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Born into a family of farmers from a small village in the southern part of India has given me a real life view of a community with significant healthcare needs but limited health care resources. I can still vividly remember the seven-year-old me rushing down to the hospital with great fear and anxiety to see my grandma, who just had a heart attack. Sitting nervously at her bedside, I watched her slowly die due to lack of proper medical care. As time went on, I lost my grandpa to diabetes, a cousin to tuberculosis, a dear friend to leukemia and my own mother to complications of pregnancy. Those tragic consecutive events of my life inspired in me the burning desire to become a doctor.

 

I graduated from medical school with a philosophy in life - to provide health care services to the poor and underprivileged of the society. My initial 4years were spent serving rural India in the states of Chhattisgarh and Punjab as I worked in small Christian mission hospitals. These hospitals served more than three hundred villages and by establishing village health clinics, my colleagues and I were able to provide medical care for men, women, and children. We also educated them about how common preventive health principles can help them and witnessed how sensible and well-planned health care interventions can change people's lives. Working there made me understand how primary care can help decrease both

morbidity and mortality resulting from heart disease, stroke, and cancer. While performing simple tests, procedures and follow-up care, we were able to lower the cost of medical care as well as hospitalizations. Working as the doctor in these mission hospitals taught me to be humble in the face of success and to be courageous in the times of adversity. The honor of being trusted to give advice in troubled times and to realize that I can't always make my patients feel better, but the opportunity to try cannot be underestimated.

I wanted to go further in my medical education by studying primary care, but a call from home informing me that my dad had a stroke, changed everything. As a doctor, I was confident that I would be able to take care of him, only to realize how unprepared I was. Being a doctor and a son, I felt guilt, stress and conflicting emotions as I was providing day-to-day care for my dad. That was the first time in my life that I knew what it was like to be in the shoes of caregivers who make many sacrifices to take care of their loved ones. I have also experienced the agony of traveling to inconvenient places that were very expensive, yet lacked proper care. In those areas, I found out that the specialist doctors lacked the time required to spend with their patients due to time constraints, which in turn led to substandard care. Then, I realized there was a dire need for an effective medical facility that would provide affordable and quality care to the patients in those areas.

During this time, my wife moved to the U.S to be with her parents, but I stayed back in India due to my commitments at home. While I was visiting my wife in the U.S, I had the opportunity to meet Cynthia, a physician assistant in the office where my wife worked as a medical assistant. She spent time inquiring about the present complaints while providing preventive care advice. She also monitored any existing conditions to avoid any future complications. She coordinated her work with the internist in the clinic to provide better care for her patients and I was impressed with how she and the internist made a very good team. It was not the quantity, but the quality of the care they provided that made a strong impression in our hearts (my wife and I). She reflected the type of medical practice I was looking for in India. From then on, my wife and I both decided to pursue careers as physician Assistants. Due to financial restraints and my commitments in India, I decided to let my wife join the PA program first while I provided for the family.

Choosing to join PA school is not a decision that I made in haste. As a person who has practiced medicine for 10 long years in India, this decision of mine might sound unconventional and strange, but dedicating the past 2 years to do all the prerequisite courses shows my perseverance and passion towards this career. The goals and ideals of PA profession come very close to my heart as they represent my personal dedication and commitment to primary care. My life to date has prepared me to deal with various forms of obstacles and has also instilled in me the unrelenting care, determination, resilience, strength, and courage needed to help humanity.

As I look towards my future as a physician assistant, I believe these characteristics will enable me to be a valuable asset to the Physician Assistant profession and the community and I am very certain that joining your prestigious institution will help me achieve my goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm very confused - you are currently an MD (I presume) in India, and have been practicing as a primary care physician for the last decade- why on earth would you want to *downgrade* (in the lightest sense) to the PA profession? This boggles my mind a little. I know the process of transferring your license between countries is oftentimes rigorous, but so is a PA program.. I just can't wrap my head around why you would go from being a physician to a PA.

Sorry that this is off topic to your essay, but you didn't really address that huge elephant in the room in your PS so I had to ask.

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Hi!

Thanks for reading my post. well i can understand your confusion but i am at that stage in life where you don't have much options. I moved to US very late in life due to family problems and going back to India is not an option. Residency is very competitive and being a very old medical graduate is a big disadvantage. so i don't  want to take that path and waste couple more years, which at my age is not a wise thing. so since we have to live here, me and my wife decided we take up PA program, which by the way is very similar to what we practiced in India.  my wife is a practicing PA from the past 5 years in Texas and now its my turn to go to college again..

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Born into a family of farmers from a small village in the southern part of India has given me a real life view of a community with significant health care needs but limited health care resources. I can still vividly remember the seven-year-old me rushing down to the hospital with great fear and anxiety to see my grandma, who just had a heart attack. Sitting nervously at her bedside, I watched her slowly die due to lack of proper medical care. As time went on, I lost my grandpa to diabetes, a cousin to tuberculosis, a dear friend to leukemia and my own mother to complications of pregnancy. Those tragic consecutive events of my life inspired in me the burning desire to become a doctor.

