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Single Edit One-on-one Service Supplemental Essays
Your success is our passion. (See just some of our 100's of testimonials and comments below). We are ready to help. Our current PA school essay editing service status (23rd April 2024): Accepting New Submissions
(Photo: Me circa 1987, just thinking about my future PA School Essay)
- Are you struggling to write your physician assistant personal statement?
- Are you out of ideas, or just need a second opinion?
- Do you want an essay that expresses who you truly are and grabs the reader's attention in the required 5,000-character limit?
We are here to help perfect your PA school essay
I have written countless times on this blog about the importance of your personal statement in the PA school application process. Beyond the well-established metrics (GPA, HCE/PCE hours, requisite coursework, etc.), the personal statement is the most crucial aspect of your application.
This is your time to express yourself, show your creativity, skills, and background, and make a memorable impression in seconds. This will be your only chance, so you must get it right the first time.
For some time, I had been dreaming about starting a physician assistant personal statement collaborative.
A place where PA school applicants like yourself can post their PA school essays and receive honest, constructive feedback followed by an acceptance letter to the PA school of your choice!
I have been reviewing a ton of essays recently, so many in fact that I can no longer do this on my own.
To solve this problem, I have assembled a team of professional writers, editors, and PA school admissions specialists who worked to revise and perfect my PA school application essay.
Beth Eakman has taught college writing and worked as a professional writer and editor since the late 1990s. Her projects have involved a wide range of disciplines and media, from editing technical reports to scriptwriting for the PBS Kids show Super Why! Her writing has appeared in publications including Brain, Child Magazine, New York Family Magazine, and Austin Family Magazine. Beth lives with her family just outside Austin, Texas. She is driven to help each client tell the best version of their story and achieve their dream of becoming a physician assistant.
Deanna Matzen is an author with articles featured in Earth Letter, Health Beats, Northwest Science & Technology, and the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. With an early career in environmental science, she developed a solid foundation in technical writing. Her communication skills were further honed by producing and editing content for a non-profit website, blog, and quarterly journal. Inspired to extend her craft, she obtained a certificate in literary fiction, which she draws on to build vibrant scenes that bring stories to life. Deanna loves working with pre-PAs who are on the cusp of new beginnings to find their unique story and tell it confidently.
Carly Hallman is a professional writer and editor with a B.A. in English Writing and Rhetoric (summa cum laude) from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. She has worked as a curriculum developer, English teacher, and study abroad coordinator in Beijing, China, where she moved in 2011. In college, she was a Gilman Scholar and worked as a staff editor for her university's academic journal. Her first novel, Year of the Goose, was published in 2015, and her first memoir is forthcoming from Little A Books. Her essays and creative writing have appeared in The L.A. Review of Books, The Guardian, LitHub, and Identity Theory, among other publications.
Read more client testimonials or purchase a revision
We Work as a Team
Our team of professional editors is wonderful at cutting out the "fluff" that makes an essay lose focus and sets people over the 5,000-character limit. Their advice is always spot-on.
Sue, Sarah, and Carly are amazingly creative writers who will take your "ordinary" and turn it into entirely extraordinary.
I mean it when I say this service is one-of-a-kind! We have spent countless hours interviewing PA School admissions directors and faculty from across the country to find out exactly what it is they are looking for in your personal statement.
We even wrote a book about it.
To collaborate, we use Google Drive. Google Drive is free, has an intuitive interface with integrated live comments in the sidebar, the ability to have a real-time chat, to collaborate effortlessly, and to compare, revise, or restore revisions on the fly. Google Drive also has an excellent mobile app that will allow you to make edits on the go!
Our team has worked with hundreds of PA school applicants within the Google Drive environment, and we have had enormous success.
The Physician Assistant Essay and Personal Statement Collaborative
I have set up two options that I hope will offer everyone a chance to participate:
- One-of-a-kind, confidential, paid personal statement review service
- A collaborative, free one (in the comments section)
Private, One-On-One Personal Statement Review Service
If you are interested in the paid service, you may choose your plan below.
The Personal Statement Review Service is:
- Behind closed doors within a private, secure network using Google Drive.
- It is completely interactive, meaning we will be able to provide real-time comments and corrections using the Google Drive interface.
- Telephone consultations are included with all edits above the single edit level. It’s often hard to communicate exactly what you want hundreds of miles away; for this reason, we offer the option to edit right along with us over the telephone while sharing in real-time over Google Drive. This is an option available to all our paid clients who purchase above the single edit level.
- We provide both revision and editing of all essays. What’s the difference? See below
- We will provide feedback, advice, and help with brainstorming and topic creation if you would like.
- We will help with a “final touch-up” before the big day, just in case your essay needs a few minor changes.
Why Choose Our Service?
- It’s not our opinion that matters. We have gone the extra step and personally interviewed PA school administrators from across the US to find out exactly what they think makes a personal statement exceptional.
- We are a team of PAs and professional writers having worked over seven years with PA school applicants like yourself, providing countless hours of one-on-one editing and revision.
- Our clients receive interviews, and many go on to receive acceptance into their PA School of choice.
Because we always give 100%, we will open the essay collaborative for a limited number of applicants each month and then close this depending on the amount of editing that needs to be done and the time that is available.
Our goal is not quantity but quality. We want only serious applicants who are serious about getting into PA school.
Writing is not a tool like a piece of software but more like how a photograph can capture your mood. It’s more like art. The process of developing a unique, memorable personal statement is time-intensive, and it takes hours to compose, edit, finalize, and personalize an essay.
As Antoinette Bosco once said:
And this is why I am charging for this service. We love helping people find stories that define their lives, and we love helping individuals who have the passion to achieve their dreams. It’s hard to describe the feeling I get when an applicant writes back to tell me they were accepted into PA school.
There is no price tag I can place on this; it’s the feeling we get when we help another human being. It’s just like providing health care. But this takes time.
Interested? Choose your plan below.
Read more client testimonials.
Free Personal Statement Review
Post your essay in the comments section for a free critique
We want to make this opportunity available to everyone who would like help with their essay, and that is why we are offering free, limited feedback on the blog.
You post your essay in the comments section, and you will get our critique. It is that easy. We will try to give feedback to every single person who posts their COMPLETE essay here on this blog post in the comments section.
Also, by posting your comment, we reserve the right to use your essay.
We will provide feedback on essays that are complete and fit the CASPA requirements (View CASPA requirements here). We will not provide feedback on partial essays or review opening or closing statements. Your essay will be on a public platform, which has both its benefits and some obvious drawbacks. The feedback is limited, but we will try to help in any way we can.
Note: Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, I will delete your stuff. Otherwise, have fun, and thanks for adding to the conversation! And this should go without saying: if you feel the need to plagiarize someone else’s content, you do not deserve to go to PA school.
* Also, depending on the time of year, it may take me several weeks to reply!
We love working with PA school applicants, but don't just take our word for it!
How to submit your essay for the paid service
If you are serious and would like to have real, focused, and personalized help writing your personal statement, please choose your level of service and submit your payment below.
After you have submitted your payment, you will be redirected to the submissions page, where you can send us your essay as well as any special instructions. We will contact you immediately upon receipt of your payment and essay so we may begin work right away.
Pricing is as follows:
Choose your plan, then click "Buy Now" to submit your essay, and we will get started right away!
Every purchase includes a FREE digital copy of our new 100-page eBook, How to Write Your Physician Assistant Personal Statement, Our 101 PA School Admission Essays e-book, the expert panel audiobook, and companion workbook. This is a $65 value included for free with your purchase.
All credit card payments are processed via PayPal over a secure HTTPS server. Once your payment is processed, you will be immediately redirected back to the essay submission page. There, you will submit your essay along with some biographical info and all suggestions or comments you choose to provide. You will receive immediate confirmation that your essay has been securely transmitted as well as your personal copy of "How to Write Your Physician Assistant Personal Statement." Contact [email protected] if you have any questions, comments, or problems - I am available 24/7.
The hourly service includes your original edit and one-on-one time over Google Drive. It is simple to add more time if necessary, but you may be surprised at what a difference just a single edit can make. We find our four-hour service to be the most effective in terms of time for follow-up and full collaboration. We are open to reduced-rate add-ons to suit your individual needs.
Writing and Revision
All writing benefits from rewriting when done well.
When you are in the process of writing a draft of an essay, you should be thinking first about revision, not editing.
What’s the difference?
Revision refers to the substantial changing of text. For example, it may include re-organizing ideas and paragraphs, providing additional examples or information, and rewriting a conclusion for clarity.
Editing, on the other hand, refers to correcting mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
On all submissions, we perform both revision and editing.
How to submit your PA school essay for the FREE editing service
Follow the rules above and get to work below in the comments section. I look forward to reading all your essay submissions.
- Stephen Pasquini PA-C
View all posts in this series
- How to Write the Perfect Physician Assistant School Application Essay
- The Physician Assistant Essay and Personal Statement Collaborative
- Do You Recognize These 7 Common Mistakes in Your Personal Statement?
- 7 Essays in 7 Days: PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 1, “A PA Changed My Life”
- PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 2, “I Want to Move Towards the Forefront of Patient Care”
- PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 3, “She Smiled, Said “Gracias!” and Gave me a Big Hug”
- PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 4, “I Have Gained so Much Experience by Working With Patients”
- PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 5, “Then Reach, my Son, and Lift Your People up With You”
- PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 6, “That First Day in Surgery was the First Day of the Rest of my Life”
- PA Personal Statement Workshop: Essay 7, “I Want to Take People From Dying to Living, I Want to Get Them Down From the Cliff.”
- Physician Assistant Personal Statement Workshop: “To say I was an accident-prone child is an understatement”
- 9 Simple Steps to Avoid Silly Spelling and Grammar Goofs in Your PA School Personel Statement
- 5 Tips to Get you Started on Your Personal Essay (and why you should do it now)
- How to Write Your Physician Assistant Personal Statement The Book!
- How to Write “Physician Assistant” The Definitive PA Grammar Guide
- 101 PA School Admissions Essays: The Book!
- 5 Things I’ve Learned Going Into My Fourth Physician Assistant Application Cycle
- 7 Tips for Addressing Shortcomings in Your PA School Personal Statement
- The #1 Mistake PRE-PAs Make on Their Personal Statement
- The Ultimate PA School Personal Statement Starter Kit
- The Ultimate Guide to CASPA Character and Space Limits
- 10 Questions Every PA School Personal Statement Must Answer
- 5 PA School Essays That Got These Pre-PAs Accepted Into PA School
- 7 Questions to Ask Yourself While Writing Your PA School Personal Statement
- 101 PA School Applicants Answer: What’s Your Greatest Strength?
- 12 Secrets to Writing an Irresistible PA School Personal Statement
- 7 Rules You Must Follow While Writing Your PA School Essay
- You Have 625 Words and 2.5 Minutes to Get Into PA School: Use Them Wisely
- What’s Your #1 Personal Statement Struggle?
