Personal Statement Applying for Medical School

¶ … career in medicine, I almost feel compelled to state that for myself, it is past considering a career in medicine, rather, I already have had several 'lives' in the medical field, although not one coherent career. My preparation has not only been academic. It has also been personal and work-related as well. Most of my existence, in addition my schooling, has been wrapped up emotionally and practically in the pursuit and practice of the field of medicine. I have a passion not only for the more arcane aspects of organic chemistry and biology, but also for the daily interactions of a primary medical care that comes from working with actual patients.

In my experiences at the Atlantic Medical Center in Chicago, I worked in an administrative capacity as well as conducting blood tests, blood pressure exams, EKGs, and also measured the height, weight and temperature of patients. I did this not only because it was an occupation I was qualified for the medical field and could supplement my academic fields of premedical study. I also wished to experience what life was like in various capacities for an individual working in a large treatment center. I grew in appreciation not only of the impact various administrative snafus can have on the life of a patient. I also grew in my resolve not to replicate such mistakes myself when I am working as resident myself in such a center. Also, through my own mistakes and successes behind the desk, I gained a greater appreciation of the need for an effective support staff for a doctor. I will never take my support staff for granted when I am a student, resident, or doctor, because I know the efforts involved in such work first-hand.

In my work at the Atlantic Medical Center, I also began to understand how easy it was to make mistakes that made a patient's life more difficult in navigating the confusing system of medical care and referrals. I learned how difficult it was to run such a center effectively and effectively -- yet also how ultimately rewarding for patient and doctor was when all went smoothly.

From a future doctor's perspective, I began to understand how to make a patient feel more at ease while gaining a better understanding of his or her 'vital statistics.' These often only included blood pressure and height and weight, but even when obtaining such basic information one must be careful not to cause the patient to feel any undue alarm or embarrassment about any potential irregularities. Doctors are often criticized for their insensitivity to a patent's feelings, when pressured, particularly at such a large facility as Atlantic. From my experiences I have a better comprehension of showing a bit of human interest' in my patients and maintaining an easy sense of social interaction during an exam. Even from a health, rather than a social standpoint, I saw how the most involved physicians showed interest in patients' diet and exercise habits. I experienced firsthand how issues of patient care and 'wellness' education (as well as the diagnosis of illness) are often forgotten by attending physicians and remembered by the most effective health care professionals.

My areas of interest, however, are not only confined to patient care. I found my work in the lab, viewing the results of blood tests to be quite fascinating. It never ceased to amaze me how so much about a patient's condition could be revealed by a simple prick, by a simple drop of blood. The knowledge I gained through my studies at my university seemed to have more relevance and immediacy with the experiences I had at the medical center. I hope to have a similar and greater sense of awakening when training as a physician.

My other areas of work in the medical field were similarly varied and instructive. At the emergency room of Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, IL, I gained a better understanding of the necessary fast pace of an emergency room, which bore little resemblance to the televised images so familiar to my friends who were not pre-med. In the ER at Gottlieb Memorial, I assisted physicians with transporting patients, an often pressured but necessary part of life there, as well as in the more mundane tasks of stocking supplies and other routine administrative tasks. At Gottlieb, I gained a familiarity with medical equipment on quite a basic level as well as appreciated the staff's organization as an important supplement to the physicians' and residents' duties to the hectic pace of an ER.

Not all of my medical experiences have been in large facilities. I also performed similar duties at a doctor's office in Aurora, IL, also giving assistance in taking the patient's blood pressure, height, weight, temperature, and other patient measurements. I thus have experience in the most intimate environments patient care as well as the largest and most sweeping environments and thus understand the simultaneous but often contradictory needs for efficiency and intimacy in physician and patient interactions.