This sentence should be changed so it can be clear that you were inspired to be a doctor, became one, and practiced early on. If someone doesn't know your background, they might think, "hey, this isn't for med school, its for PA..." I changed healthcare to health care, because I once read that if it is used as a noun then it is "health care" but an adjective "healthcare" such as healthcare professionals or I need to get health care. But it doesn't matter too much.

I graduated from medical school with a philosophy in life: to provide health care services to the poor and underprivileged of the society. My initial four years were spent serving rural India in the states of Chhattisgarh and Punjab as I worked in small Christian mission hospitals which. These hospitals served more than three hundred villages and by establishing village health clinics. My colleagues and I were able to provide medical care for men, women, and children. We also educated patients about common preventive health principles can help them and witnessed how sensible, well-planned healthcare interventions can change people's lives. We experienced how primary care can help decreases both morbidity and mortality resulting from heart disease, stroke, and cancer. While performing simple tests, procedures and follow-up care, we lowered the cost of medical care related to hospitalizations. Working as the doctor in these mission hospitals taught me to be humble in the face of success and to be courageous in the times of adversity.--> As a doctor in a rural community, my experience taught me courage in times of adversity and humility in the face of success. The honor of being trusted to give advice in troubled times and to realize that I can't always make my patients feel better, but the opportunity to try cannot be underestimated. --> It was an honor gaining the trust of my patients in their troubled moments. 

I would take out that final remark "I can't always make...underestimated" just because I felt it was out of place, and I think talking about the honor is a stronger ending for this paragraph. 

I wanted to go further in my medical education by studying primary care, but a call from home informing me that my dad had a stroke, changed everything. As a doctor, I was confident that I would be able to take care of him, only to realize how unprepared I was. Being a physician and a son, I felt guilt, stress and conflicting emotions when providing daily care for him. That was the first time in my life that I knew what it was like to be in the shoes of caregivers who make many sacrifices to take care of their loved ones.--> It was the first time in my life understanding the constant sacrifice caregivers make to take care of their loved ones.  I have also experienced the agony of traveling to inconvenient places that were very expensive, yet lacked proper care. In those areas, I found out that the specialist doctors lacked the time required to spend with their patients due to time constraints, which in turn led to substandard care. Then, I realized there was a dire need for an effective medical facility that would provide affordable and quality care to the patients in those areas.

I think the extra commentary at the end is out of place and a little irrelevant. I understand there was malpractice and disinterest from medical professionals in your current area, but it didn't directly relate to your journey in these sentences. This paragraph is more about your father and the trials you faced taking care for him and the rigor you endured being by him, so I feel you should end on that note. You also need to save space later on to talk more about why you want  to be a PA. 

During this time, my wife moved to the U.S to be with her parents, but I stayed back in India due to my commitments at home. While I was visiting my wife in the U.S, I had the opportunity to meet Cynthia, a physician assistant in the office where my wife worked as a medical assistant. She spent time inquiring about the present complaints while providing preventive care advice. She also monitored any existing conditions to avoid any future complications. She coordinated her work with the internist in the clinic to provide better care for her patients and I was impressed with their teamwork. It was the quality of the care they provided that made a strong impression. in our hearts (my wife and I). Cynthia reflected the type of medical practice I was looking for in India. From then on, my wife and I both decided to pursue careers as physician Assistants. Due to financial restraints and my commitments in India, I decided to let my wife join the PA program first while I provided for the family.

It is wonderful that you are both on a medical journey to become PAs and that it is now your time to join the PA profession; however, I think you should leave these last two sentences out because they are too personal and the story should be focused on you and your realization that PA is what you want to do and not medical school. 

Choosing to join PA school is not a decision that I made in haste. As a person who has practiced medicine for 10 long years in India, my decision of mine might sound unconventional and strange, but dedicating the past 2 years to do all the prerequisite courses shows my perseverance and passion towards becoming a PA. --> Even though I practiced medicine for 10 long years in India, I decided to pursue becoming a physician assistant in the United states. The goals and ideals of PA profession come very close to my heart as they represent my personal dedication and commitment to primary care. My medical experience has prepared me to deal with various forms of obstacles and has also instilled in me the unrelenting care, determination, resilience, grit, and courage. needed to help others

I took out the first sentence because saying you are hesitant about being a PA, or were, could be a negative thing, even if you are a cautious person in general. I have been taking out words like "also" and "can" because I want you to be more confident in your sentences and direct. I took out "needed to help humanity" because I felt it was a little too "cheesy" 

As I look towards my future as a physician assistant, I believe these characteristics will enable me to be a valuable asset to the Physician Assistant profession and the community and I am very certain that joining your prestigious institution will help me achieve my goals.

You can combine the final two sentences with this last paragraph or choose to elaborate more on the "ideals of PAs" and how they relate to you. One thing I also noticed was that you don't have a small reflection on a patient encounter even though you've practiced 10 years. I want to hear more about your working as a medical professional, the values you learned (Examples), your community impact (examples) and how you will carry those traits into the profession and why you chose not to go back to medical school in the US. 

I hope you found these suggestions/changes helpful to your story by making it concise and freeing room for additional comments about your desire to join the PA profession. Please do not find them discouraging, for you have a really unique background with a ton of patient care experience. You are on the verge of submitting. Good luck to you in your future endeavors! 

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