- 31 (NEW) CASPA PA School Personal Statement Examples
- How to Prepare for Your PA School Interview Day Essay
- Should You Write Physician Associate or Physician Assistant on Your PA School Essay?
- Meet the World’s Sexiest PA School Applicants
- PA School Reapplicants: How to Rewrite Your PA School Essay for Guaranteed Success
- How to Write a Personal Statement Intro that Readers Want to Read
- PA School Reapplicant Personal Statement Checklist
- How to Deal with Bad News in Your Personal Statement
- Inside Out: How to use Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling to Improve your PA Personal Statement
- Ratatouille: A Pixar Recipe for PA School Personal Statement Success
- Personal Statement Panel Review (Replay)
- Mind Mapping: A Tool for Personal Statements, Supplemental Essays, and Interviews
- Start at the End: Advice for your PA School Personal Statement
Shelby says
*This is my first draft, and I would really really appreciate any feedback!*
It was 12:37pm on November 21st when I received the phone call that nobody ever wants to get. My mom was calling to tell me that my dad had been in a serious car accident, his car rolling multiple times before coming to a stop in the middle of a busy intersection. When I got to the emergency room, I was taken back to my dad’s room where he was being tended to by a physician assistant (PA). The PA spent time with my father, asking questions about the accident, gently caring for his contused elbow, and making him feel comfortable in a rather uncomfortable situation. The role of the physician assistant in my dad’s care was pivotal; he was kind, patient, and empathetic.
Since this experience, I have had a taste of what it is like to be on the PA’s side of the story. I understand what it is like to celebrate cancer remissions, to come up with a treatment plan for someone newly diagnosed with heart failure, and to comfort a family who just lost a loved one. The versatility of physician assistants is part of what makes the job so special and is ultimately what drew me to this career.
As the youngest child in my family and a first-generation college graduate, there were high expectations for my future. I was driven to do well in school, yet I learned time management and the importance of teamwork through extracurricular activities and sports. Science was the subject that I enjoyed the most, especially all of my biology courses. After taking a human anatomy class in high school, I knew that I had a future in the medical field, although it took some digging to discern which route I wanted to take. I was given the opportunity to participate in a program where I could gain a better understanding of the various career paths within healthcare, and after shadowing advanced level practitioners, the role of a physician assistant seemed to align directly with my skills, goals, and ambitions.
During my shadowing experiences, I noticed the trend of prevention in every setting: hospitals, clinics, and offices. My passion of healthcare along with health education led me to major in Public Health during my undergraduate career. After graduation, I saw the benefit in taking my education a step further and receiving my Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. My experiences during my graduate education have allowed me to gain a broader outlook on health education programs that can be implemented within all settings of healthcare to improve patient outcomes.
While completing my MPH, I began working as a Wellness Coordinator and providing corporate wellness solutions to large companies. While I loved working directly with people, I still missed the clinical aspect of healthcare, which I was lacking while working in corporate wellness. I wanted to be on the front lines helping to treat, all while combining my public health background to educate patients about their conditions and keep them out of the hospital. I craved to learn more about evidence-based practices and ways to work hands-on with people from all backgrounds. I was able to dive into a graduate research position discovering cultural competency practices, which strengthened my ability to work with diverse groups of people.
My background in public health and my healthcare experiences have created a solid foundation to build upon. I have developed communication skills that have helped build rapport with patients and families. I no longer see diagnoses and symptoms when I am reading through health records, I see that person’s face and know their name, try to understand how their health affects them day to day, and ultimately work to understand how to fix the issue. I am confident in my skillset and am eager to take the next step in becoming a physician assistant.
Kiran Kaur says
This is my absolute first draft, i know i have a LONG way to go and may need to omit a couple of things because I am well past the character limit. Any advice would help though.
I’ve made many mistakes throughout my life, but without those mistakes I would not have learned and grown. As a child I had no worry in the world, the only rule was to be home as soon as the street lights were on. Every morning I would hop on my bike; feeling a rush of adrenaline with every pedal, it gave me a sense of freedom, invincibility, and a purpose in life. Every night I followed the path of the street lights back home, pedaling as hard and as fast as I could to make it home on time. One day I must have pedaled too quickly because in a blur everything had changed. The lit pathway had been dimmed, there was no longer any clarity or sense of invincibility in my life, it seemed my purpose in life had been submerged and held captive under a dense fog.
It was a cold November evening as I was getting ready for track practice when my phone rang, I answered it as I stared at the electric blue lighting in the gray clouds above. It was my mom, she was crying and panicking, in that moment I couldn’t understand anything, all I heard was “accident”. My heart was racing, I told her I would be home soon and hung up the phone. I never knew I could run so quick my feet felt like feathers being blown in the wind. I made it home to find that my brother had been in a horrible car accident. We made it to the scene of the accident, what had been a car now looked like a sheet of metal, as firefighters used the jaws of life to extract my brother. In critical condition they got him on to the stretcher, his clothes ripped, and a trail of bright red blood followed as they rolled him into the ambulance.
That was the day a few of the lights in my pathway flickered on and my interest in the medical field sparked. The medical field is one of the only places where everyone in the room is working together towards the same goal, the health and wellbeing of the patient. The feeling of compassion, care, and resilience conveyed by my brother’s medical team is a feeling I will never forget. Not only did they help my brother be able to walk again after a 14 hour surgery on his femur and patella, they made sure me and my family understood what was happening at all times. When words failed to reassure us, they were able to use touch to make sure we knew they would do everything they could. I knew one day I wanted to be able to make a positive impact in a family’s life and give them the same care my family received.
It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I knew I wanted to be a PA. I had the privilege of attending a high school that offered a program called “medical careers”, where students received training to become CNAs while being able to shadow MDs, PAs, NPs, and RNs and observe numerous surgeries. I was ecstatic when I had the opportunity to shadow an emergency department PA. Throughout the day I noticed many differences between the MD and PA. The PA was much more compassionate and caring during patient evaluations. She took the time to listen and learn about her patients instead of just memorizing facts that were written on their medical records, she identified patients as individuals and not by room number. One of the most important things in my life is spending time with family and I feel being a PA would give me the best of both worlds. I would have the ability to spend more time with my patients while making them feel satisfied with their care and at the end of the day I would be able to go home to my family; whereas an MD does not have that luxury because even at home they are at work.
I’ll never forget the first patient I had as a CNA, he seemed to be a grumpy old when I entered his room that morning, telling me to leave when I told him it was time for his bed bath. He was adamant of me leaving his room, but I was persistent, and assured him that I would be quick and he would feel great after his bath. Although reluctant he agreed to let me proceed; after performing all of his ADLs he had a big grin on his face as he thanked me for not giving up on him and leaving like all of the other nurses. That day I felt a sense of accomplishment that solidified my desire for a career in the medical field.
I’ve had my fair share of bumps in the road that affected my GPA. The sudden death of my grandfather during my sophomore year whose funeral I could not attend because I could not leave school to go back to India. Then the tragic death of my two-year-old dog, rather my best friend, who was by my side no matter where I went, like we were joined at the hip. I knew the two deaths had set me back both academically and emotionally. It seemed like I had lost all motivation towards PA school not working towards my clinical hours or doing schoolwork. It wasn’t till I took the winter break of my senior year to go back to India and realized that there are people who have nothing, yet they don’t complain, they live their best life. All around my tiny, rural village were parents and children sleeping in huts on the side of the road, they had poor health, little food and no money. Although I did not provide these people medical care directly my family and I were able to donate some money for doctors to come out and provide them basic medical care. Being able to help and spend time with the less fortunate and underprivileged gave me a feeling I had felt once before from my brother’s medical team. I had rediscovered my desire to be a PA, in fact I don’t think I had ever felt more confident about wanting to be a PA.
I was volunteering in the ER when a gunshot victim was brought into the emergency room, the nurses, PA, and MD were responsible for assessing and caring for the patient. Although they all have similar training the MD still had autonomy in the situation and the PA listened without hesitation. Like the chain of a bicycle, the chain of autonomy needs to move smoothly for the best patient care; if the chain were to fall off, it would take too long to get back on. I was shocked when the PA was scrubbing in and getting ready to assist in surgery. I had no idea that was included in their scope of practice. This just fueled my desire to be a PA because I’m the type of person that is always eager to learn about different fields. Being a PA would allow me to experience more than one field of medicine unlike medical school where I would have to choose a focus. Being a PA would give me the freedom to explore all that medicine has to offer.
Although obstacles still lay in the way, my path is now clear, I know what my goal in life is and I will not divert. This is the career that will give me the same satisfaction and rush I felt riding a bike as a kid. I want to be a PA, help the underprivileged receive care and be a life-long learner with the ability to change specialties.
Ellie says
I would appreciate any feedback and advice you can provide.
I paused at the entrance to the patient’s cubicle, felt my heart racing and palms sweating, and attempted to smile reassuringly at my preceptor. I had done this many times before but had never been so nervous. How could something as simple as checking vital signs seem intimidating? Nerves or not, I knew my responsibility. I took a deep breath and opened the door. “Buenas tardes, le vamos a tomar los constantes,” I began, and soon we were heading back to the nurses’ station. I was feeling a great sense of accomplishment until the managing nurse asked my preceptor how I had done. “Le costaba un poco – she struggled a little bit,” was his only comment.
Although my dream of studying abroad and learning a second language began in high school before I had ever heard of the physician assistant profession, those two ambitions became interwoven in unexpected ways. I shadowed a PA my freshman year of college and realized this was the healthcare career I had been searching for that combines direct service to patients and constant learning opportunities. I was thrilled to find a profession that prioritizes both independent thinking and teamwork, allows lateral mobility, and has the potential to adapt and grow with the changing needs of our nation and world.
That summer I took the class to become an STNA, got a job as a nursing assistant, and researched prerequisites for PA programs. While it was exciting to have a clear sense of direction and purpose, I still had the lingering idea of studying abroad. Spanish seemed like it would be more useful as a PA than the French that I had taken in high school, and I began searching for study abroad programs that would foster language learning while allowing me to complete my degree and pre-PA requirements.
Amidst this search, I shadowed a PA who worked in orthopedics in Columbus, OH. I was surprised when we were joined by a Spanish translator who facilitated communication between the PA and several of his patients that day. As the PA was talking to two of his patients, an elderly Hispanic couple who both needed knee replacements, the wife smiled over at me and asked if I was a student. I responded, “Sí.” The faces of the couple lit up with smiles. After their visit, the translator came up to me and thanked me and told me how much it meant to the patients to hear someone speaking their language. I was delighted that one simple word could have such an impact.
That experience and further exposure to the challenges facing non-English proficient patients motivated me to be focused and intentional in my language learning. I had the privilege of studying in Spain, and it was a life-changing experience that not only improved my Spanish speaking ability but also taught me important lessons and strengthened my resolve to become a PA.
