Medicine/Pediatrics Personal Statement 1

As a child and young adult, when I envisioned myself as a physician, I invariably pictured myself in a primary care field. During my medical education, this future goal was challenged several times as there is such a vast number of interesting medical specialties from which to choose. Nonetheless, my thoughts and aspirations always returned to a career in primary care. I greatly enjoyed all the rotations during my third year of medical school. However, I found my rotations in both pediatrics and internal medicine particularly challenging and rewarding. While on floor services in internal medicine and pediatrics, I was challenged intellectually by the diagnosis and treatment of acute medical problems. Also, I experienced much gratification from the management of chronic medical conditions. Furthermore, during my rotations in ambulatory pediatrics and internal medicine, I found a great deal of satisfaction and fulfillment in the treatment of medical complaints and education of patients regarding health maintenance issues. For these reasons and several others, I feel a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics is the correct choice for me.
I hope to obtain an Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency position in an academic center that will provide me with a strong basis from which to practice medicine. After the completion of my residency, I intend to practice both internal medicine and pediatrics in either an academic setting or the private sector.
Growing up, I spent most of my childhood and adolescence living on a large farm in southwest Missouri. It was there that I learned a great deal about hard work, commitment and the importance of a strong loving family. These values continue to be very important to me. I believe they manifest themselves in both my family life and my work ethic.
During my residency training, I plan to spend the majority of my free time with my husband and daughter. A few of the activities and hobbies that my family and I are fond of are gardening, landscaping, home improvement, computers, playing basketball and rollerblading. With a portion of my remaining free time, I plan to continue to be active in community service as this has always been a vital part of my life. Throughout the first two years of medical school I was very active in the Child Abuse Prevention Task Force which educates children about the detection and prevention of child sexual abuse. Presently, I am coordinating a project to transfer child immunization records from medical charts to computer files. These files will then be linked via modem with other public and private health care providers in the St. Louis metropolitan area. This will increase the ease of accurately tracking patients' immunization history and secondarily increase the percentage of children who are up to date in their immunizations.
In closing, I am excited about starting the training for career which I have chosen. I hope my enthusiasm and dedication will be an asset to this profession.