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2024-2025 Florida Secondary Essay Prompts
1 & 2 : Answer only if applicable. Please limit your response to 250-500 words
1.) If you are not a full-time student during this application cycle, in particular at any time between August 2024 and July 2025, please detail your current and planned activities below. If your plans are not confirmed or if they change, please update us later in the cycle via the User Profile: Updates section.
2.) If you are a reapplicant to UF COM, please briefly describe your approach to preparing for a new application and specific changes from your previous application.
In fact, the UFCOM version of the Hippocratic Oath includes the following affirmation. “I will remember with gratitude and humility those whose illness or injury provided examples from which I learned, and, in their honor, I will continue the pursuit of knowledge.”
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 become the student’s first taste of the joy of medical practice, a joy that can be a bulwark against burnout. As Dr. Fred Griffin has observed.
“It is physicians’ good fortune to spend their lifework engaged in a profession where—hand in hand with developing proficiency in helping others—they may deepen self-understanding, increase their own humanity, and learn how to grapple with the dilemmas that they too must face in life…When physicians are willing to engage in this process, they are much more likely to find their work meaningful; they are less likely to become “burned out” by the daily impact of the suffering of their patients and of the emotional demands placed on them. This statement is only apparently paradoxical.”
Fred Griffin: Literature and Medicine vol 23 No2 pp280-303
Students at UFCOM regularly write about and discuss encounters with patients that shape their professional identity and help them become better physicians and human beings. Here are two such reflections from our third-year students, each describing interactions where they grew and learned while they were caring patients. Read and reflect on both and then choose one and describe how the writer, in the words of Dr. Griffin, deepened self-understanding and increased their humanity. (525 words max)
2. The profession of medicine has always had an explicit contract with society about our expertise and competence that 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 labored on the front lines caring for the sick despite the potential dangers. In response to these dangers, masks, gowns, gloves and face shields became commonplace to minimize risks of contracting and spreading the virus. While this was a necessary precaution, communication with and connections to our patients suffered.
In the wake of the pandemic, some have advocated increasing emotional distance from patients as a way to protect healthcare professionals from emotional exhaustion. This ethos of “self-protection” manifests itself in demands for strict boundaries with patients and avoiding inherently uncomfortable situations. This approach has troubling harmony with what has been called, the “provider of services” model, where physicians are merely cogs in the healthcare machine and patients are nothing more than consumers of healthcare.
At UFCOM we believe that the human connections we make with patients are both therapeutic and mutually enriching. If we allow the beauty of this art to atrophy, we will only make the landscape of healthcare more barren. Rather than being a solution for burnout then, it will simply make matters worse.
Having said this, we acknowledge the difficulties since we often care for people in the most difficult places of their lives. Being present during these times can be both a source of joy as we help our patients, but can also challenge our own emotional health and resilience. Struggling to make sense of suffering induced by disease, social forces and human agency has brought an occasion for growth among many of us who work in healthcare. It is together in this community of care that we deepen our humanity.
Holocaust survivor and renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, (1905-1997) wrote an account of his time in the concentration camp called, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” It has sold more than 10 million copies in 24 languages and offers profound insights into how finding meaning in suffering sustains us during our darkest times.
In his view self-protection is counterproductive and, only by “self-transcendence” can we find true meaning and purpose in our lives. To quote him, “The more one forgets himself--by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love--the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself…self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” This assertion fits our experience and has led us to the belief that focusing on ourselves beyond common sense self-care will be counterproductive in our quest for wellness. We call this the “Paradox of the Self.” Stated briefly,
The more I think and worry about myself, my shortcomings, struggles, unfulfilled desires or unwanted circumstances; the more anxious and miserable I will become. While the more I focus my attention outward and live with a graceful self-forgetfulness, the more I can serve others with joy and find fulfillment in the profession.
Please give some consideration to this “paradox of the self” and tell us in the space below about experiences where you have seen this principle at work either in your own life, or in the lives of others. (525 words max)
Good luck to all applying!
