Is it risky to write about this in my personal statement?

[emm2020]

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I'm starting to put together my application and have a question. A major driving factor behind my decision to enter medicine has been a medical service trip that my family participates in annually with a larger nonprofit organization. The organization itself has delivered primary care to the same town several times a year for over 30 years, as it is in a very remote location and lacks full-time medical staff. The healthcare workers in my family have assisted in one to two trips every year since I was eight, and I've gotten a lot of clinical experience taking patients' vitals and assisting the doctors & nurses etc. I've also helped with fundraising and administrative work for the organization. Would it be inappropriate to write about this experience in my personal statement? I understand that international service trips can be frowned upon as voluntourism. I would hate for my personal statement to come across as cliche/trite, but I've formed meaningful relationships with the people living in this town and the trips have solidified my goal of pursuing medical school.

 

[chaim123]

I'm starting to put together my application and have a question. A major driving factor behind my decision to enter medicine has been a medical service trip that my family participates in annually with a larger nonprofit organization. The organization itself has delivered primary care to the same town several times a year for over 30 years, as it is in a very remote location and lacks full-time medical staff. The healthcare workers in my family have assisted in one to two trips every year since I was eight, and I've gotten a lot of clinical experience taking patients' vitals and assisting the doctors & nurses etc. I've also helped with fundraising and administrative work for the organization. Would it be inappropriate to write about this experience in my personal statement? I understand that international service trips can be frowned upon as voluntourism. I would hate for my personal statement to come across as cliche/trite, but I've formed meaningful relationships with the people living in this town and the trips have solidified my goal of pursuing medical school.

It think it's definitely a hazy line. If you spoke about the family aspect with the fundraising and administrative work is may be ok, provided that you have plenty of experience back in the USA and it doesn't seem you are capitalizing completely on this international experience. However, assisting in taking vitals and assisting healthcare professionals in tasks that you aren't trained/credentialed to do is an ethical no no, and I"d be wary of using that.

 

[u_raptor]

I wrote about my volunteering in Peru for a month because it was a formative and important experience. It worked well for me. I was asked about it a lot in interviews as well, and none seemed to frown on me for it. The organization I worked for was also very legit, and built the free clinic I worked in.

You seem to have invested a lot into it beyond just one trip, which I think helps. It's not as much voluntourism if you are making continual commitment to helping every year imo.

 

[deleted1001544]

You've been doing this since you were eight? And you actually developed meaningful relationships with the people there? Sounds to me like this wasn't an idea that you thought of in college when looking for an excuse for a vacation, but an actual continual experience that you've been committed to. Understand, when they say voluntourism, they mean talking about your week long mission trip to the Caribbean as if it's the defining moment of your life.

 

[deleted1001544]

However, assisting in taking vitals and assisting healthcare professionals in tasks that you aren't trained/credentialed to do is an ethical no no, and I"d be wary of using that.

Taking vital signs isn't that complicated and takes like an hour to train to do. Practicing outside of your scope is one thing, but if you're practicing under the supervision of a healthcare professional I don't necessarily see the issue.

 

[u_raptor]

Taking vital signs isn't that complicated and takes like an hour to train to do. Practicing outside of your scope is one thing, but if you're practicing under the supervision of a healthcare professional I don't necessarily see the issue.

Especially if the organization or group trained him to do so. I was trained to do vitals, and mentioned that I was both trained/and took vitals in my PS. I don't think many have a problem with that.

When people talk about practicing out of scope its usually like those stories you hear of someone volunteering abroad and helping deliver a baby or something

 

[Goro]

You've been doing this since you were eight? And you actually developed meaningful relationships with the people there? Sounds to me like this wasn't an idea that you thought of in college when looking for an excuse for a vacation, but an actual continual experience that you've been committed to. Understand, when they say voluntourism, they mean talking about your week long mission trip to the Caribbean as if it's the defining moment of your life.

Agree 100%

 

[Catalystik]

I'm starting to put together my application and have a question. A major driving factor behind my decision to enter medicine has been a medical service trip that my family participates in annually with a larger nonprofit organization. The organization itself has delivered primary care to the same town several times a year for over 30 years, as it is in a very remote location and lacks full-time medical staff. The healthcare workers in my family have assisted in one to two trips every year since I was eight, and I've gotten a lot of clinical experience taking patients' vitals and assisting the doctors & nurses etc. I've also helped with fundraising and administrative work for the organization. Would it be inappropriate to write about this experience in my personal statement? I understand that international service trips can be frowned upon as voluntourism. I would hate for my personal statement to come across as cliche/trite, but I've formed meaningful relationships with the people living in this town and the trips have solidified my goal of pursuing medical school.

I think you're fine to include this activity and that it won't reflect negatively on you, so long as the "assisting" you claim you did was something you could have done legitimately in the US (which includes taking VS under a medical professional's supervision).

 

[emm2020]

Thank you everyone! Just wanted to get a second opinion before I committed to writing about this. The only hands-on patient contact I had was taking bp, temperature, weight etc. and when I say I helped the doctors and nurses, it was mostly things like delivering charts.