First draft---any advice appreciated!! TIA.

[rr7720a]

I can remember waking up in the recovery room and seeing my parents waving at me with big smiles on their faces. After having heart surgery at the young age of seven, it was comforting to have this be the first sight out of the operating room. Throughout my post-surgical hospital admission I developed an interest in what was happening around me and since that time I have been eager to learn more about the human body. I can remember being excited to go to doctor appointments growing up, and on my last visit with my pediatrician as a senior in high school I told her that I was going to take her spot one day. My early life experiences contributed to my interest in science and medicine, but it was experiences in my adult life that lead me to the decision to become a physician assistant. 

 

As a young freshman in college with minimal experience in the world of health professions, I chose biology as my major and was on the pre-medical track. I have always enjoyed science classes, and particularly loved anatomy my senior year of high school, so I decided that majoring in biology would be the best way to continue taking as many science courses as possible as an undergraduate. In addition to my coursework, I joined the pre-medical society, was a volunteer at the Children’s hospital, and was a member of multiple honor societies. One memorable experience during my undergraduate career was volunteering as a counselor at Camp Rhythm, a camp for children born with heart defects, which was organized by the hospital where I had my surgery as a child. This experience not only made me grateful that I was able to help my campers by relating to them in a different way than most of the other counselors, but also confirmed my desire to be able to help children like them as patients in the future. 

 

When it came time for graduation I knew I wanted to practice medicine, but I was not convinced that I was ready to go to medical school. In order to become more familiar with medical providers and how they practice, I took a position as a scribe at a local emergency department. My passion for medicine continued to grow with each shift and I was always eager to see what the day would bring. I developed close relationships with the entire healthcare team in the department, and I became familiar with the role of nurses, patient care technicians, radiology technicians, pharmacists, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and, of course, physicians. I excelled in my career as a scribe, which lead me to receive the “Scribe of the Year” award two years in a row, a promotion to floor trainer, and subsequently a promotion to project leader. During my time as a project leader I enjoyed meeting providers from different parts of the country while hiring and training scribes to work in various departments. I got to train scribes in both a classroom setting and a floor setting in which they were actively working with the providers. I was passionate about my work and went above and beyond to ensure that the new scribes had an equally positive experience with scribing as I did. For example, one of my scribes was struggling to learn all of the information in the beginning and needed some extra help. I offered to add more training shifts to the schedule and let her come in and shadow me so she would be able to reach the proficiency needed to work on her own. She later ended up becoming chief scribe of her department and is now in medical school. It is rewarding to know that by taking extra time out of my schedule I was able to contribute to someone being able to pursue their dreams. 

 

Although I loved project leading, I eventually obtained a position as a clinical research coordinator on the breast oncology team at Washington University in St. Louis. This allowed me to have a more typical schedule with less travel so I could start taking classes in order to be a more competitive applicant for graduate school. Working in clinical research was very interesting, however, the time I got to interact with the patients was minimal compared to what I was expecting. I missed having the ability to be present in the medical decision making process and found myself making excuses to run errands near the infusion center so I could go check on my patients while they were receiving chemotherapy. My desire for close interaction with patients lead me to working as a physician facilitator, which was a job that was recommended to me by a physician that I previously scribed for. 

 

As a physician facilitator I was able to scribe for providers while also functioning as a patient care technician. It was during this time that I got to work closely with physician assistants and began to understand their role in the healthcare team. Many of them held previous positions in different specialties and some even continued working in other specialties while picking up urgent care shifts as needed. This was something I was drawn to, as I like the idea of being able to practice in various patient care settings without having to complete a new residency each time. The collaboration with nursing staff and physicians was also something about physician assistants that was appealing to me. I firmly believe that the team approach to patient care is essential for the future of healthcare and helps to minimize medical error. Overall, this experience lead me to realize that my desire to practice medicine would best be fulfilled by becoming a physician assistant. 

 

Since I had been out of school for a while when I decided to apply to physician assistant school, I enrolled in a formal post-baccalaureate program in order to prove that I was able to handle the rigorous courses required for PA school. I found that studying was much easier in my post-baccalaureate career because my work experiences had motivated me to become a PA, which is reflected in my 3.9 GPA. In addition to my exceptional GPA, I was recommended to be a teaching assistant by my organic chemistry professor and taught one semester of undergraduate general chemistry lab. I also continued scribing part-time because it has always been a positive experience for me and I wanted to continue working in a healthcare setting. 

 

 

My life experiences have provided me with the knowledge, patience, and maturity that it takes to be successful as a medical provider. My desire to become a PA stems from a working knowledge of their role in health care and I am committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve my goal of providing patient care as a physician assistant.

[cpickles18]

Hello, you did a good job of outlining your experiences however you do not focus much on being a PA until the end. It reads like a resume. You talk more about medical school than becoming a PA at the beginning which as a admissions person would turn me off (but I'm not one so who am I to say). The prompt question is why do you want to be a PA so every thing you mention you want it to relate back to the main prompt. My two cents.