1. If you are not a full-time student during this application cycle, in particular at any time between September 2020 and May 2021, please detail your current and planned activities below. (250-500 words)
2A. (500 Words) The medical profession is frequently described as being both a science and an art. One could summarize this by saying that patients must “be well cared for” (science) but they must also “feel well cared for” (art). We work to teach our students not only the scientific principles of medicine, but also the core values of medicine, often called “professionalism”. Toward this end we keep patients at the center of our education and often reflect on their stories with our students.
- The exciting advances in our understanding of the biological basis for disease have led to the emergence of a host of targeted therapies and amazing technologies improving the duration and quality of our patients’ lives. The better a physician knows his/her patient, the better decisions they will make together as they approach important healthcare related questions. This so-called shared decision-making model is one key feature of patient centered care. Practicing the art of medicine in this way yields a physician patient relationship (PPR) that is both therapeutic and mutually enriching. However, many of these same technologies have the unintended consequence of separating us from our patients, both literally and figuratively. In addition, the industrialization of medicine and use of electronic health records have led to a decrease in the time physicians spend with their patients further eroding the strength of the PPR.
At the UFCOM, we have many strategies to equip our students to preserve their own humanity and that of their patients. One of the most important is the ability to make connections with and get to know their patients. Frequently such connections are the first time students taste the joy of medical practice. A second grows from cultivating a grateful heart by attending to the many blessings in our lives rather than focusing on what is wrong. There is now a strong scientific basis for the importance of gratitude (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain) but the ancients knew this from experience. For example, when mounting a legal defense for a friend, Cicero observed, “while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than the being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.” A third is dedicated time to reflect individually and with colleagues upon one’s developing understanding of the profession.
Here are two such reflective essays from UFCOM students during their third year internal medicine clerkship which you should read carefully. One student sees each connection to a patient as like the individual brush strokes of an artist and the other sees gratitude in a patient with an incurable illness and is moved to gratitude in her own life. Reflect on both essays and then choose one and describe how the student grew from the experience. Then explain what you learned as a result of your reflection and how the lesson(s) will influence your future patient physician relationships.
Edit: https://apply.med.ufl.edu/applicant/application/ufcom_essays_2021.pdf
2B. (500 words)The profession of medicine has always had an explicit contract with society about our expertise and competence but it also includes an important affirmation. Namely, that we will subordinate self-interest to patient interest when the needs of our patients require us to do so. This does not mean we do not take care of ourselves and one another, but it does mean we willingly take on risks to ourselves that many others would not. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought this commitment to light as many medical professionals are laboring on the front lines caring for the sick despite the potential dangers. When we consider medical practice and hence, medical education, one could ask what sorts of virtues or character traits equip young medical professionals for such a noble calling. Many come to mind including courage, compassion, intellectual honesty and integrity. But recently attention has been given to the ability to stay with a task or course even when one is tired, discouraged and the work is daunting and laborious. Terms such as “resilience”, “endurance”, “perseverance”, “determination” or “grit” describe this character trait. Dr. Angela Duckworth has explored this in detail in her book “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” (
Angela Duckworth).
However, great concern has been raised by the 2018 book, The Coddling of the American Mind (
The Coddling of the American Mind). In it, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, argue that modern trends in parenting, higher education and society are undermining development of these traits making them rarer and hence all the more important as we choose the future physicians for our society.
Below are a series of quotes related to this subject. Please read them, reflect on them and tell us about the places in your own life you have shown grit and perseverance.
“Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don't be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren't paying any attention to you. It's your attention to yourself that is so stultifying. But you have to disregard yourself as completely as possible. If you fail the first time then you'll just have to try harder the second time. After all, there's no real reason why you should fail. Just stop thinking about yourself.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“As soon as possible, experts hungrily seek feedback on how they did. Necessarily, much of that feedback is negative. This means that experts are more interested in what they did wrong—so they can fix it—than what they did right. The active processing of this feedback is as essential as its immediacy.”
-Angela Duckworth, Grit
“...grit grows as we figure out our life philosophy, learn to dust ourselves off after rejection and disappointment, and learn to tell the difference between low-level goals that should be abandoned quickly and higher-level goals that demand more tenacity. The maturation story is that we develop the capacity for long-term passion and perseverance as we get older.”
-Angela Duckworth, Grit: Passion, Perseverance, and the Science of Success
3.
Optional: If you think there is any additional information that would help the admissions committee in its review of your application, including any disruptions in your academic/volunteer/work/personal life related to COVID-19, please use the space below. (750 words)
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