to understand how challenging and rewarding it can be to help others. The students I help at the learning center remind me very much of the patients I work with every day. Though the two situations may seem strikingly different at first, our positions are often not so distinct. Both students and patients come seeking aid and guidance, and my position is to inform and reassure them, while helping to give them the tools they need to actively work towards the positive progression of their condition. Volunteering at the hospital has also helped me to connect my compassion for others with my commitment to serve them, and it has guided me on an significant pathway by which I feel I can positively impact the lives of others, even if only in the smallest way.
One of my most vivid experiences in the field happened during my pre-med internship in the emergency department. A man in his forties had recently undergone cardiac surgery, and was unfortunately returning to the hospital in cardiac arrest. I performed chest compressions and assisted with CPR while the amount of energy and effort coming from everyone in the room became incredibly intense. However, it was in the aftermath that I realized where the true energy would be expended when the man could not be revived and he passed away just beneath my gloved, clenched hands. His wife and three children arrived minutes after he had died, and no words could comfort their grief. While they questioned why he had died and what they would do without him, it didn’t matter that I didn’t have the answers to their questions. The important thing was that the team was there to handle his tragic situation when it became dire, that we had done everything within our power and knowledge to do, and that we cared enough to stay there and comfort them with compassion and sensitivity.
This experience, more than any other, gave me a sense of how medicine is a truly integral part of the dynamic community—it provides the stability that helps to keep order in the craziness of the modern world, and while in some ways, at many times it can be quite complex, the glue that keeps it together is simple: morality, integrity, empathy and sensitivity. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “the truth is that medicine, professedly founded on observation, is as sensitive to outside influences, political, religious, philosophical, imaginative, as is the barometer to the changes of atmospheric density.”
It has been the combination of many aspects of my experiences in the medical field and otherwise that have helped me to decide becoming physician is the right path for me. Seeing not only the positive aspects of medicine, but also the realities of frustration and the limitations within the constraints of the modern system has given me an often blatantly bold view of the dream I actively seek. I do not fear the future of medicine, nor do I look towards it blindly; I embrace it, knowing it is the nature of physicians that will continue to hold the integrity and compassion at the heart of medicine.
k
good song: "Hide & Seek" by Imogen Heap
Making the decision to become a physician has been an aspect of my life that guides many of my daily activities. At Arizona State, I focused on two essential areas of life: both the knowledge and the practice of subjects within the fields of science and culture. Studying biology has given me the tools to understand the structure of the world and how it works in processes, while studying Spanish has helped me to communicate and understand various cultural situations and their interactions on many levels. Communication is a universal process, yet it can be drastically different within cultural boundaries. In order to further my own cultural awareness, I have studied and spoken Spanish for the past six years and I look forward to the opportunity to connect with multicultural patients on a daily basis as a physician.
Many of the experiences in medicine that remain with me have been the result of patient interaction through my job as a medical secretary at a private internal medicine practice. With this job, I experience both the joy and the disappointments that primary care medicine currently faces. Working with patients is a truly rewarding experience, and having the opportunity to interact with them on a daily basis gives me a great insight into my desire and capacity for the field of medicine; it has also shown me the often subtle interaction between the aspects of the body and the mind and the significance of good communication. Patience, respect, and good listening skills seem to have more of an influence than any medication prescribed. My experiences have helped me to understand the importance of compassion and shown me how essential it is to be the kind of person that embodies these qualities, both for my own sake and the sake of others.
As a community college biology and chemistry tutor, my experiences have helped me to understand how challenging and rewarding it can be to help others. The students I help at the learning center remind me very much of the patients I work with every day. Though the two situations may seem strikingly different at first, our positions are often not so distinct. Both students and patients come seeking aid and guidance, and my position is to inform and reassure them, while helping to give them the tools they need to actively work towards the positive progression of their condition. Volunteering at the hospital has also helped me to connect my compassion for others with my commitment to serve them, and it has guided me on an significant pathway by which I feel I can positively impact the lives of others, even if only in the smallest way.
One of my most vivid experiences in the field happened during my pre-med internship in the emergency department. A man in his forties had recently undergone cardiac surgery, and was unfortunately returning to the hospital in cardiac arrest. I performed chest compressions and assisted with CPR while the amount of energy and effort coming from everyone in the room became incredibly intense. However, it was in the aftermath that I realized where the true energy would be expended when the man could not be revived and he passed away just beneath my gloved, clenched hands. His wife and three children arrived minutes after he had died, and no words could comfort their grief. While they questioned why he had died and what they would do without him, it didn’t matter that I didn’t have the answers to their questions. The important thing was that the team was there to handle his tragic situation when it became dire, that we had done everything within our power and knowledge to do, and that we cared enough to stay there and comfort them with compassion and sensitivity.
This experience, more than any other, gave me a sense of how medicine is a truly integral part of the dynamic community—it provides the stability that helps to keep order in the craziness of the modern world, and while in some ways, at many times it can be quite complex, the glue that keeps it together is simple: morality, integrity, empathy and sensitivity. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “the truth is that medicine, professedly founded on observation, is as sensitive to outside influences, political, religious, philosophical, imaginative, as is the barometer to the changes of atmospheric density.”
It has been the combination of many aspects of my experiences in the medical field and otherwise that have helped me to decide becoming physician is the right path for me. Seeing not only the positive aspects of medicine, but also the realities of frustration and the limitations within the constraints of the modern system has given me an often blatantly bold view of the dream I actively seek. I do not fear the future of medicine, nor do I look towards it blindly; I embrace it, knowing it is the nature of physicians that will continue to hold the integrity and compassion at the heart of medicine.
k
good song: "Hide & Seek" by Imogen Heap
posted by Kim at 9:51 PM
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