hirnra Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Growing up in a small town in northern Wisconsin, I have seen firsthand how healthcare’s rising costs can impact families, towns, and small cities. I have family members and friends that neglect their health due to their inability to afford health care. In the area I grew up, entire hospitals have closed their doors and many that stayed open have extremely limited care. Therefore, it is my ultimate goal to further my career as a physician assistant and provide high-quality care to those rural areas with less means to healthcare. As my life has progressed my desire for helping others has become stronger. I grew up in a family surrounded by members immersed in the medical field. I always knew I wanted to do something in relation to medicine and assisting others. Starting college I was not sure what area of health science I wanted to pursue. It was not until my summers in between college that my inspiration for pursing a biology degree and furthering my career into the field of medicine started. During these summers I acquired a job caretaking for Dr. Jacobson. While spending the summer months with him, he shared numerous stories with me from his medical background. It was his enthusiasm and love of medicine that helped point me in the direction of pursing a physician assistant career. While obtaining my biology degree I was drawn to the hands on aspect of working in a laboratory. This eventually led me to pursue a job at Mayo Clinic as a clinical lab technologist in a Hepatitis and HIV laboratory. Through my clinical laboratory experiences I have been able to see a side of medicine that not all physician assistants might see. There is an immense amount of time, money and effort that goes into clinical laboratory testing and the results that I help to obtain assist physicians, physician assistants, nurses and other allied health staff directly with diagnosing and treating patients. My position at Mayo Clinic has led me to other opportunities to pursue my interests as a physician assistant. I currently volunteer in the Emergency Department at St Mary’s Hospital. Through volunteering I have the opportunity to work hands on with patients, families and a wide variety of healthcare professionals. Through my experience of volunteering, I was intrigued with the role of the physician assistants in the emergency department. They played a vital role in insuring the smooth operation of seeing patients and taking care of their needs. This inspired me to seek out shadowing opportunities in other physician assistant specialties. My shadowing experiences took place in a cardiac intensive care unit, a trauma surgical unit, and an outpatient family practice clinic. Through these shadowing experiences I confirmed that becoming a physician assistant is exactly the career for me in order to provide direct medical care and give back to my community. In my life and career thus far, I have bettered my communication skills, increased my proficiency in time management, enhanced my ability to work as a team member and as an individual, and fine tuned my problem solving skills. These assets can be applied across the field of medicine, including the physician assistant profession. I have gained a tremendous amount of respect for the role physician assistants contribute to the medical field. I am grateful for the opportunities I have had in life, but realize that my talents and desires will not be fulfilled until I am able to help patients in a more direct manor as a physician assistant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 "I have bettered my communication skills" Are you sure you want to go with that? Would "improve" work better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemoptysis Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Last sentence correction, "I am grateful for the opportunities I have had in life, but realize that my talents and desires will not be fulfilled until I am able to help patients in a more direct manor^(manner) as a physician assistant. " Unless of course you do want to serve patients in a castle-like edifice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mktalon Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 It is worded very awkwardly in many places. Read it aloud to yourself over and over so you can get the right flow and improve your wording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hirnra Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thanks to everyone so far. As far as content goes do I need more specific examples or is that not necessary? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmpetersen Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I was a little confused about Dr. Jacobsen...was he a retired, elderly MD? What exactly were you doing for him? If you were actually taking care of him..helping with ADLs, giving meds, etc...then you could elaborate a bit on that. I can't tell if your job was to actually care for him medically, or if you were just doing house-chores while he sat around with a gin-and-tonic, regaling you with stories from his medical career ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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