Not only did I learn about the persistence required in language learning and medicine, but I was also exposed to the joys of seeing that hard work and persistence come to fruition. After one semester in Spain, I began to realize how much I had grown in just a few months, and how much more there was to learn. Even though it would mean graduating a semester later, I chose to stay in Spain for a second semester, both to improve my language skills and also to complete an internship in a Spanish hospital. Through that internship in the emergency room of an oncology hospital I observed the healthcare system of another country and saw my first surgery. Although I was not allowed to perform any procedures, one of the senior nursing students had compassion on me and encouraged me to get the vitals instead of only observing. I was elated at the chance to do something, but I was also terrified that the patients would be offended by my accent or ask me a question that I could not understand or answer. Even though I “struggled a little bit” the first time I took the vitals, I grew in both my confidence and my ability to accept and respond to critique. At the end of my internship it was gratifying to see how my language skills, empathy, and clinical knowledge had improved.
I would never have learned to speak Spanish if I only opened my mouth when I felt completely confident that my grammar, sentence structure, and choice of vocabulary were perfect. Learning requires a person to overcome their fear of failure and to consistently strive for improvement. Developing knowledge and skills as a healthcare provider requires similar commitment and a realization that the path will not always be smooth or easy.
I am excited to pursue a profession that allows me to make a difference during some of life’s scariest and most humbling moments, connect with and learn about people from different cultures and walks of life, and continue to learn about the fascinating connection between science and our bodies. I look forward to using my creativity, compassion, and perseverance to serve both patients and fellow members of the healthcare team and as a physician assistant.
Jassmin says
Here’s a copy of my personal statement …
It was Christmas day, and my family was gathered together. My grandmother was in the next room, laying in the hospital bed we had set up for her, with her oxygen tank hooked up and a business card with her hospice nurse’s contact information. After she passed away, I reflected heavily on our experience from the day we heard the diagnosis until the day she took her last breath. From seeing different specialists, going in and out of hospitals and having to wrap our minds around various complex treatments, I saw just how every aspect of the process affected my grandmother and our family as a whole. I noticed the importance of the way her team worked together to try to prolong her life with maximal productivity but more importantly, I noticed that the strongest connections my grandmother made were with the physician assistants. These individuals were the most compassionate and most willing to spend time with her, not only for treatment but also to lend a listening ear – a vital role in providing actual comfort care, almost a therapeutic measure that some professionals seem to forget about.
The more I reflected on this and as I progressed through my academic career, it became clear to me which path I wanted to pursue with my studies. I needed something that would give me the opportunity to carefully listen and understand the needs of others, determine and discuss solutions to their problems, and restore hope in those who may feel like they’ve lost it all. But at the same time, my passion for medicine was too broad for me to be able to pick one specialty to practice in. Seeing how smoothly the physician assistants on my grandmother’s team worked independently and with all other staff was amazing, and that’s when the light bulb went off – I didn’t have to choose a specialty, practicing medicine as a physician assistant will be my outlet to diagnosing and treating patients in nearly any specialty. All of this may sound cliché but I believe that at our core, there is something that drives each and every one of us. For me, there is no greater fulfillment than knowing that I am able to make a difference in someone else’s life, even if it’s in the smallest way possible.
As you may know, it could be quite difficult to write something worth reading about yourself but aside from what I have shared with you thus far, there is so more that I hope I can help you understand about myself. From the time that my family immigrated from Iraq to Greece, and then finally to the United States, I have had to jump over many hurdles and overcome challenging obstacles just to get to where I am today and I don’t plan on stopping here. The process of narrowing down my interest to a physician assistant started during my junior year of high school, and since then I have dedicated myself to this goal of graduating and practicing as a physician assistant and standing at the frontlines of something that truly matters, and I will not settle for anything less.
Being that I come from a low-income household, I have always had to maintain part-time jobs while attending school full- or part-time which made it difficult for me to find employment in my area of studies without any state certificates or licensures. I was ecstatic when I was given the opportunity to work as an entry-level Medical Assistant for a cardiovascular specialist, and I took full advantage of the opportunity to learn all that I could. And although I enjoyed the patient interaction within a private practice, I knew that I had to expose myself to a more hospital-type setting and that’s when I started volunteering in the emergency center at Beaumont Hospital.
Now, I know that I may not have the greatest cumulative grade point average or the most patient-contact exposure but I can reassure you that I am just as deserving, if not more, than the next applicant. I am not someone who has had things handed to them or a natural born genius but I take the time necessary to make sure I fully comprehend concepts whether it’s in classrooms or in professional settings and putting thought into how I can apply those to improve everyday life, whether it’s my own or others. I have never been the type to compromise my education and my goals at the fear of failing or being rejected and I believe my academic and professional background is a clear depiction of that. I realize that my application as a whole may not be the most competitive one you will see amongst thousands of applications, and although the thought of that terrifies me, I will not allow it to hold me back from chasing my dreams. What some may see as flaws or weaknesses in my application, I see as proof of continued dedication to my goal and the ability to persevere regardless of the circumstances. I have proven my capabilities and motivation through my academic and professional experiences and I am prepared to put worth the efforts necessary to reach my aspirations of providing the highest quality care of which I know I am capable of.
Kala says
This is my statement from last year. I don’t know what to cut to show how I have grown, or if I should scrap the whole essay. I’m also not sure bow to approach mentioning that I’m a second time applicant. Any advice is welcome.
Ten pm meant the halls were empty and quiet. Everyone was in bed except Nancy, my resident. She was wheelchair bound, so I readied her for bed, as I had done countless nights before. After setting up her bed, I walked into her bathroom to help her finish her nighttime routine. I asked her if she was ready to get into bed. She did not respond. “Nancy?” I asked loudly. Still no response. Her head rolled forward and her arms dropped to her sides. She was unresponsive. Never had I been in a situation like this, and this was the scariest moment in my life. I needed to clear my head and think about what needed to be done. So I called the nurse to explain that she was below baseline and unresponsive, then waited with her and monitored her condition until the nurse arrived. There was nothing else I could do at that time. Fortunately the ambulance arrived and she was taken to the hospital, but I had felt helpless. I had known that I would be in difficult situations when I switched careers from lab assistant to nurse aide on my journey to becoming a physician assistant (PA), and I had faced several, but that night helped me realize how much more I would be able to do as a PA. Being a PA will give me the tools and knowledge necessary to diagnose and form a plan of care to help those in her condition.
My passion for healthcare started with my love for biology. The field is full of systems constantly in a state of flux, from the bacteria colonizing our gut to ecosystem succession, allowing us to make discoveries every day, updating how we interact with the world. Healthcare is no different; we continuously update our stores of information, allowing us to better help our patients. I did not know right away that a physician assistant was the right career for me, so I became a nurse aide in a senior living home, then in a hospital. Through my time as an aide, I have been able to provide hands-on patient care. From taking vitals to toileting patients to filling up water cups, my favorite aspect of my job has been interacting with my patients and their families. I scheduled my work days so I would have several days in a row to work. This allowed me to get to know my patients and their families, even for a brief time, and I could build their trust when we joked about the bad food or the millions of cords we need to untangle or the fact that no one looks good in a hospital gown and shower cap.
I love working alongside doctors, nurses, and therapy aides. I am learning how each of these people function on the team, and how they relate to patients when it comes to plan of care, diagnostics, and medications. The nurses teach me about healthcare and the hospital field as they start IVs and insert catheters. The therapy aides show me how important it is for patients to keep moving as they walk the halls. The doctors show me the importance of listening and analyzing when it comes to a diagnosis and plan of care as they round on patients who ask question after question. Compassionately, they answer question after question. After I shadowed PAs, I realized that it was the right fit for me.
While shadowing a PA in an endocrinology practice, I met a patient who had been vomiting for days on a new medication, and because of this, her blood sugar was extremely low. The PA listened while the patient listed every one of her concerns. The PA explained how the medication’s side effects were causing the patient so much distress and discussed with her other options that would be better suited to someone in her situation. Afterward, she discussed these changes with a doctor in the practice to determine that they were the right fit.
The PA profession appeals to me because, the endocrinology PA showed me that a PA has the autonomy to see patients and discuss plan of care while still feeling comfortable going to her supervising doctor for advice or explanations. She follows patients through their healthcare journey, providing continuity of care, so she is able to know her patients. Each of the PAs I shadowed, working in fields as diverse as endocrinology to orthopedics, formed relationships with patients educating them on their illnesses, treatment options, and medications. They told me about the versatility of a PA, so I would be able to learn about different areas of medicine and dive into different specialities. In the future, a situation like the one with Nancy will not be the scariest moment of my life, but will be an opportunity to not only use the skills I will learn in PA school to help her condition, but to follow her on the path to recovery.
Rachel says
On a beautiful spring day working as an investigative agent, something that piqued my interest came across my desk. Unlike one of the five healthcare cases I got per day, this report came from a distraught staff. The staff reported that the day prior, they had taken J.D. to an appointment with her new primary care physician. As many physicians left the rural setting of our town for bigger and more appealing jobs in the city, J.D. had been passed along to many healthcare professionals throughout the years. This diminished J.D.s continuum of care, thus her healthcare professional did not know J.D. outside of her diagnoses and that she lived on her own and was very independent. Not knowing J.D., the healthcare professional stated they did not see why J.D. should keep living in a body that had disabilities. As I read this report, I had tears in my eyes. Before doing administrative investigations for cases involving individuals with developmental disabilities, I would have put a label on J.D., just like that healthcare professional did. After working with J.D. for two years, I knew she was much more than her diagnoses. Something the physician would have known if there had been a continuum of care. This was not the first time that a report like this had come across my desk and also personally in my life and in my travels overseas. But, this moment was different than the others. At this moment, I knew I no longer wanted to sit behind a desk and review healthcare cases in a rural setting. I could no longer work with investigators from the Attorney General’s office and just make comments about our healthcare system. There needed to be a change and I wanted to have a part in the process. I wanted to use my love for medicine and passion for underserved areas to make a difference as a physician assistant.
Always having a passion for medicine and problem solving, I studied nursing and criminal justice at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. I was awarded my Bachelors in Criminal Justice in May 2010. My nursing studies made it possible for me to pursue a job as an investigative agent working on healthcare cases involving individuals with developmental disabilities. Healthcare cases allowed me to keep up to date on medicine, while advocating for those in need. My job not only challenged my knowledge of medicine, but ignited my desire to learn more about medicine. For two years, this was something that grew within me and made me appreciate the differences in every person. After realizing the need for healthcare professionals who are passionate about not only medicine, but rural settings, I made a career change. In May 2017, I returned to school to obtain my prerequisites for physician assistant school.
Wanting to ensure that this transition was right for me, I have spent the last two years shadowing physician assistants and then working as an aide. In the long-term care setting, I realized how valuable my investigation skills were in the healthcare setting. In one instance, my problem solving and experience with nonverbal individuals enabled me to help the nurse identify a urinary tract infection that a nonverbal resident was unable to express. I was also taught the value of continuum of care, caring for those at their most vulnerable time, communication among health professionals, and how to work in a healthcare setting as a team. When you build a relationship with residents and know small things, such as their favorite ice cream flavor or how they like to be positioned in bed, creating a trust between the provider and patient. A trust that you, as their healthcare provider, will work to give them the best care possible. I have learned that the most rewarding and fulfilling positions are in healthcare. A career that endows a sense of fulfillment, knowing that you and your coworkers all worked together during your shift to provide the best care possible for your patients.
