overstepping capability boundaries?

[jesebelle]

Hey everyone,
I am trying to write my personal statement rough draft and I want to write about my experiences working as a physical therapy technician... As I perused the threads on here, I noticed that you can cause some serious problems for yourself if you overstep what adcoms see as the scope of your capabilities. I want to make sure that what I was doing does not qualify, it was not something I had ever thought would be until I read those other threads so I just want to double check.
Basically, we did electrical stim therapy (hooked up little electrode pads and stuck them on people then turned on a little machine that regulated the strength to the person's liking without getting excessive) and also ultrasound therapy (applied gel and an ultrasound head (not the kind that produces images) and moved it around on the patient's affected area). We did three shifts of training with either a trained tech or the physical therapy assistant prior to beginning to work alone.
I just don't want to mess up my chances!
Thanks for any insight!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ismet]

If those duties are within the scope of your job as a physical therapy technician then those are within your capabilities.

The problems come about when you do things you are not trained or qualified to do, i.e. a pre-med going to a free clinic and suturing lacs or something

 

[jesebelle]

I mean they were definitely within the scope of what I was asked to do.
Thank you for the advice!

 

[gyngyn]

Can you explain the evidence upon which these interventions were based?

 

[ridethecliche]

How did doing those things make you want to become a doctor?

 

[MedNation907]

@jesebelle

How did doing those things make you want to become a doctor?

I would vote that this is 100% more important than actually detailing the job itself. ADCOMs can figure out, if they don't already know, what a physical therapy technician does (or it'll be saved for a talking piece at the interview) but how it impacted you in the sense of your motivation to pursue medicine is what they are fishing for in a personal statement.

Characters through which you are allotted to express your interest in medicine are limited, filling it up with objective information seems silly to me. Keep it focused on you.

 

[Alejandro]

How did doing those things make you want to become a doctor?

@jesebelle


I would vote that this is 100% more important than actually detailing the job itself. ADCOMs can figure out, if they don't already know, what a physical therapy technician does (or it'll be saved for a talking piece at the interview) but how it impacted you in the sense of your motivation to pursue medicine is what they are fishing for in a personal statement.

Characters through which you are allotted to express your interest in medicine are limited, filling it up with objective information seems silly to me. Keep it focused on you.

lol, i'm going to use the phrase my attendings write on my notes, "I agree with the following assessment."

If you're spending too much time describing what happened, you're writing very little about you, and your motivations to become a physician. personal statements don't have a whole lot of real estate, and it'd be a shame to waste your space on a procedure I can simply google to figure out how to do. If you're working as a tech, you must have tons of reflection and experiences that can help flesh out why you want to be a physician, run with all of that. I doubt it has to do with, "I am only allowed to this as a tech, but i did more stuff that i wasn't allowed to do instead. admit me plz." Thus, focus on you, less on the procedure.

 

[ridethecliche]

Well the issue I see is that unless the OP has significant experience working with and shadowing physicians (Not PTs), they won't be able to describe the differences that helped them see which path was right for them.

And yes, spending time describing a procedure like that is a waste of time.

 

[Alejandro]

To be honest, I think its more important to focus on what it means to work with patients in general. I've heard people go to say that the patient interaction you have as a tech for example, is insignificant compared to one as a nurse or as a physician, which i think is garbage. The healthcare worker (you) determines how valuable/interactive you want that interaction to be. You still work with patients as a physician, or as a PT tech. Sorry, I'm assuming the OP has some shadowing or exposure to what a physician does.

And to describe the differences, I would hope the differences don't come from "overstepping boundaries" lol