Personal Narrative (For Specific Program - 500 words or less) PLEASE CRITIQUE

[PhilipHennessey]

This personal narrative is for a specific school to answer the question, "Why do you want to be a PA?"

 

 

As we crawled out of the sweat lodge, Michael, my adopted brother and traditional spiritual leader of the Oglala Lakota tribe, said to me, “Misun, wohanble`.” “Younger brother, I had a vision about you.” It was on that clear winter night 7 years ago that I found my life's journey: to serve the tribal members of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. Becoming a PA will help me fulfill the vision and live up to my Lakota name, “He who wants to know many things.” The combination of my Native American Studies undergraduate degree and post-baccalaureate Biology studies uniquely qualifies me to function as a bridge between evidence-based medicine and the traditional healing culture of the Oglala Lakota.

Pine Ridge Reservation and the area surrounding Harlem Hospital have much in common. Shannon County, South Dakota is the poorest county, per capita, in North America. The attendant substance abuse, gang violence, socioeconomic depression and historical circumstance make life on the reservation a daily struggle. I have shed tears over family members and friends who died from alcoholism and lack of primary health care, spilled my blood onthe prairie grass during our annual Sun Dance ceremony, laughed at jokes and conversations spoken only in Lakota, and, most importantly, found my passion for medicine. The mission of CUNY-Harlem Hospital's program is to educate physician assistants who are committed to beinginstruments of medical change in underserved communities. Pine Ridge reservation, where PAs serve as front line providers in Indian Health Service satellite clinics, deserves such medical practitioners.

As an EMT-Basic crew chief with the Stratford Ambulance Service, I encounter a socioeconomically and culturally diverse population presenting the full spectrum of medical emergencies. Our primary destination is Bridgeport Hospital, a level II trauma center, where it is my responsibility to deliver patientcare reports to attending PA and MD staff. I have learned how physician assistants function as critical team players in the emergency department. My experience in patient interaction and assessment has increased, as has my knowledge of a broad range of treatments.

In October 2012 I received a citation from the Mayor of Stratford for emergency medical service above professional obligation during Hurricane Sandy. I am humbled and honored to have received such a distinction. As we delivered patient upon patient through the ER doors during the storm, I witnessed physician assistants deliver extraordinary care. When one of our firefighters was struck by a falling tree, the attending PA expertly and without hesitation initiated a full range of interventions while simultaneously managing the actions of the entire trauma team. Although our firefighter ultimately died, the medical knowledge andunshakeable calm of that PA ignited in me a zeal to provide compassionate, expert care no matter how difficult the circumstances.

I shadow a PA in a Veteran's Administration urology clinic. As an alumni of the Sophie B. Davis School of Biomedical Education and a Jamaican immigrant, her culturally insightful approach to patient care resonates with my background as an anthropologist and adopted member of a Native American tribe. I am most inspired by the degree to which the MD and RN staff respect her clinical decision making and patient rapport. Such respect is a reflection of the quality of physician assistant education at CUNY-Harlem Hospital, and a goal that I seek in my own career a future PA.

[Just Steve]

Will this school also be receiving a PS via CASPA as well or will this be your only piece of self reflection that you have to write for them? Personally I would be intrigued to meet you if I was on an AdCom assuming your GPA, letters of rec, and other parts of your application were in order.

 

I would just caution against using the same information for both a PS and this essay if they stand a chance to be read by the same AdCom. They want to see that you can articulate original thought for individual statements. Cut/paste may not cut it. If this school will only see this, I say go with it.

[PhilipHennessey]

Yes, only this school will see it. CUNY-Harlem doesn't participate in CASPA so I wrote about half of this PS was written specifically for them (based upon their wanting to draw applicants who wish to work in medically underserved communities and their emphasis on multicultural approaches to patient care.)

 

JustSteve - twice I've posted and twice you responded...thanks so much! You're great.

[Just Steve]

nah...not great. Just finding any excuse not to do my own work. :-)

[beattie228]

I found your essay to be very interesting. I'm assuming the middle portion of your narrative is broken down into smaller paragraphs that just didn't transfer over to this forum (which happens often with CASPA as well as for schools that don't participate in CASPA). You definitely left me with a few questions that I could think about asking you, and the only way for me to do so would be to extend you an interview offer. Job well done!

[CCEMPA]

You took chemistry over the summer at a certain connecticut university didn't you..:heheh: