PEDS RESIDENCY PERSONAL STATEMENT

South of downtown Big City on Jones Avenue, there is a two-story building with a small playground in front. It is a shelter for women and children. On the second floor is a clinic called Advanced Practice where I had the opportunity to volunteer as a medical student. The experience was an invaluable one both in clinical training and social awareness. It exposed the need for strong child advocates as well as competent, caring healthcare providers.

At Advanced Practice, I served women and children from diverse backgrounds. Many patients were teenage mothers and their children while other residents were domestic violence victims fleeing a physically and/or sexually abusive parent or spouse. Despite their circumstance, the children would still laugh and bounce around during the examination and then run past anything in their paths from the exam room to the prize box. These pediatric patients’ joy was not always that of blissful ignorance. To my surprise, even those that were four or five years old understood their situation quite well and could articulate the reason they were living in the shelter. I also appreciated the bluntness of my teenage patients and the occasional challenge of earning their trust. The common trait present in all of the children and adolescents at the shelter was resilience, and it is this attribute in the patient population that attracts me to pediatrics the most.

In addition to the remarkable patients, pediatrics is an exciting area of practice because the life cycle is the most dynamic from birth to 21 years of age. The physical, cognitive, and emotional development that occurs during this period shapes adult life, and I would like to positively impact these formative years. Furthermore, pediatric patients have fewer acquired chronic conditions and a tremendous capacity for healing from injury and recovering from illness. These factors make pediatrics a fascinating and rewarding profession.

Ultimately, I would like to serve patients as a primary care physician. This will allow me to see healthy and ill patients and to offer continuous care from birth to adulthood. This is important because a consistent relationship with children and parents will give me more credibility and influence as a child advocate. Also, I would like to participate in training medical students and residents as this is one of the best ways to ensure that I remain current and challenged while contributing to the continued proficiency and excellence of the profession.

The most important aspect of a residency program for me is the mentoring relationship between the faculty and residents. Having attended a large undergraduate institution and a small medical school, I realize that the size of the program is less important to me than the genuine commitment of faculty members to teaching residents how to become competent, independent physicians. My chief responsibility to my patients is to provide quality healthcare, and I can meet this obligation only with proper training. My preference is to train in a program located in the Southeast because this is where my family lives and where I intend to practice medicine.

Beyond residency, I am interested in a fellowship in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. I have observed a growing demand for general pediatricians who can offer medical treatment for developmental disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

As an intern, I offer an enthusiasm for learning and working as a part of a healthcare team. I have the desire that all noble pediatricians and mothers possess: to take care of and to advocate for children.