Shadowing a physician assistant in a rural setting both in occupational health and the emergency department has given me even more of a passion for medicine. Our job, as their healthcare professional, is to address their healthcare problems, without forgetting that we are being given a gift of their trust. The same trust I was given as an aide. The same trust that J.D. had been giving her healthcare professionals, even when there was no continuum of care. It was J.D.’s trust that had been broken and their care suffered for it. I no longer want to sit back and watch rural medicine healthcare professionals filter in and out. I want to be a physician assistant in a rural, underserved community where I can use my communication and problem solving skills, love for people, and passion for medicine.
Trevor says
My specific issues with my statement so far are making the point of why I specifically want to be a PA, and not just a physician, as well as emphasizing my efforts to improve my GPA by taking more classes. But ALL comments/feedback are appreciated. Thanks.
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A few years ago I woke up to a phone call from my fiancé’s parents, “She isn’t doing well, we have to take her back to the hospital.” I had so many questions. Why wasn’t she getting better? They said she would feel better within a few weeks, so why isn’t she healing? What was going wrong?
Two weeks prior to the phone call, my fiancé, Haley, had gone in for spinal fusion surgery. While the surgery itself went fine, she had struggled to keep any food or liquids down, and by the time of the phone call, had lost too much weight for her small frame. Her face had lost all color and her eyes were sunk in. Never had I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do to help her.
When her health first began digressing, I kept trying to encourage her, but in the back of my mind I was actually unsure. When her parents called the hospital to update them, they said to bring her back immediately. After some frantic investigation, they found that she had a rare postoperative complication of spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis. The straightening of her spine made her taller causing the mesenteric artery to pinch the duodenum and block food from going down. The doctors inserted a PICC line through which they began to give her TPN for several days. Finally she began to look and feel like herself again, and after two weeks in the hospital, Haley was able to come home and recover completely.
It is moments like these that people are reminded of how grateful they are for modern medicine, as I was reminded. However, I also felt frustration. If I had the knowledge of what was going on, could we have taken her back to the hospital sooner, and saved her some suffering? Could I have done more for her? I had inner conflict over my joy of her recovery, and the guilt of not being able to do anything. It was taxing, and I never wanted to feel like that again.
Four years previous to this experience I was in my first year of college not knowing what career path I wanted to take. I took a two-year deferment to serve a volunteer mission for my church in Northern Brazil. The people I served in Brazil were poor, living in the humblest of circumstances. Their access to quality healthcare was limited. My duty during this time was to help people in a more spiritual matter. Not very many people wanted help, but when someone reached out to us asking for help, we reached back and tried our best to help. When we were successful, and someone would thank use with tears in their eyes for what we had done for them, I truly felt complete inside. It would ignite a spark within me and gave me a deep longing to reach out and help others in any way I can for the rest of my life. I knew I needed to center my career around something that would bring me those same feelings.
After my mission, I came back to school and began taking classes that would take me in the direction of medicine. I felt good about it, but I wasn’t sure yet that I was going in the right direction. Then when Haley became ill, I felt the opposite of what I felt in Brazil. I felt a lack of spark and I longed to have that feeling back. It was at that time that medicine became solidified in my mind. I now not only knew what I wanted to do, but what I needed to do.
Since then I have searched for opportunities for health care experiences; volunteering, shadowing, working, etc. These opportunities have exposed me to various types of medical professionals, including physicians and physician assistants. While they both would give me the opportunity to help people the way I want to, a career as a PA would be advantageous as I could work in a variety of settings. Once out of school and working, a PA doesn’t have to go back to residency to go into a different area of medicine. This would allow me to serve in a variety of settings – I would not be tied down to one area but I could engage in lifelong learning. Also, I personally feel that PAs have the chance to put all their focus on the patients, whereas physicians have to divide their focus amongst multiple areas. To me, this means as a PA I would have the potential to better serve my patients.
Looking at my grades from college, I know they are not exceptional. I have made some academic mistakes, which is why I am putting in the effort to take more classes now, so I can prove that I truly am ready for the rigorous workload that is involved in becoming a PA. I am working on being academically ready, but more importantly, because of my past experiences, I have the passion that will carry me through any obstacle to becoming a PA. Gaining an education as a PA is important to me. It means I never have to feel helpless again because I will have the knowledge to help those that need it most.
Josh says
I wanted to make this about my “round 2” and how I’ve grown and developed since my initial attempts. Hopefully I didn’t miss the mark too badly.
We have all heard the phrase “All roads lead to Rome.” A common idiom that bears deeper meaning, the more we examine it. First written recordings of the phrase date back to the 12th century, but it is unclear if this is the first ever occurrence, or simply just the first written example. Already we have more than one possible “road” to this simple phrase. The literal translation refers to the road system the Roman empire utilized, with thousands of possible routes to get from the far reaches of the empire, to the streets of its capital. Metaphorically, however, it means that there are multiple ways to reach the same objective. From our birth, we begin on our own journey, picking paths as we go, hoping to one day reach our “Rome.”
My path began more or less typical: high school then college and beyond. It was during college that I began working with patients, as well as working very closely with physician assistants. After lots of questions and research, it seemed pretty clear that PA was the profession for me. Following graduation from NC State, and several weeks spent feverishly pouring over my applications, I anxiously awaited the messages. My Rome was in sight. However, rather than the offers for interviews I had hoped for, I was met with denial after denial. It seemed, that even though I could see it, I would have to find yet another road, as my current path was blocked.
The following year, I returned to NC State with new purpose. I was not giving up on my dream. Little did I know, this would be the single most difficult undertaking of my life. Balancing school and work during my undergraduate years, was tricky, but easily doable. Graduate school, on the other hand, was a very different beast. My course load felt as if it were double of anything I had previously experienced. Work was equally demanding, as I had been promoted since my graduation. I now had my own schedule of patients, and increased demands for further developing my skills, knowledge and flexibility as a medical professional. Once the growing pains had resolved and I was acclimated to the demands placed on me, I found my stride.
I am still studying at NC state, with an anticipated graduation of spring 2019. Looking back, I’m glad I was not originally accepted, and thus sent in search of a new road. It gave me many new opportunities working with patients, becoming a more core part of their care. It also granted me the opportunity, to pursue higher education and to truly test my knowledge and academics. A large portion of concepts from my studies have even applied to my work, where I am able to have more in depth conversations with PAs, doctors and patients, learning the reasoning and rationale behind procedures we employ every day. Lastly, it was a chance that I could really test myself and see what I was capable of. When the workload was almost too much to bear, It forced me to look deep within and really scrutinize if the cost was worth the reward. This internal conflict has payed off more than I could have imagined, for in this struggle, I found a new strength and was was initially just a small passionate flame, has grown into an incredible inferno.
I may have had to blaze my on trail to get to this point, but I never lost sight of my goals The lessons I have learned along the way, have made the struggle all worth the while. I know that no matter what obstacle comes my way, I have the ability to adapt and overcome. Now, more than ever, I am ready for the challenges of being a PA.
Eric says
Thanks for the very helpful website and platform to create a stronger narrative. Any edits/critique is greatly appreciated!
High-pitched shrieks pierced the silence of a beautiful afternoon in the forest. My coworker and I were relaxing, chopping vegetables in the sun when we first heard the sound. We were making dinner for some fifth graders whom we had been contracted to take backpacking and show the wonders of nature. Meanwhile, they were playing in the woods.
What had been a magical afternoon filled with joy suddenly turned upside down. I ran towards the sound. Six students running towards me explained that bees were stinging Ian. I continued towards the screaming. Ian stood helplessly amongst a swarm of wasps continuously stinging him. I hastily grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the nest and back towards camp. At camp I instructed the group to get cold water from the creek to cool his stings and immediately searched for an antihistamine and epinephrine in my medical pack, anticipating the worst-case scenario of anaphylactic shock.
By the time I found my supplies and radioed for additional help, Ian’s face was swollen; he couldn’t speak and was wheezing. My training kicked in as I injected epinephrine into his thigh. He was able to breath again and color returned to his face. Everyone felt relieved and we were able to safely evacuate him.
I am grateful for my medical training and for the power of medicine to change lives. Without these, the outcome of my story could have been very different. I never would have anticipated being in that situation nor having the skills to cope with it when I was younger. Mountains have been the driving force in my life and unexpectedly the force behind my choice to pursue a career in the medical field. All my life I have wanted to be a mountain guide and now I am. Working in the mountains has given me ample opportunities to reflect on life and to realize that I want to contribute to my community in a more significant way. Medical trainings for guiding have exposed me to a new world and ignited a new passion. Guiding is very rewarding; however, I do not see it as sustainable nor as contributing to my community to the degree I would like to.
Mountain climbing has prepared me well for the challenges of becoming a physician assistant. As with any good climb, my path has had its ups and downs, and I will persevere. While balancing between the decision to pursue guiding or an advanced degree in the medical field, I slipped and have since regained my stride. At the time, I was working a full-time job as a medical assistant, spending my days off working a guiding job, spending some nights going out on search and rescue calls, all while enrolled in an anatomy and physiology course at night. I was one of the top students in the course and had an A until the final. My life felt out of control and my stress level was very high. Upon reevaluating my life and seeking some relief, I made the decision to pursue guiding over medicine and skip the final since the course would not be necessary for taking people up mountains. After seeing how short sighted my decision was, I amended my poor choice by retaking the course, getting outstanding marks and was even invited by the professor to be a student assistant for future courses. My hard work was rewarding by further stoking my interest in the human body and becoming one of my favorite subjects. The mountains have taught me that sometimes short cuts or turning back early looks appealing but hard work and perseverance are required to attain the greatest heights as well as the importance of keeping your cool in stressful situations. I do my best to emulate these lessons in my everyday life now.
My time in the mountains has helped steer my future and given me the skills to attain it. Taking a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician course showed me how interesting medicine is. Using those skills in the field such as in Ian’s story showed me how they can change lives. This has led me to take my next step from guiding people up mountains to helping guide them to good health. Having worked in many facets of the medical field, I know being a PA is the best fit for me to help guide others health. Aspects of guiding that I enjoy include helping others attain their goals, the intellectually challenge of managing multiple hazards in addition to the psychological state of clients and the ability to work autonomously. Being a PA will allow me to continue helping people achieve their goals, will challenge me, will keep me engaged and will allow me to have some autonomy as well. My path continues up and PA school is the next step in climbing towards the future I want to build.
Natalie says
Picture this: a four year old girl dressed in her father’s white lab coat, face mask and rubber gloves. “Daddy, I’m ready to go to work with you.” To the little girl’s disappointment she could not accompany her father to work. Her stuffed animals and baby dolls and occasionally her older siblings became her patients and they were all waiting to see Dr. Potts. In hand were her plastic stethoscope, thermometer and otoscope, she was ready to see all of her patients for the day and figure out their diagnosis. Usually her patients would need a shot or two and then they would be better. As that same little girl started to grow up the desire and passion for helping people and going into the medical field only got stronger.
