The Medfools Med/Peds Sample Residency Personal Statement Library is now open!
These example IM/Peds residency med/peds personal statement samples 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.
MED PEDS RESIDENCY PERSONAL STATEMENT
As a small child, I remember going to my pediatrician for my regular check ups and minor childhood illnesses. The bond I shared with him was one of trust and comfort. My doctor knew everything about me and understood my problems. Having to change physicians as an adult was very troubling for me. This experience has made me aware of the anxiety patients face while dealing with different doctors for their children, themselves, and their parents. It is indeed very comforting if the entire family can trust one doctor who can provide comprehensive health care for the entire family. In fact managing generations of the same family overwhelms me with a profound sense of integrity and responsibility.
During my clinical rotations in my third year, I worked with a variety of patients, from different economic, social, and cultural backgrounds, 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. Treating diseases like asthma and diabetes, their pathophysiology, varied presentation in children and adults, diagnostics and treatment protocols was not only interesting but also intellectually challenging. I actively involved myself in my ward duties and diagnostic procedures to gain hands-on experience, willingly stayed up late discussing cases and monitoring patients with my colleagues, and eagerly spent hours sitting in the wards, educating patients about their diseases. The smiling faces and enthusiasm of my young patients drove away my fatigue and made me long to return each day. Always interested in education and community outreach, I also participated in school health check-ups and polio camps organized by my institution. Meanwhile, at the HIV Counseling Center, my colleagues and I were involved in educating and helping pregnant women and children.
After graduation, I provided primary healthcare to forty-two villages in rural India with a population of 33,000. Aside from my outpatient care and ward duties, I was also responsible for the fulfillment of national health programs established by the World Health Organization, such as the Pulse Polio, Maternal and Child Health, and Universal Immunization programs. 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. Well aware of the sensitive and emotional problems faced by today’s youth, I also organized camps and lectures on sex education and sexually transmitted diseases. Helping people have a positive outlook on life and bringing smiles to their faces, during medical school and my time in India, has been extremely rewarding. Serving this underprivileged population helped me appreciate the quality and complexity of healthcare issues today and inspired me to study healthcare policy on a global level.
Presently, I am working with physicians at the Medical Center in Big City, USA. This twelve week long ‘Mini-Externship’ program is helping me to hone my skills in obtaining medical history and conduct physical examinations. It is also providing me an initial experience familiarizing me with the American health care system in general and residency expectations in particular.
My passion for knowledge and education has made me realize that I would like to be a unique blend of both healthcare provider and educator. Internal medicine and pediatrics hold a common approach to patient making them complementary and synergistic. As a pediatrician, I will guide parents through the developmental stages of childhood and at same time I can continue to provide comprehensive care to the elders of the family. In this way, I can bridge the two areas, which, in my perception, are well connected. I intend to take full advantage of the residency program in internal medicine/pediatrics 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, 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 available in America, this is where I see my dream coming true.