Family Practice Personal Statement 2

Since the age of 6 years old, I found myself frequently in the emergency room due to severe asthma. It was frightening as a child, but I clearly recall the warm and friendly doctors who comforted me. Since I grew up on Welfare and Medi-Care, it meant sometimes having to wait long hours before getting medical attention. While waiting, I would chat with other patients and found that I was overwhelmed by the vast array of existing illnesses. Today I am no longer overwhelmed by the intricacies of medical diseases, but instead I’m inspired by the challenges of caring for a broad spectrum of various ailments. This is one of the reasons I have chosen family medicine.
I am a University of State graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Physiology. I participated in an internship at State Medical Center in the operating room where I found that I enjoyed easing the anxieties of patients’ pre and post surgery. In addition, I worked with a paraplegic for one year who I cared for daily. My patient was extremely frustrated because he had to be entirely dependent on me for many daily functions. However, there was no greater fulfillment than to see him grow comfortable and trusting toward me because I not only cared for him medically, but I took the time to establish a strong bond. This experience helped me develop a great compassion and understanding of the difficulties patients have co-existing with their physical disabilities. My desire to launch a positive role in a patient’s recovery along with the long term interactions established through continual care, have been other factors that have sparked my further interest in pursuing Family Medicine.
The goal of improving my Spanish contributed to my decision to attend medical school at the University in Guadalajara, Mexico. I had the fortunate experience of working with Spanish speaking patients in a family practice clinic. I was able to follow the entire family history of many patients throughout three years. Being able to become an integral part of these patients’ lives is another crucial factor that causes me to seek family practice. During my last year of medical school, I participated in the pre-internship program at the Mexican Institute of Social Services which provided me with outstanding training. I enjoyed rotating through all of the various rotations; especially pediatric, obstetrics, dermatology, and geriatrics. Family practice is well suited for me because it encompasses a multitude of areas in medicine. I want to continually be faced with the challenges that family medicine offers such as diagnosing a wide-range of diseases from different specialties, instead of focusing on one particular disease or organ system.
I also enjoy working with the elderly and learned some of their fears when I took care of my most important patient yet, my mother. I took a semester off to care for my mother who was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer. Although it was extremely difficult emotionally watching her suffer daily, I knew that I had done my best in caring for her. I learned that many elderly patients neglect routine medical care and are hesitant or afraid to seek medical attention. As a consequence, they endanger their health or lives. My experiences have helped me mature greatly and have made me realize the critical responsibility as a primary care provider to continually teach preventive care.
I am applying to your residency program in family medicine because it is a well rounded community based program with broad-based training and a high level of responsibility that will prepare me to practice in settings comprised of a diverse population. In the future, I see myself as training future medical students. In addition, I plan to serve as a health advocate and mentor to children and adolescents. I feel that I will be an excellent role model for children, especially those in underserved communities, since I too grew up in an underserved area myself. I would like to return to my community or an underserved community where I feel that I am well prepared to fulfill the challenges and needs of my patients.
I am confident that I will benefit your residency program because I have learned how to work and interact well with patients, families, doctors, and my colleagues through my life experiences. I also will never forget my earliest impressions of the dedicated and kind doctors from the emergency room. This is the type of Doctor I will be for all my patients.