Throughout my family, there are many members that have a professional degree. My great-grandfather, grandfather and father were and remain dentists and my uncle is a radiologist. So for me going on in school to gain a higher degree has always been something I wanted to do. Dentistry might have been the most obvious course for me but I was not as interested in that path as I was in medicine. Medicine has always been the path for me even though dentistry is so prevalent in my family. The want to provide medical care and knowledge to people is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Strong empathetic skills that I have gained from watching my father throughout life will be a strong attribute I will bring to becoming a physician assistant (PA).
This passion for medicine has only gotten stronger since beginning to volunteering at the Free Clinics of Iowa. Volunteering at the clinic has made me realize just how much need there is for medical care. Many of the people we see have no insurance so they do not have access to affordable care. By having these clinics available people are able to get care they need and deserve. Without clinics like the Free Clinics of Iowa many people would go without healthcare. One of my goals after becoming a PA is to provide care for underserved populations and eventually volunteer my time at a free clinic to help those in need. Everyone deserves medical care and my vocation is to provide as much medical care as possible while working as a PA.
Not only has volunteering at the Free Clinics given me even more reason to become a healthcare provider but it has shown me the many ways the healthcare team works together. So far for volunteering, scanning, filing charts and checking patients in has been my duties. By doing these duties I am learning all aspects of healthcare team and how to be a team player. Charting, filing and scanning will be a daily task that must be completed and by doing this now I am becoming part of a team that works together. Working together is a large part of what a PA must do. Doctors, PAs and nurses must all work together to provide medical care, without the knowledge and the ability of teamwork patients would not be treated.
Learning about the PA profession did not happen until freshman year of college, sitting next to some friends in Careers in Biology seminar. At that time and for as long as I can remember becoming a doctor was the path for me. After learning about the PA profession during that seminar, I realized that being a PA was what I wanted to do with my life. Working along side physicians to provide people with even more medical care. I realized that PAs allow clinics, especially those in underserved communities, to provide care that might not have been there before. It allows those clinics to see more patients because another healthcare provider is there to help. The team aspect of working alongside a physician is what really drives me to become a PA.
During college I was very active in sports. I participated in both cross country and track where I was a captain for both teams. So after college I decided to take a year off from school to gain experiences and get even more knowledge about the PA profession. During my gap year I took a 7-week European adventure. Throughout those 7 weeks I learned more about myself and I also learned about many different cultures. After visiting eight different countries I started to understand the different cultures and the way certain cultures interact with society. Using what I learned during my time in Europe, will allow me to be more aware when working with culturally diverse patients. By traveling to many different places it has also taught me how to control unconscious biases to an extent. Being able to control biases in the healthcare field will allow better patient relationships and being able to get a thorough medical history and make a diagnosis.
It has only takes a moment to be shown the need for medical care. The experiences encountered throughout volunteering have made me realize that taking on the responsibility to provide medical care to those who need it is something I need to do. As of right now I have around 500 hours of direct patient contact and I plan to continue gaining more experience in the healthcare field. I plan on continuing to shadow both physicians and PAs to see the roles they play together and to continue understanding what my role, as a PA, will be. I am eager and ready to begin the education to start my career as a PA.
Katelynne says
Hi all. Any advice is appreciated for this reapplicant.
“Abra la boca, saque la lengua, y diga aaah.” Jazmin stood on her tiptoes and pointed up at my throat with oversized nitrile gloves and a flashlight. After a morning of check-ups, she left her new toothbrush on the ground beside me and picked up an interest in medicine. These Dominican girls returned from summer break with a range of poverty-related illnesses after living on the streets and in the mountains. The nuns and nurses at school conducted health screenings, and I brought supplies and diversions with other Americanas. It was agonizing to say goodbye to those strong girls after spending day and night with them, so I returned three years in a row. Those campamentos were the beginning of my support to a medical team and powerful relationships with deserving but disadvantaged patients.
There is a certain tenderness in that moment when I lean in to check patients’ ears. My breath slows down, my hand steadies, and I tuck back their hair. Patient intake is my first of many chances during a visit to offer reassurance. Yes, what you are feeling is real and this is how we can treat it. Though I am comfortable assessing and educating my patients, I must evolve to deliver the highest quality of care. Rigorous PA training will expedite my ability to make a deeper impact in my community and in outreach for years to come. My choice to pursue a career as a PA has been reinforced every day for five years by clinical experiences that allow me to perfect my skills and connect with patients.
The first time I used an otoscope, the inside of the ear looked like a chewed piece of bubblegum. I only carried a penlight in my EMT bag, because my main concern had been managing airways and injuries. Then I shadowed an ENT PA who rounded up volunteers with “normal ears” for comparison. “I want you to see what I see today,” Andrea offered, and she gave advice on positioning and landmarks. She cared for a wide variety of patients – from children with chronic ear infections to post-operative sinusitis and tonsillectomy patients. The patients and I benefited from her thorough instructions and attentive care. I immediately went home and searched for jobs in ENT clinics.
It was a steep learning curve to transition from emergency medicine and orthopedics to otolaryngology. In less than five months, they promoted me to assist the physicians with in-office procedures. I studied and practiced aseptic technique during any free time, and now I can show other clinic assistants how to work the Bovie or set up the instrument tray. An elderly man with a superficial neck mass was one of our more complex biopsies. I asked him for stories about his grandkids as a distraction while I kept pressure on the incision, “followed” sutures, and dressed the wound. The days that I go home with sore feet and a raspy voice are the most fulfilling days.
After most long days, I cannot go home right away because I have night class. Every year I take classes and maintain certifications to prove I can handle a demanding master’s degree program. On the days when I start work at noon, I wake up early to perform vision screenings for elementary schools. There, I have only minutes to make students feel relaxed. I must be efficient without making anyone feel like a failure. “Wow those glasses make you look so smart. Can you me what you see here?” The most important screenings are for new Somali, Hmong, and Latino immigrants who are just beginning to speak and read English. Communicating with them reminds me of quickly forging bonds with my Dominican girls years ago.
In the past 5 years, I accrued over 10,000 hours of healthcare experience – beginning as an ED scribe, earning my EMT, and now assisting with procedures. I love connecting with my patients and using my skills to improve their clinic experience, but I can make a more direct effect on their health as a PA. I see myself in all the roles a PA can fill, but the populations without easy access to healthcare are the reason I persevere in such a competitive vocation.
Jessica says
Any advise is appreciated!
Growing up in a small, rural town in Georgia we did not have access to a wide range of services for health care. The nearest hospital even equipped to handle more than a simple visit was over two hours away. My parents had me later in life and the earliest memories of my childhood were driving back and forth to obtain care for my father, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis. It was the physician assistants at these hospitals and clinics that spent the most time with my father and ultimately left their mark on me after witnessing their unwavering devotion to helping their patients.
Diminishing health may be an inevitable part of life, but that shouldn’t define who we are as people nor should those feelings be the only ones we hold onto when we think of our loved ones. By middle school, I knew providing healthcare would be the only pursuit that could make me complete, as though it chose me. Whether giving just a piece of advice or sharing a laugh with a patient, I knew that was what would make me happy and so my journey began.
By high school I was shadowing healthcare professionals in a hospital-run dialysis center through my schools HOSA program. Heather would be the veteran nurse who would take me under her wing. Every Friday I excitedly followed, making rounds and checking in on each patient. Brian was a patient who over time we forged a bond. He quickly noticed I was intrigued by the catheters and visible fistulas under various patient’s skin, so he shared openly about his experiences. Brian would miss appointments at times, but would always show up with a smile and concern for how we were doing. On one particular visit, Heather and I stopped at Brian’s chair to check on him. This particular day, something was amiss. We could see his breathing was labored and he struggled to speak. We sat next to him, Heather held his hand and encouraged him to not miss anymore appointments. Before Brian could utter a response, he coded. Within seconds I rushed to get the on-call PA while Heather began performing CPR. I witnessed a flood of paramedics and other healthcare professionals working together as a team to save Brian. All the while praying Brian would be okay. The experience of someone coding right in front of me was scary, the adrenaline rush and my entire being just wanted to help him. Afterwards, the urge to visit Brian in the hospital was so great; I just needed to know he was going to be okay. The smile he gave after returning the following month was all I needed to know, I’d chosen the right path.
My path set, I needed to gain more direct patient care experiences. Prior to graduation I obtained a position working at an adult addiction treatment center in South Florida as a Neurotechnician. Samantha was one of my patients who I saw everyday for little over a month. As time went on, Samantha and I had grown close and she would share her experiences living on the streets, in and out of prison, and the uncontrollable needs which consumed her life: heroin. One particular appointment I could see her eyes begin to water as she mustered, “I’m HIV positive.” Samantha had her follow up appointment with the PA and was told about her blood work results. She could barely see through the tears streaming down her swollen eyes. We talked and comforted each other. By the end of her appointment, Samantha began to smile brighter and was able to take comfort in her daughters and husband awaiting her return the following day. I had helped someone through a difficult experience with just a gentle touch and kind words.
Through my education, clinical experience, shadowing, and extracurricular activities, I have encompassed many of the attributes necessary to be a passionate and proficient physician assistant that exemplifies more than just clinical skills and knowledge. My decision to become a physician assistant was molded by the people I have touched, and those that have impacted me.
Jessica says
I’m a bit over the characters limit and looking for things that aren’t needed/can be shortened or condensed. Thank you in advance for your help!
When I was young, my grandmother and I kept bees. Two blue hives, perched in a patch of long grass in our back yard, were constantly abuzz with activity. My grandmother insisted that if I watched the bees long enough, they could teach me some of their wisdom. So, I watched them day in and day out, drawing their flight patterns, taking note of their busiest time of day, which flowers they liked best. As I got older, I realized my childhood hobby had a name: research.
I delved into research during my undergraduate program, and in my senior year I volunteered at a clinic that performed brain mapping research, as well as diagnosing and treating cognitive disorders. There, my supervisor saw in me an intuition for understanding people, and so he taught me to do intake interviews and to administer neuropsychological tests. Over a few short months, I became the lead psychometrist at our clinic simply because I could get even the most difficult patients to trust in me. I discovered that success was determined by two things: the ability to listen, and adaptability. As bees can effortlessly adapt to a change in their environment, I learned that what worked with one patient may not work with another, and it was imperative to recognize this and act quickly.
I found that I loved working with people even more than I loved research, and in 2015 when my clinic merged with a nearby medical school, I joined a people-centric neurolinguistics research team at Haskins Laboratories. My position was close to perfect: I got to work with a group of dyslexic adolescents from all walks of life, most of whom were underprivileged. I relished teaching them about how their brain worked, watching their eyes light up with curiosity. These moments made the more difficult times seem worthwhile – and the difficult times were frequent, as many of the kids had behavioral problems that required a cool head. During these times, I once again took inspiration from the bees and remembered that without a willingness to lead, a hive would fall apart. Over time, my analyst’s mind began to pick up on a pattern: when my participants were hungry, in pain, or sick, they lacked self-control and would act out. If they were lacking these basic necessities, I thought, how could something as intangible as linguistics research help them? I yearned to care for them, to heal their wounds and ease their illnesses, to give them a new outlook on life that could only be achieved by starting with a healthy foundation.
