Personal Statement for Pain Fellowships

[drshy44]

Does anyone have a sample personal statement or old personal statement for anesthesia pain fellowships. I am having trouble knowing what to put down in words. I can use all the help you can give.

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[UTSouthwestern]

Does anyone have a sample personal statement or old personal statement for anesthesia pain fellowships. I am having trouble knowing what to put down in words. I can use all the help you can give.

Personal statements shouldn't be something that you pattern after someone else's statements, but instead should be a concise reflection of your life, experiences, and motivations.

Sit down and put down a list of items that you feel you should put on paper that you think will describe to the interviewers what kind of person you are, what experiences you have had, and what motivations you have for entering pain management.

Look at your CV in a very critical manner and pull those aspects of it that you think would make your PS an interesting yet concise description of your life and goals.

Things that I have looked at in reviewing/writing personal statements:
1. Personal experiences with pain management that have influenced your decision (Complex cases, interesting patients, etc.).
2. Significant research experience salient to pain management, anesthesiology, or clinical medicine. I would strongly recommend you avoid putting esoteric topics such as "Clinical impact of a vegetarian diet on sperm counts in albino mice on crack" in your statement.
3. Life changing events that have led you to consider pain management.
4. Research interests in pain management.
5. People of interest who have influenced your decision to pursue pain management.
6. Why you have chosen to apply to a particular program.

Most of all, the statement should reflect your personality and attributes. Personal statements vary from the incredibly bland to the incredibly flamboyant. I would avoid the former and only consider the latter if you have a true knack for creating truly captivating stories.

Limit the length to one to one and half pages. Beyond that, most reviewers will lose focus on what you are trying to emphasize about yourself. The greatest emphasis on anyone's personal statement should be the first paragraph as it is what sets the tone for the statement and can instantly captivate the reader or implant an expectation of yet another generic statement.

Organize your thoughts in the paragraph in a logical flow that you can easily direct from paragraph to paragraph.

Finally, be definitive in your final sentence. "Where I go from here is anyone's guess" is not the kind of ending that inspires a reader to spread the gospel of candidate X.

Good luck.