essay confidentiality

[doctorshateher]

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As a general rule, how confidential is application material.

Let's say hypothetically that for a diversity question or a difficult situation question on a secondary someone's best example by far was something rather personal like domestic abuse or family mental illness or something of a similar amount of sensitivity.

Obviously anyone on the admissions committee will see it, but would it be generally kept private?

 

[CodeBlu]

As a general rule, how confidential is application material.

Let's say hypothetically that for a diversity question or a difficult situation question on a secondary someone's best example by far was something rather personal like domestic abuse or family mental illness or something of a similar amount of sensitivity.

Obviously anyone on the admissions committee will see it, but would it be generally kept private?

Yes.

 

[LizzyM]

Yes, we are sworn to secrecy but you have to ask yourself if you want to put anything on paper that you wouldn't want made public.

I've seen an essay on domestic violence and the two parties were well known names in their community (high society types). I had an essay about dad's infidelity, another about dad's love child, etc and even once an application from my acquaintance's grandchild that revealed family secrets that made me very uncomfortable. The other side of this are the revelations about medical problems -- don't write about those without the explicit permission of the person you are writing about. Does your admission to medical school really hang on the fact that your dad is incontinent since his prostate surgery?

In medicine, you will be expected to be discrete and to keep secret what is told to you in confidence or what you learn about individuals in doing your work. Keep those secrets and even more so, show that you are able to keep to yourself information that your family members would prefer not to make public.

 

[SEE13]

LizzyM, that is a great point. I have also been wondering how much information is too much to give on an essay.

For example, for a moral/ethical dilemma essay, would it be okay to discuss keeping a secret for someone even though I felt uncomfortable being the only person knowing this information? Obviously, I would have to discuss the secret that I was asked to keep, but the person who asked me to keep the secret is kept completely anonymous.

Would this topic choice make adcoms think that I am bad at keeping a secret? Since I say the lesson learned from this dilemma was the importance of confidentiality, I would feel really silly contradicting myself by telling this person's secret to a whole bunch of adcoms and making them think I would be awful at keeping information confidential as a physician.

Any thoughts?

 

[DrBowtie]

I'll reiterate my advice that I'll give for every piece of application material you submit. Is this piece of information a positive contribution to your application? Can this piece of information be construed as negative based on differing perspectives?

The answers better be 1. Yes 2. No.

Your application isn't a therapeutic outlet nor is it the time to air out dirty laundry. You can add character to your application without bombshell drama.

 

[MaenadsDance]

One reason why I think it may be so tempting to discuss "private" issues in a PS is that many prominent physicians have written and/or talked publicly about their own and/or family members' disorders [e.g., Stephen Hinshaw (parent's bipolar disorder), Arthur Kleinman (his wife's dementia), Russell Barkley (late brother's ADHD), Linehan (her own Borderline Personality Disorder), Nancy Rappaport (her father's infidelity, her mother's depression and suicide), Daniel Carlot (his mother's suicide), Oliver Sacks (his experience with migraines, his physical rehabilitation), Darkness Visible by William Styron (his depression), Peter Jensen (his children's ADHD), Kay Redfield Jamison (her own bipolar disorder), etc.]. And then there are the non-physician writers who have published prize-winning memoirs about addiction (Lit by Mary Karr, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt). Read enough of these memoirs and first-person accounts and it's easy to convince yourself that discussing a personal experience is a great way to convey a unique passion for medicine. In reality, most, if not all, of the successful physicians who have discussed their personal issues achieved success in medicine PRIOR to disclosing their personal issues, and in reality, the prize-winning addiction memoirs received praise because of the artistic talent demonstrated by their authors, not because they are about addiction.

Respectfully, I would disagree. While stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction is lessening, it is still significant, and significantly unpredictable. One workplace or school may be accommodating, another much less so. Rather, I think the urge to explain mental illness and addiction issues in personal statements might come down to two factors - first, that both life circumstances can cause gaps in transcripts or poor semesters that would otherwise be hard to explain, and second that both issues can significantly shape a person's outlook on life and their interactions with the medical field. Significant experience as a patient is going to affect someone's thought process about becoming a physician.

 

[CodeBlu]

Yes, we are sworn to secrecy but you have to ask yourself if you want to put anything on paper that you wouldn't want made public.

I've seen an essay on domestic violence and the two parties were well known names in their community (high society types). I had an essay about dad's infidelity, another about dad's love child, etc and even once an application from my acquaintance's grandchild that revealed family secrets that made me very uncomfortable. The other side of this are the revelations about medical problems -- don't write about those without the explicit permission of the person you are writing about. Does your admission to medical school really hang on the fact that your dad is incontinent since his prostate surgery?

In medicine, you will be expected to be discrete and to keep secret what is told to you in confidence or what you learn about individuals in doing your work. Keep those secrets and even more so, show that you are able to keep to yourself information that your family members would prefer not to make public.

This.

 

[Carnation1895]

On a related note, I am volunteering at a hospital this summer, and if I wish to write about a patient encounter, do I risk violating HIPAA? I would be happy to change names but wouldn't want to change too many details, because then the story loses its effect. Anybody have any experience or expertise here?

 

[Carnation1895]

Thanks, sorry, I should have searched first...😳