With this realization, I began to actively research roles in the medical field, and when a physician assistant at Yale New Haven Hospital asked if I wanted to shadow her I jumped at the chance. We flew from floor to floor, visiting patients with a variety of ailments, taking their vital signs, checking their wounds, counseling them, and often having difficult discussions surrounding their prognosis. I remember walking into the room of a 40-year-old patient who was morbidly obese, his feet wrapped in bandages, his wife by his side. “How are you feeling today, Roy?”, asked the physician assistant. “Should we take a look at your feet?” As the physician assistant deftly unwrapped his bandages, I was startled to see that his toes were black, and a stench had filled the air. She gently prodded his toes, confirming that he’d lost all feeling. Looking at both Roy and his wife, she explained that his lifestyle habits had caused his diabetes to worsen, and the time to discuss amputation had arrived. Throughout this emotional conversation, I was struck most by the sense of compassion and unbridled optimism radiating from the physician assistant. Roy had a difficult road ahead, but that day I learned that the way a PA delivers information and cares about their patients makes all the difference.
Beyond patient interaction, shadowing a PA within a hospital showed me how vital the collaboration and cooperation between doctors, PAs and nurses truly is. PAs are not autonomous, and it struck me how often the doctors relied upon the PA’s observations and clinical intuition to care for their patients. The buzz of energy, efficiency and teamwork surrounding the hospital workers again brought to mind something I was very familiar with: a bee hive. Like a bee working for the good of the hive, a PA performs a specific role within a hospital but is flexible when this role changes. She must sometimes make decisions, sometimes take orders, and learn to work with others.
If my grandmother were still here, she would be tickled at how much my future profession mirrors her love of beekeeping. When I first started watching the bees, they lead me to a passion for science and research, but that was not the end of their lessons. It is only in retrospect as I hope to begin my education as a physician assistant that I can see how their wisdom has prepared me for this moment all along. Research was not a wasted endeavor; instead, I learned to ask questions and seek hidden patterns – two skills vital for accurate diagnosis. I learned to be observant, a strong leader, and compassionate. As in a hive, I have seen firsthand how vital teamwork, communication and adaptability are to patient care. These traits seemed to come naturally to the PAs I shadowed, perhaps because as a hive works to produce nectar, PAs all share the same goal: to help and to heal. Now, if only physician assistants could make honey.
Kala says
If I were you I would try to cut some parts about your research experience in the begining?
Kerri says
Nancy’s worn, wrinkled hand reached down to gently pat mine. “It’s ok dear. The first day’s the hardest.” I had just started in the Alzheimer’s and dementia wing and I was currently trying to help Nancy relieve herself in the bathroom. Seeing my flustered expression, she explained to me the proper technique. “Don’t worry honey I’m a nurse.” Nancy explained, “you just have to tell them to point their feet and the pants come right off!” Then she laughed good-naturedly and pointed her toes dramatically so I could change her soiled garments. I became close with Nancy and I looked forward to chatting with her about mundane things, but her condition began to worsen. I watched as Nancy suddenly forgot where the dining room was, a place she walked to three times a day for a meal. The energetic twinkle in her eyes gradually began to fade and she would spend more time curled up in her bed. One day she couldn’t remember who I was anymore. Seeing this disease steal away my good friend Nancy, reinforced my desire to do more with healthcare. People like Nancy helped me to understand the need for qualified, caring, and skilled individuals in healthcare. She showed me the value of kindness and being open with someone new. I want to help people feel comfortable just like Nancy did for me on my first day of work.
Working in the nursing home gave me basic skills I can use in the field, but more importantly taught me how to communicate with others effectively. This is one of the most important qualities for health care because patients can be scared and confused by their illnesses. I understand how to calm a frightened Alzheimer’s sufferer who becomes combative. I’m aware that I have to speak louder for the elderly. I know that those who are unable to see require more guiding touches and need to be approached in a way that they are not startled. I see now that these things cannot simply be taught. Living through my own mistakes and the challenges I faced prepared me for the future of patient interaction.
This patient interaction is one of the most important things that drew me to the PA profession. I love the idea that I can talk with patients but also work behind the scenes to diagnose and come up with treatment plans. Talking with the residents and hearing their stories was one of my favorite parts of work. Not only is patient interaction important to me, but I love that a PA has a level of autonomy.
On my first day of shadowing we got a trauma call and I hurried after Kelly, the PA I was observing, to the trauma bay. When the patient arrived, there was a flurry of activity and I watched as Kelly confidently directed the nurses and EMS team on what to do. She rapidly performed the examination with skill and precision. I was fascinated by her abilities and that she did not need a doctor to explain what to do. Seeing her quick thinking and confidence in her abilities was inspiring. She is a great model of the capabilities a PA has and I am excited to reach that point.
I have had exposure to PAs working and I have gained patient care experience through my time in the nursing home, but I wanted to develop more skills in preparation for PA school. In my Junior year, I began phlebotomy classes so that I could work as a phlebotomist over the summer. These classes were done on top of my regular college courses, so the workload was immense. Despite the struggles of balancing all of my courses, I loved the class. It was so refreshing to get hands-on learning and feel like I was gaining relevant skills to my profession. When I did my first human stick I felt accomplished seeing the blood fill the tube. I believe the class has taught me to be an excellent phlebotomist and I am excited for the summer to develop my skills further.
Since entering college, I knew that PA school was my goal so I made sure to keep my grades as high as I could, while also participating in further development through clubs and activities. I joined a research lab where I studied the comorbidity of asthma and anxiety, and the effects it has on the brain. This clinically relevant research helped me to apply what I was learning in a new way. I also got the opportunity to perform a rat ovariectomy, examine anatomy of a number of animal organs, and work with human cadavers. These experiences have taught me how to balance a number of challenging courses and have given me a glimpse into the knowledge I will gain through PA school
I know that PA school is the perfect job for me. Through my time working with patients, as well as observing PAs on the job, I have gained a thorough understanding of the role a PA has in healthcare. I know that I want to be a part of that team so that I can make a difference in people’s lives.
Nykaela Dodson says
It’s a little messy but this is what I have so far and would love some direction!
A tiny person was pulled out of another person right in front of me. It was a completely alien like experience, yet incredibly human. A doctor and a PA working with a team of medical professionals performed a routine cesarean section, and it was a moment I was lucky to share with them. It was a moment I knew I wanted to be a part of again and again.
The family awaited in the lobby, little kids running around, balloons in hand. It reminded me of my cousins being born years ago. The excitement around that day buzzed amongst this family as well. I was able to be a part of a life changing moment, a day of happiness and new beginnings. While volunteering last summer, I solidified my career path after seeing a PA and a doctor work as a seamless team while being a part of an incredible, life changing moment for this family.
While this confirmed my decision to become a PA, my initial interest had been sparked years earlier. I grew up as a club athlete in competitive gymnastics and cheerleading. During a national cheerleading competition in California this all changed when a head on collision during a tumbling run left me unconscious. I awoke with a fractured skull, a split head, and a severe concussion; my highly competitive athletic career was over.
Here I experienced medicine first hand and noticed how many people are involved in the process of helping one patient. Although each person had their own job, they complemented each other. They were as closely synchronized as any competitive team I had been on. This pointed me towards a career as a Physician Assistant, a role with an incredible balance of responsibility, independence, and dependability. The teamwork mirrored that of my sports teams, where it is important to ensure each player understands their role and respects one another to accomplish their goal – which in medicine is maintaining the health of the patient.
My recovery was also aided by the kindness I received. I was cared for like family. Later volunteering at a hospital, I could see that this thoughtfulness is shared with each patient and their loved ones, just as I saw in Labor and Delivery. Medicine is incredibly unselfish. I deeply appreciated the generosity I was given and I wish to bring that to future patients.
Weeks after the injury I went in to get staples out of my head and was seen by a PA. We were in quite the predicament and the hurried work from the emergency room proved hard to unravel. Trying to distract me from the pain, we started talking about her career and I learned more about the profession. This was the career I was looking for.
Going into undergrad I started getting experience in the field to expand my knowledge as much as possible. Although difficult while taking rigorous classes, I dived into a plethora of opportunities to diversify my experience. Shadowing, hospital volunteering, and working as a CNA both in home health and a skilled nursing facility gave me a broad spectrum of exposure to patients and medical professionals in different settings. I felt a sense of family and teamwork in each of these experiences. Families are a team, and when a family member is sick, every player is called on to use their strengths.
Sports have been a driving force in my life for as long as I can remember. Gymnastics turned me into the person I am today. My coach once told me that sports teach you life lessons to use when you are an adult and have to deal with challenges much greater than the task at hand. I remember being a child, unable to imagine a difficulty greater than that double back flip. However, volunteering in an emergency department, I quickly learned that daily challenges equate to saving someone’s life. A car accident brought a Jane Doe to the trauma room, and even before the patient’s arrival, the stage was set and each team player was readily assembled. Lights and beeping, tools being passed around, and codes being called, to an outsider this situation seemed like a mess. However, each of their decisions were made in a rhythmic process, piecing together the puzzle of what had happened so this woman could become whole again. With all hands on deck, those not immediately surrounding the bed predicted future pieces that may fit together, and gathered any equipment that may be needed so it would be ready in a moments notice. I stood by watching everything come together, mesmerized by the seamless actions of each member of the emergency department come together to save this patient.
Physician assistants are trained with a specific set of skills. These skills can save lives, mend broken pieces. They are complemented by each member of the care team, working to provide the highest level of care for the patient. Truly caring about your work is how lives are made whole, and through my experience I have seen how much of an impact your dedication for the practice has on a patient’s outcome. This line of work is about caring for your patients as though they were family, because you would hope someone would put their best foot forward if they were caring for your own family.
Amanda says
This is my first draft. I got inspiration for the overall structure of the essay from one of the 31 posted examples on this site, and I am wondering if the structure works for my experiences/response to the personal statement question. I haven’t done a whole lot of proofreading, so please, excuse any grammar or spelling mistakes. Any input is greatly appreciated!:
Relief and gratitude rolled across her face. A once anxious aunt had brought in her niece to the emergency room for a worsening skin condition. The young girl had been developing reddish purple skin plaques diffusely throughout her body for the last several weeks that many past providers had been unable to diagnose. After a couple of hours of tests and consults to multiple specialties, the physician assistant, whom I was working with as a scribe, was able to confidently diagnosis her niece, and discharge her with a recommended treatment and follow-up plan. With my experience scribing for doctors, I knew that a physician would never have the time to devote to a patient like this physician assistant was able to in this situation.