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1 & 2 : Answer only if applicable. Please limit your response to 250-500 words
1.) If you are not a full-time student during this application cycle, in particular at any time between August 2024 and July 2025, please detail your current and planned activities below. If your plans are not confirmed or if they change, please update us later in the cycle via the User Profile: Updates section.
2.) If you are a reapplicant to UF COM, please briefly describe your approach to preparing for a new application and specific changes from your previous application.
Section 3
1. 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.In fact, the UFCOM version of the Hippocratic Oath includes the following affirmation. “I will remember with gratitude and humility those whose illness or injury provided examples from which I learned, and, in their honor, I will continue the pursuit of knowledge.”
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 become the student’s first taste of the joy of medical practice, a joy that can be a bulwark against burnout. As Dr. Fred Griffin has observed.
“It is physicians’ good fortune to spend their lifework engaged in a profession where—hand in hand with developing proficiency in helping others—they may deepen self-understanding, increase their own humanity, and learn how to grapple with the dilemmas that they too must face in life…When physicians are willing to engage in this process, they are much more likely to find their work meaningful; they are less likely to become “burned out” by the daily impact of the suffering of their patients and of the emotional demands placed on them. This statement is only apparently paradoxical.”
Fred Griffin: Literature and Medicine vol 23 No2 pp280-303
Students at UFCOM regularly write about and discuss encounters with patients that shape their professional identity and help them become better physicians and human beings. Here are two such reflections from our third-year students, each describing interactions where they grew and learned while they were caring patients. Read and reflect on both and then choose one and describe how the writer, in the words of Dr. Griffin, deepened self-understanding and increased their humanity. (525 words max)
2. The profession of medicine has always had an explicit contract with society about our expertise and competence that 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 labored on the front lines caring for the sick despite the potential dangers. In response to these dangers, masks, gowns, gloves and face shields became commonplace to minimize risks of contracting and spreading the virus. While this was a necessary precaution, communication with and connections to our patients suffered.
In the wake of the pandemic, some have advocated increasing emotional distance from patients as a way to protect healthcare professionals from emotional exhaustion. This ethos of “self-protection” manifests itself in demands for strict boundaries with patients and avoiding inherently uncomfortable situations. This approach has troubling harmony with what has been called, the “provider of services” model, where physicians are merely cogs in the healthcare machine and patients are nothing more than consumers of healthcare.
At UFCOM we believe that the human connections we make with patients are both therapeutic and mutually enriching. If we allow the beauty of this art to atrophy, we will only make the landscape of healthcare more barren. Rather than being a solution for burnout then, it will simply make matters worse.
Having said this, we acknowledge the difficulties since we often care for people in the most difficult places of their lives. Being present during these times can be both a source of joy as we help our patients, but can also challenge our own emotional health and resilience. Struggling to make sense of suffering induced by disease, social forces and human agency has brought an occasion for growth among many of us who work in healthcare. It is together in this community of care that we deepen our humanity.
Holocaust survivor and renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, (1905-1997) wrote an account of his time in the concentration camp called, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” It has sold more than 10 million copies in 24 languages and offers profound insights into how finding meaning in suffering sustains us during our darkest times.
In his view self-protection is counterproductive and, only by “self-transcendence” can we find true meaning and purpose in our lives. To quote him, “The more one forgets himself--by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love--the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself…self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” This assertion fits our experience and has led us to the belief that focusing on ourselves beyond common sense self-care will be counterproductive in our quest for wellness. We call this the “Paradox of the Self.” Stated briefly,
The more I think and worry about myself, my shortcomings, struggles, unfulfilled desires or unwanted circumstances; the more anxious and miserable I will become. While the more I focus my attention outward and live with a graceful self-forgetfulness, the more I can serve others with joy and find fulfillment in the profession.
Please give some consideration to this “paradox of the self” and tell us in the space below about experiences where you have seen this principle at work either in your own life, or in the lives of others. (525 words max)
Good luck to all applying!
Interview Feedback:
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