The Medfools IM Internal Medicine Sample Residency Personal Statement Library is now open!
These sample Internal Medicine residency personal statement examples for Internal Med 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.
My decision to enter medicine is a coalescence of several driving forces. My admiration and respect for doctors and their noble work is one of my primary reasons for wanting to pursue a career in medicine. The other is the simple fact that the vast ocean of knowledge, the continual advances in treatment, and the ability to cure disease fascinate me. In medical school, my open mind and experiences in a wide range of specialties were key factors in my personal growth and career objectives.
During my internal medicine rotations, I worked with a variety of patients, from a range of economic, social and cultural backgrounds, and featuring a wide range of conditions. While I mastered the techniques of taking patient histories and conducting thorough physical examinations, each patient taught me something new. I actively involved myself in my ward duties and routine diagnostic procedures to gain hands-on experience, willingly stayed up late discussing cases and monitoring patients with my colleagues, and eagerly spent my free hours sitting in the wards, interacting with and educating patients about their diseases. Long interested in education and community outreach, I also plunged into various community services including HIV counseling, rural school health checkups and health camps organized by my institution. Helping the underprivileged have a positive outlook on life and bringing smiles to their faces, during medical school and my time in India, has been extremely rewarding.
After graduating from medical school, I had the opportunity to serve as the medical officer in charge of forty-two villages in rural India, with a population of 33,000. While managing an outpatient clinic, antenatal and post-natal care, deliveries, and patient admissions, I matured as a physician and learned to apply my education in a clinical setting. I also carried out various national health programs including the World Health Organization’s Malaria Control, Universal Immunization, Maternal and Child health, and Leprosy Control programs.
During a rainy season, a cholera epidemic struck one of the villages and flooded the hospital with patients. My colleague and I went from house to house, educating people about the importance of sanitation and chlorination of water, but despite our efforts, the epidemic spread to the neighboring villages. Although I felt helpless and angry at the lack of technology and resources that bound my hands, my colleagues and I decided to fight as a team. Nursing sick people back to health gave me my first taste of satisfaction as a physician and helped me to appreciate the severity and complexity of healthcare issues today.
I intend to take full advantage of a residency program in internal medicine and to use the knowledge I acquire there to heal patients and train others interested in the field. My diverse life experiences have helped me realize that I possess the determination, resilience, mental strength and compassion to succeed as a valuable asset to a medical team. I want to be a resource for my patients and a source of continual medical care. Considering the strong healthcare system, numerous opportunities for research, and advanced technology in America, this is where I see my dream coming true.