Shock took over my body. A weak, cachectic 7 year old boy that looked 3-4 years younger sat before me and a group of Indonesian medical students as we all huddled around his bed in a hospital just outside of Jakarta. He was neglected by his parents who were unable to adequately feed him due to poverty. The boy didn’t look up to the growing body of people surrounding his bed, but instead stared at one spot, showing no emotion. As I searched his pale face for any sign of life, I realized I was witnessing true suffering, and that no amount of medication or nutrition would holistically heal him.
Tears formed in my eyes. I shook the gentle, wrinkled hand of an elderly man who was sent home on Hospice care for metastatic lung cancer, and thanked him for the privilege of getting to care him. For the last hour, I had diligently helped him manage his bloody sputum, vomiting, and shortness of breath as my EMT partner and I transported him home and then utilized the local fire department to help get him up to the top of his 3 story home. After the mayhem was over, I looked into his kind but exhausted eyes that were joined by a big smile of gratitude, and quipped that I hoped to never see him again, referring to the hope that he would be able to live out the rest of his days in the comfort of his home surrounded by his loved ones. After sharing a short chuckle with him, I was reminded of how much I can’t seem to get enough of patient care.
The stories described above are only a few of the many patient experiences that have guided me in conclusively deciding to become a physician assistant. Over the last nine months, I have developed a health care philosophy that focuses more on helping patients thrive, rather than just being cured. My experience with the young boy as a pre-medical intern in Indonesia last summer initiated this change when I learned that achieving true healing goes beyond vaccines, medicine, and bandages. People have social, economic, political, and religious challenges that affect their health. Now, I strongly believe that the role of physician assistant is the best opportunity for me to continue implementing that philosophy for three reasons.
First, the more time afforded to physician assistants to spend with and working for their patients as demonstrated in the case I came across as a scribe is one of the major reasons why I want to be a physician assistant. Through my experience working with doctors in the same emergency room, I know that the physicians would never have had the time to provide the same effort to deliver a confident, conclusive diagnosis. As a result, this increased time allotment will empower me to better treat my patients medically, but to also intricately understand the challenges in their lives and ultimately the demographics of their community. This will enable me to properly serve them as a medical professional involved in public health. This can be anything from chronic disease counseling to getting involved in policy making to community outreach through education and community building.
Second, the ability to move to other specialties is another reason why I want to be a physician assistant. As someone who is interested in trauma/emergency medicine, surgery, and primary care, whether I am able to work in only two or all of these specialties outside of school, I am determined to learn and gain as much knowledge and as many skills as I can. Additionally, for many years, I have had the desire to at some point in my life serve long term in an international community or two that have been affected by civil unrest, epidemics, or natural disasters. By gaining as much knowledge as I can, I fully believe it will give me the ability to make more informative diagnoses and treatment plans in order to better serve the patients I come across while serving domestically and abroad.
Lastly, as a physician assistant, I can focus more of my efforts on what I love most, namely patient care. Rather than being bogged down with private practice or hospital administrative responsibilities, I am given more chances to work with patients, which I have come to thoroughly enjoy through my time as an EMT as demonstrated in the last story described. More patient contact means more chances to learn and grow as a medical professional as I strive to provide holistic patient care that pursues thriving, not just cures.
Emily says
This is my original PS. I am a re applicant and stuck on where to begin with my new PS. I am going to target more of what makes me stand out, what I can bring to the profession and my future class, and the type of care I want to provide. Thank you in advance!
When I was a little girl, I knew that I wanted to change the world. I wanted to help people and I grew up with a heart filled with love and a passion for service. My youngest brother was born with congenital heart disease when I was 2.5 years old. Growing up, I knew that my brother was special, but never understood why my parents paid so much attention to him. When he was four years old, he spent 4 months in the hospital and I spent every day after school during that time helping nurses drain his chest tubes, watching Shrek, and playing countless hours of Mario kart. Nonetheless God performed a miracle and my brother survived his high risk valve replacement and grew up to be a normal, healthy young man. When I was 15, my father was diagnosed with stage four-colon cancer. I am writing this statement approximately three and a half weeks after he lost his battle. My father’s prognosis was poor but he outlived it by 5+ years. Sitting here now and thinking about the past events of my father makes me so passionate about medicine and helping others. I spent my summer after graduation working in the ER as a scribe and moved back home three weeks before my dads passing to take care of him. I quit my jobs, dropped my science classes, hopped on a plane, and moved home. For three weeks, I spent my days in and out of the hospital and for the time that my dad was home, I watched him breath to make sure he was still alive, changed his diapers, and physically pulled him up out of bed in the morning so my mom could go to work. I would not trade that experience for anything. People tell me everyday that I am strong and that I have done something that not many people can do. I do not see my actions as strong. I see my actions as humble, selfless, and pure. Growing up, my father was a Rotarian and I was constantly exposed to community service. I worked to clean up Red Rock park, served the homeless, and attended leadership camps. He used to always tell me that service is what gave him purpose, and I know that service is my purpose too. I was blessed with hands to serve others and a heart so willing to put others first, that when I am done with the world, there will be no heart left untouched. This mentality was instilled in me at a young age, and I have my father to thank for that.
The moment I felt most secure in myself and confident in my decision to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant was when I served my first medical mission in Jamaica. In three weeks, my team and I worked in an infirmary, served in a clinic performing basic triages and working alongside doctors, and ministered to the sick in home visits. Being able to finally be taken out of my comfort zone and put in a place where I always said I wanted to serve, and loving every second of it, was truly such a blessing. It was that trip that made me realize that my dreams can come true and that my heart is exactly where I need it to be to pursue this path.
When I began my undergraduate education, I realized how important it was that I push myself so I feel fulfilled. Halfway through my fourth college semester, I decided that I was going graduate a year early WITH a minor in Psychology. Many people doubted my ability to successfully complete the task at hand but I was determined to prove them all wrong, and I did. The timing was amazing as I was able to move home and be with my father before his passing during what would have been my senior year. My drive and motivation to finish my undergraduate degree early is just a small example as to how I see my future playing out. If I can motivate myself through that kind of an accomplishment, I know that I can successfully obtain my masters and work as a PA to change and touch people’s lives.
My dream in this life is to leave my handprint on people’s hearts. I do not want to be a PA because I know I can do it. I want to be a PA because just as much as I do know I can do it, I am instilled with fear; fear of being taken out of my comfort zone, fear or failure, and fear of hard work. These fears are not bad. These fears are beautiful and these fears are what I found motivated me to graduate college early, and has allowed to me to successfully work towards a large number of goals and achieve just as many. I have no fear in helping people. I am not afraid to fully commit myself to a task. Instead, I am more afraid of what would happen if I never tried. I want to be a PA because I know that I am capable of changing the world. I know that I have the heart, drive, energy, and motivation to constantly push myself to move forward. I know that I am compassionate and selfless enough to effectively care for those who are hopeless and those who cannot help themselves. I want to be a PA because out there are people who are hurting and need my help, and I know that I have been called to serve them.
Sarah says
The first time I performed Goldmann applanation I gave my coworker a corneal abrasion. As I placed the tonometer on the surface of her eye, I dragged the tip in order to center the mires. Five minutes later, the anesthesia wore off and she was crying in pain. After helping the resident instill antibiotic ointment I was apprehensive of trying to applanate anyone again, nevertheless a patient!
Although I wanted to avoid the task, I made myself try again with the help of our glaucoma fellow. I failed again and again, hoping the patient would not give up on me. Finally my mires were centered and I could even the see the faint pulse between them indicating success! Even though Goldmann applanation is one of the most challenging skills as an ophthalmic assistant, I was determined to be able to applanate any patient for my glaucoma attendings. Becoming a physician assistant is similar. With my perseverance, teamwork and hunger for a more fulfilling career in medicine, I believe that I have what it takes to become a physician assistant.
In our pediatric ophthalmology clinic, I work closely with my doctor to pick up on subtle eye abnormalities and bring it to her attention rather than following rote protocol. Nearly everyday, I learn a new eye disorder that I can watch out for in our patients. I started in my clinic with zero knowledge of ophthalmology but now I am a certified assistant and I even help train other technicians to recognize certain rare but life threatening eye disorders. My curiosity and attention to detail is something that I believe is crucial to providing care for all of the patients that I will encounter as a physician assistant.
Learning on the job and working within a team is very challenging but I am dedicated to providing the utmost care for my patients. It is my dream to take on even more responsibility by becoming a physician assistant. Through shadowing multiple physician assistants I realized that this is the perfect career choice for me. While observing a six hour lumbar fusion in the operating room, the PA worked in tandem with her attending, each provider taking one side of the spine. The scope of practice as well as the amount of respect that each clinician had for one another solidified that being a PA is exactly where I want to be.
During my first few years of undergrad I lacked serious goals. Since I loved science, I took too many hard classes at once leaving me overwhelmed and lost. I also struggled with depression from leaving my entire family to attend UNC at Chapel Hill. Once I began to work at UNC, shadow physician assistants, and volunteer, I realized that I can not see myself doing anything else but helping patients. Now I am driven and determined to become a physician assistant myself by working a full time clinic job, a part time job, and taking a full course load of science prerequisites while maintaining high grades.
Although my journey as been a long and hard one, I know that I am prepared and ready to start this new chapter in my life. I have learned so much on caring for patients, working in a team, and exactly how dedicated I am to make my dreams come true.
Felicia says
As I sat in that small, cold, exam room, I began to feel anxious. It had been three years of multiple physician visits and surgeries with no relief. That visit was supposed to give me some answers. When the physician walked into the room and began to relay the remarkable MRI results, I could feel the tears begin to well up in my eyes. The countless memories of insensitive providers and lack of results had become so overwhelming that I felt hopeless. As a physician assistant, I wish to give each of my patients compassionate, meticulous, and quality care so that they never have to feel anxious, hopeless, or alone like I did.
Over the past four years, I have worked as a physical therapy technician, medical scribe, phlebotomist, registration representative, and medical assistant. I also volunteered at Pula Croatia Hospital shadowing and learning from the surgeons, surgical technicians, and midwifes for 2 weeks in the clinics and operation rooms. Most of this experience was within emergency medicine and orthopedics, witnessing a variety of diagnoses and treatments as a medical scribe. As a medical assistant and phlebotomist I was able to interact more with the patients by asking them about their lives while drawing their blood for platelet rich plasma injections or when taking out sutures or staples after having had surgery. In therapy, I was able to see the progress of each of the post-operative patients that I have now been able to watch surgeries on. Working as the chief medical scribe I have been provided the opportunity to demonstrate my leadership skills and knowledge while training and improving each of the new hired scribes with constructive criticism. As a patient registration representative, I have also had the chance to witness the effect that insurances have on the health care industry. Each of these different experiences have ultimately provided me with further knowledge of how team interactions are a pertinent influence in providing exceptional patient care by positively impacting patients’ lives.
