Common Personal Statement Mistakes for Medical School, Dental School, PA School, and other Health Professions

Common Personal Statement Mistakes for Medical School, Dental School, PA School, and other Health Professions

  Get Started Today Call: 888-839-9997 e-mail: [email protected] 20 Minutes Free Consultation What is the purpose of a personal statement?   The personal statement is an opportunity for you to tell the admissions committee what you want them to know about you to convince them to accept you. A few years ago, a medical school admissions committee member made a good analogy about the personal statement. She asked students to imagine that the dean of admissions at their top choice medical school calls them and says you have 4 minutes to convince me that I should give you an interview at our school. What would you say in those 4 minutes?  Whatever you say should go into your personal statement.  A personal statement should achieve a few key goals: It should explain how you became interested in the field you are pursuing (medicine, dentistry, PA, pharmacy) It should provide insight into why you are drawn to this profession. Ideally you should use experiences participating in patient care, shadowing, volunteering to show what you like about the field.  It should give the reader some insight about what qualities make you a good candidate. This should not be a laundry list of generic positive qualities like being hardworking or being smart. Instead it should be a handful of specific qualities and a demonstration of how you acquired these qualities through your personal or professional experiences.  The most common personal statement mistake!   Perhaps the most common big picture mistake that we see in personal statements is applicants not clearly and explicitly articulating why they want to go into their chosen health profession. This...
PAs have more time with patients: Fact or Fiction?

PAs have more time with patients: Fact or Fiction?

  Get Started Today  Call: 888-839-9997 e-mail: [email protected] 20 Minutes Free Consultation Is it true that PAs get to spend more time with their patients than doctors? By Alyson Rockhold PA-C, MPH PAs have more time with patients: Fact or Fiction? The professors in my physician assistant (PA) program repeatedly stated that PAs spend more time with patients than doctors. As a PA student, this was a major selling point for me. I was excited to get to know my patients and have the time to provide excellent patient education and answer all of their questions. After working as a PA for over a decade, I am starting to wonder if my professors were lying. I see an average of 25 patients a day, and I often wish I had more time with them. There always seems to be more questions to answer or advice to share when it’s time to move on to the next patient. The doctors that I work with see a similar patient load. They also bemoan the overbooked schedules that make us all feel like we are perpetually running behind. Do I really spend more time than doctors do with each patient? I decided to do a little digging. I waded through many research papers to discover how PAs spend their time and how that compares to how doctors spend their time. How PAs spend their time There is an interesting survey by Florence Health (huddle.florence-health.com) that surveyed over 1,000 medical providers about their workdays. Their results showed that mid-level providers, such as nurse practitioners (NPs) and PAs, spend about 54% of their days...