2012 PS.......critique's for 2013 Re-application?

[ctstone1]

I didn't get into my school of choice this cycle. I plan on broadening my search for a future PA school this cycle and would love a critique of my personal statement! One change I have considered is to address my weaknesses as an applicant, or at least what I percieve them to be. My GPA is 3.3 and I am considering discussing that as I "re-vamp" my personal statemet. Any feedback will greatly be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

2012 PS:

 

While I have long maintained a desire to help people in need and learn about medicine, my path to the PA field has admittedly not been a direct one. The experiences that I have accrued along the way have been integral in forming and cultivating my strong desire to become a Physician's Assistant, however.

As a Jr. High student, I suffered a knee injury and as a result had to undergo numerous hours of physical therapy to rehabilitate. I became fascinated with the idea of being able to help people recover from their injuries and return to their field of competition. The amount of care and attention that my PT put into her job, and in turn into her patients, has been an inspiration to this day.

Not long thereafter I decided to pursue a career as an athletic trainer.

My matriculation through the Athletic Training Education Program at Arkansas State University afforded me my first opportunities to begin learning about medicine, interacting with doctors and physician's assistants, working in a clinical setting and being part of a health care team. The program was a challenging one in that it not only involved difficult classes but also required its students to develop effective time management skills to balance their studies and clinical responsibilities, while sharpening the practical skills that they would need to develop in order to pass a national certification exam.

Upon completing my degree in athletic training and becoming certified, I obtained a Graduate Assistant position as an athletic trainer at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and began to pursue a Master's Degree in Physical Education with a major in the Social Psychology of Sport. As I neared the completion of both graduate school and my assistantship, it was announced that a new professional minor league baseball team was coming to the area. Baseball was my primary responsibility as a GA and I was very excited when I was presented the opportunity to be involved with their health care team.

For the past six years I have worked as the Head Athletic Trainer for the Southern Illinois Miners baseball club. My experiences there have not only helped me become a better athletic trainer, but also steered me along the path of wanting to become a PA. While I feel I have become more and more proficient at my athletic training duties; such as coordinating the health care for the entire roster of players and coaches, assessing the nature and severity of numerous different types of injuries and illnesses, providing initial care and treatment for those injuries and illnesses, overseeing players rehabilitation and return to play, and maintaining open communication with the players, coaches and other members of the medical staff, my performing of those duties has also lead to a burning desire to further my medical knowledge and training and serve people in a more advanced way that I am currently afforded.

One experience has been particularly influential in cultivating this desire. I was called to the hotel room of one of our players during the summer of 2010. The player had a chief complaint of stomach pain and body aches. He had no fever, but his abdomen was palpably rigid and he exhibited rebound tenderness over McBurney's point. I was aware that these were red flags for appendicitis and, after conferring with our team physician, arranged for the athlete to be transported to the local emergency room. The athlete was given medications for his stomach pain and was discharged after his blood work was unremarkable. His condition began to deteriorate as I monitored him over the next day and on the bus trip home and he asked for the bus to be pulled over so he could get some water. The athlete's hands were very shaky and his pulse was elevated. I knew that if he were in fact having issues with his appendix, then if it burst he could go into shock and that could lead to a potentially fatal outcome. I tried my best to keep the athlete calm by instructing him to focus on his breathing and asked the bus driver to find the nearest emergency room, which was luckily only a few miles away. Upon exam in the ER it was determined that he was, in fact, suffering from appendicitis and deemed that he needed immediate surgery so the appendix could be removed before it ruptured.

I love my job as an athletic trainer and being able to help people in the way that I am currently able has definitely been satisfying. I was already making progress towards applying to PA school prior to this incident, but through those events my desire to advance my career in medicine shifted from an option, to something that I cannot settle for less than. While my path to this point has not been a direct one, I feel that the experiences I have accumulated along that path have made me better prepared for the rigors of PA school as well as being a PA in the future. The path hasn't been direct, but I am ready and excited for the next step.