One of the most memorable patients from the past two and a half years, was sweet little Miss Betty. The eighty-seven years of wisdom, joy and sorrow were etched in each wrinkle on her frail face. The day she came into the office she looked so hopeless my heart could not help but ache for her. The severe osteoarthritis took away her freedom of expression through dance. Her and her husband of 60 years had been dancing since the day they had met. Now, not only was Betty being affected, but her husband’s once happy demeanor turned into one of desperation. One total shoulder arthroplasty and three months of rehabilitation later, they came back to the office dancing and twirling like no time had passed. It was in that moment that my decision to fulfill my dream of becoming a physician assistant was solidified. I knew I needed to provide patients with empathetic and unprecedented care so they too can have their happily ever after like Betty.
Having had the opportunity to work with several different physician assistants in various health care settings, I have come to appreciate the opportunity they have to establish a rapport with each of their patients. Since they tend to have more time in each of the rooms, they can provide more of the compassionate, meticulous, and quality care that I am looking to give. I believe that my previous experience of hopelessness and anxiety as well as the past four years of interactive care, will only assist me in providing that type of care for each of my future patients.
Felicia says
I’ve learned a lot of important lessons while shadowing a physician assistant in the emergency room this summer: always clean up your own sharps, communicate with other ER staff members to effectively work as a team, never talk about how “quiet” a day is, and that a warm blanket and a smile go a long way in patient care. Most importantly, I learned how much I love coming in to the hospital each day, excited to interact with a wide variety of patients and have a positive impact, no matter how small, in their healthcare experience. Shadowing in a level II trauma center granted me opportunities to develop my own personal philosophy about patient care, as well as furthered my desire to pursue a career as a PA in this field. My biggest inspiration to become a PA, however, started well before I ever shadowed in a hospital but from something much closer to home.
It was the summer before my final year at Miami when I got the text from my dad. He had been sick for a few weeks and finally went to the hospital for routine blood work. Doctor’s visits used to be rare for him, as he is an ER physician and seemed to never get sick. When the results came in, they immediately admitted him to Cleveland Clinic Main Campus. He told me he was fine and not to worry, all while joking about getting a room with the Indians game on, so I believed him. The next morning his tests were back – he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His first thirty days of routine high-volume chemotherapy were cut short when he acquired an infection and spiraled into total organ failure. He was in the ICU for roughly two months, during which time he drifted in and out of comas and had, as he phrased it, “a visit from every specialist except gynecology.” When he finally regained consciousness after two weeks of dialysis, he was so weak he could not sit up unassisted so he spent two more months at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he was finally allowed to come home on Christmas Eve.
It was the best present a girl could ask for, but not without its challenges. He was still very weak and wheelchair-bound. He had to take handfuls of pills several times a day, and needed his blood sugar checked before each meal due to the steroids. The house had to be regularly scrubbed from top to bottom due to his low neutrophil count. When I was younger and my mother suffered two strokes, my father had been the one that had kept our family together. Our upside down world felt like a nightmare. I learned to do fingersticks and insulin injections gently, so as not to bruise his paper-thin skin. I taught him how to flush his PICC line when it became clogged (a trick I learned from my own experience with IV antibiotics to treat osteomyelitis a year prior). When he started walking, I learned to block his knees with my hands so he wouldn’t fall too far forward after he lost most of his proprioception and motor control from peripheral neuropathy.
I had a tough choice to make: return to school and continue pursuing my degree, or stay home and help my mother. I stayed in Cleveland for as long as I could, but eventually went back to school the day before spring semester started. I continued to come home as often as I could. Our schedule wasn’t the only thing that changed – because my father was unable to work, our lifestyle changed considerably due to the financial strain from hospital bills. We now considered ease of access everywhere we travelled to make sure it was safe for his wheelchair. One night, my mother confided that she had never spent so much time with my father in the entirety of their marriage. Cancer is not only a physical fight but a myriad of battles that accompany the diagnosis. Standing strong with my family through all of these hurdles has helped me to develop a comprehensive and unique perspective on the challenges that health issues bring to patients and their families.
My father has since returned to work in the ER, and continues to greet patients with a smile, grateful to be alive and healthy enough to practice medicine. Even before my father got sick, I was in love with medicine, too. From a young age, I questioned the world around me with a thirst for answers that never waned. As I learned body systems in anatomy and physiology, I looked at illness and injury as a puzzle waiting to be solved. When I was taking care of my dad, he told me I should look into PA school. He said “if you love medicine and actually want to spend time with patients, become a Physician Assistant.” In my time shadowing in the Emergency Department, I have found this to be very true. While the doctors intercept phone calls from specialists and chart lengthy notes, the PAs are in the room with patients, performing a review of symptoms or suturing lacerations all while keeping the patient informed and calm to ameliorate stress levels. The positive impact on the patient care experience is palpable. I want to apply the same compassion and understanding that I have acquired during my own family’s experiences and those from shadowing in the emergency room in order to better someone else’s health care experience.
Matt Mitchell says
Any suggestions are much appreciated. 🙂
Since I can remember I have been told to perform at my best and rewarded for an acceptable performance. Overtime I have adopted the mentality as my own and lived most of my life that way. I sought for praise and approval from others. Sometimes I received it, others the praise was not as abundant. I attended an Easter service on April 1, 2018, thinking that it would be a typical service. The lesson started with a problem that most people in America suffer from an identity crisis. The pastor told us “We usually equate our identity with our performance and our perfection.” He also said that “Who we are is based on our potential.”
I struggled with the typical barriers of a college student. Balancing classwork, social life, and extracurricular activities is a skill that not many have mastered by the time they get to college. Figuring out the best study method was particularly difficult for me. It is to this, which I attribute my lower grades during my undergraduate degree. After getting fed up with my low performance, I attempted to study by simply reading and memorizing the information that was present in my books and lectures. With my still diminishing grades I became more discouraged and depressed but was still so determined to finish as best as I could.
My first encounter with patients was the 2 weeks at the Veteran’s Affairs hospital in Lubbock. A requirement for my academics was to intern as a phlebotomist. I took blood from veterans that needed blood drawn and tested. Most of them were elderly and were no strangers to the needle for vaccinations. There was one patient that I remember, seemed to be barely hanging onto life. He was well mannered and had a positive outlook on his status despite his many ailments. As most of the other veterans did, he shared his experiences and advice with me about life as I took his blood. He also shared that his wife had passed away, but he did not seem so sad about it. I drew his blood with the supervisor watching close over me, and we sent him on his way. I thought about this man’s circumstances and how he reacted to life. I realized that it is not the cards that you are dealt but how you play the game.
The last semester of my undergraduate was spent in a hospital in Austin where I expected things to turn around. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. During my time as a clinical lab intern, I witnessed a nine -year-old child die from a car crash. Her younger sister was ejected from the car and was dead on site. The emergency team did all that they could but regrettably was unable to save the girl. Unfortunately, my problems did not stop there. After about 2 months I went into a state of serious doubt and depression. It was here that I considered suicide. I struggled for 2 weeks and realized that I could not cause so much pain to my mother who I knew loved me. After I graduated and moved back to Dallas I regressed and went into a less extensive form of depression. I called a friend which turned me to my faith in God. Since then I have experienced miraculous events that changed my outlook on life and renewed my determination for my professional life. From there I improved my study habits and continued my education. Close to the end of my graduate degree I studied for the MCAT and took the test. Understanding that the first “go-around” would be rough, I knew I would have to take it again. As I was getting ready to take the test again the newest format of the MCAT was released. I sat for the MCAT two more times and applied to medical school on the second attempt. I was rejected from all of my choices for medical school. I called a few and was told that I was not a good enough candidate for school. Thus another case where I was identified by my performance instead of my potential.
I also acquired more information that there were prerequisite classes that I was missing. I stayed on the course and returned to school to get the remaining courses for medical school. During this period, I began to question weather I genuinely wanted to be a physician. Although a prestigious position, was this where I truly wanted to be. After a long deliberation I decided that physician assistant is where I wanted to go. The position is diverse, which I knew that I would be happy with since I enjoy a large variety of activities and learning. Knowing I would need more volunteer/observation, hours I started to hunt for physician assistants that would allow me to shadow. In the middle of my search, I found a facility called REACT: Neuro-Rehab. The clients there were in wheel chairs and playing basketball, completing tasks that some had deemed impossible for them to complete. Following my faith, I answered the call that lead me to that facility. I made an appointment with the volunteer coordinator and immediately fell in love with the atmosphere and the people. REACT’s goal is to provide rehabilitation of the nervous system to those who have suffered a neuromuscular deficiency, through exercise science. My regular task was to clean and to help trainers where they needed it. After about a month the next group, Legacy Project, started and I was to help the head trainer lead the group. My first group was comprised of ten individuals that would not normally be able to receive therapy due to financial shortcomings. This particular group also had a variety of injuries and conditions. These included stroke, quadriplegia, and Multiple Sclerosis. I was offered a position as a full-time specialist after the end of the first group and received a whole new group about a month after that. I gratefully accepted the position so that I may support myself and take some financial burden off of my mother. The responsibility of an occupation has its benefits, but alas does take away from time and opportunities to search for shadowing hours with a PA.
A month after accepting the job offer, I received my second group for training. These athletes stood out the most for multiple reasons, but the biggest one was Aurie Allen. Aurie Allen had been in an accident in high school and his conditions steadily got worse as he got older. He is capable of standing but not for long periods of time. Aurie stood out the most to, well, just about everyone. Aurie stands 7’4” tall and weighs around 470 pounds. Aurie came to us as a final option for his therapy. He had explored other therapy options but was turned away due to his large stature. As a team we were not sure how we were going to do it, but we were determined to get him out of his chair standing and training. We started by simply getting him out of his chair. We started on the table just like any other client and figured out how to stretch his lower extremities. After mastering the table, we moved him to the ground for posterior chain training and core training. By the sixth week he was standing on our largest machine that is present here in the gym. By the end of the program Aurie was not only standing but also doing squats and complex movement to further his training.
In the same group was another gentleman who was a motorcycle police officer for the city of Dallas. The accident shattered the arch in his foot and left is hips in a state of extreme flexion. In attempts to correct as much as possible and provide the best quality of life, Justin had to undergo surgery on his lower extremities and stomach. The surgery left a large amount of scar tissue. So much so that even lying flat on the table was painful for him. Justin fought hard for improvement in his gait, endurance, and flexibility. There were many times that our team described exercises to Justin and even he did not believe that he could complete the workouts. Determined to get him stronger and out of his chair we persisted and finally had him doing things few knew he could do. Justin held yoga poses, pressed weight on the leg press, and eventually laid flat on his stomach for the first time in a long time. Justin is featured on our facilities story video and is an example for his children and others that are going through similar struggles.
I do not regret my journey and the hardships I have had to endure to get to where I am today. I have experienced low valleys and high peaks, thus adding to my understanding of the circumstances life may throw at us. After all I have experienced I know my potential now. I have the potential to be great at anything I want to do or be. And I know I would be an amazing physician assistant, but not be too good to take care of the most minuscule of tasks. I attended another church service on April 15, 2018. The pastor told the story of how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, even though he was Jesus. The lesson was that, one can never be so great that they cannot serve another. I am ready to follow that example and serve my fellow man in the best way that I can.