The Medfools Emergency Medicine Sample Residency Personal Statement Library is now open!
These sample ER – Emergency Medicine personal statements are here for your viewing pleasure (fully anonymous). We’re hoping to add more in the future, including Pre-Med personal statements. If you’ve got one to add to the free library, don’t forget to contribute yours.
Emergency Medicine became a potential career option for me after I obtained my Emergency Medical Technician Basic Certification the year before I entered medical school. I worked full-time in the emergency department as a patient transporter, which gave me the privilege of witnessing and participating in the daily work of the physicians and nurses.
My shifts were ten hours long, four days a week, and I took it upon myself to speak with patients and physicians whenever I had the chance. Two new doctors, who had just finished their residency training, began their first jobs the month I had started mine. As I began inquiring about some of the things I saw and heard, they could not help but notice my burning desire to learn more about the practice of emergency medicine. “If you’re interested in becoming a doctor, don’t ever lose the curious nature you have, let it work for you”, they would tell me.
I was a sponge during this year of my life, soaking up information as each puzzling case presented itself. They shared my enthusiasm when they weren’t overwhelmed with critical patients and treated me as an enrolled medical student. They pointed out X-ray findings and ECG strips of some significance unknown to me at the time, If they had an interesting patient they would introduce me and request permission for me to observe. I recall one of the physicians quizzing me about a patient who had a true “situs inversus” on her chest X-ray, and I will never forget my conversations with a young man with signs and symptoms consistent with new-onset Lyme Disease.
The fact that I remember these specific scenarios is only testament to my impressionable nature at the time. I am truly grateful for the time spent learning with those physicians, nurses and patients. Their encouragement and feedback helped prepare me for medical school in ways I could not have calculated, and my time with them seems very brief in retrospect.
When I did get accepted about eight months into the job, they cheered for me and told me how proud they were of my accomplishments. On my last shift, one of the physicians presented me with a new copy of Netter’s Human Anatomy Atlas which had been signed on the inside cover by all the emergency doctors, much like a high school yearbook. I cannot imagine a more satisfying and inspirational welcoming into the field of medicine.
A little praise can go a long way, and the respect I have for my mentors and what they taught me remains a great inspiration to this day. Keeping those experiences fresh in my mind helped me surpass the many challenges of medical school successfully. My interests have remained very broad, as I have found appreciation for many fields of medicine and have been fortunate enough to work with many great people. Infectious disease has been of personal interest before and throughout medical school, and the acute presentations of infections has become a focus I hope to investigate further in the future. After every rotation, however, I find myself returning full circle to emergency medicine as a career choice.
Only this field offers the privilege of treating such a variety of ailments on a moment’s notice. In the E.D., patients and their caregivers usually begin their relationship as complete strangers, and the rapport between patient and physician must be established rapidly for an effective interaction to occur. This requires special skills on the part of the physician: understanding enough to break barriers of language and culture, and empathy enough to comfort those in acute distress on a daily basis. The exceptional communication skills necessary to efficiently discuss patient care with various specialists cannot be overlooked. Possibly of even greater importance for any E.M. physician is a solid fundamental knowledge base of the medical and surgical disciplines. With this in mind, I have strived to uphold the highest standards attainable through each phase of my medical school training.
In the years to come, I hope to contribute my share of honor and integrity to the field. A combination of private community and academic practice will allow for a variable clinical pace and an outlet to engage my longstanding enjoyment of educating student.