Over ambitious personal Statement?

[Alexy]

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Hi,
I'm applying to medical schools this year and I've been writting my personal statement over the past two weeks. "I plan to become a Trauma/ER surgeon" and I wrote this in my personal statement.
My question is that is it more advisable to say that "I plan to be a doctor in the Trauma/ER unit of a hospital'. This sounds more moderate as compared to the first although I feel it does not accurately describe what I want. Please kindly tell me what you think about these two statements (In italics) and which is more advisable for a personal statement.

Thanks

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I would nix the first one because there is no such thing as "a Trauma/ER surgeon."

Either you are a Trauma Surgeon, which is a general surgeon with additional fellowship training in either critical care or trauma. This is a primarily surgical specialty that usually requires 6 years of training after medical school. These surgeons specialize in the acute care and management of injured patient's that usually require hospitalization (critically injured or otherwise).

Or you are an Emergency Medicine physician, which is a separate non-surgical specialty (though procedures can be abundant). Again, this is a non-surgical specialty that requires 3-4 years of training after medical school. These physicians specialize in the stabilization of acutely ill and injured patient's (initial stabilization of medical as well as surgical problems), with deferment to surgical specialties if necessary.

Obviously, there is more to each specialty. Do your research and figure out which one you want to be.

 

[GuitarFreak]

Hi,
I'm applying to medical schools this year and I've been writting my personal statement over the past two weeks. "I plan to become a Trauma/ER surgeon" and I wrote this in my personal statement.
My question is that is it more advisable to say that "I plan to be a doctor in the Trauma/ER unit of a hospital'. This sounds more moderate as compared to the first although I feel it does not accurately describe what I want. Please kindly tell me what you think about these two statements (In italics) and which is more advisable for a personal statement.

Thanks

I would personally cut the specifics, and leave it at being a physician. The reason I say that is that most medical students, from what I hear, start medical school wanting to be one thing and finish up wanting to be something completely different. If you talk to almost any medical student, they will tell you that it is too early to positively KNOW what you want to do. I believe that admissions committees will tend to think the same way. They might view it as an instance of naivety and it might not work in your favor.

Just my opinion 🙂
Good luck! 👍

 

[DrYoda]

Agree with the above post. Concentrate on why you want to be a physician. You'll get an opportunity to sell yourself for X type of doctor when you apply to residency.

 

[organdonor]

As another said you should think about trauma surgeon vs er. They are separate.

In my PS, I wrote about how I want to be an abdominal transplant surgeon because of a personal experience. Sure it was specific but it is really want I wanted/want to become so why beat around the bush? I also mentioned that in my clinical experiences I also enjoyed being around orthopedic surgery because of many parallels between the two fields, but not ER at all. If you have a specific field you want to enter, feel free to say it. I would also show some evidence that you have considered other fields to demonstrate that it is really an interest and not just a whim.

I've read some adcom members on here talk about how they actually like to see that someone has a particular field in mind. It definitely steered my interview questions towards that particular specialty, but the questions didn't scare or intimidate me because I had already thought about most of them since it is a field that interests me greatly.

If you show that you want to do ER, expect some difficult questions like "would you pull the plug if..." or "what if you revived a patient and found out they were DNR" kinds of stuff. The kinds of questions that may have crossed your mind if ER is more than just a whim.

In the end, tell them exactly what you want to be, but be receptive to other fields too. I think something like 40-60% of med students end up changing their minds by the time they graduate, but that also means that 60-40% don't.

 

[RogueUnicorn]

probably should lay off the TV shows as inspiration..

 

[LizzyM]

What attracts you to medicine? What do you see yourself doing on a day-by-day basis? What type of setting would you like to be working in (e.g. outpatient office, emergency department, OR and ICU)? Would you prefer long-term relationships with patients (even entire families) or prefer short-term encounters? Do you like predictability or the completely unpredictable?

I think that if you can describe what attracts you to medicine, you can make a better case for why you feel that you are a good fit for a particular specialty. Frankly, I'd rather see that than someone who says, "I want to help people and I like science."

On the other hand, some adcom members are very distressed by applicants who come in saying that they want to be a certain subspecialty and they have shadowed that type of doctor and volunteered with those patients, etc at the expense of any other experience.

 

[Alexy]

Thanks guys for the advice.
I guess I was stating it the wrong way. I know that an ER physician is not a surgeon. My intention is to someday help provide emergency care to patients. Right now, it doesn't matter if I am a surgeon or an ER physician. I can see now that the second statement is a better description of this fact.
I have shadowed physicians from different specialties but I am most interested in the ER. I have over 250 volunteer hours at my local hospital ER. An incident that happened when I was sixteen sparked this interest and it has grown with my exposure to the hospital exposure. Do you guys think I should include this in my personal statement?
Thanks guys.

 

[morning]

It's not about what you want to be, it's about why they should give you a chance to do what you want to do.

 

[metalmethod741]

Exactly, from what I understand, it should basically just be a story about why your awesome.

 

[LizzyM]

It's not about what you want to be, it's about why they should give you a chance to do what you want to do.

And the rationale for giving someone a chance is that they have the interest and aptitude to make medicine their life's work. The adcom is very interested in how you have tested that interest and your perception of what is involved in the practice of medicine and the characteristics you have that would make you a good fit with that profession. There is a great deal of variation in medicine and I do think that people who see themselves in surgery would not consider psychiatry and those who are interested in family medicine would not envision themselves practicing neonatalogy.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

Thanks guys for the advice.
I guess I was stating it the wrong way. I know that an ER physician is not a surgeon. My intention is to someday help provide emergency care to patients. Right now, it doesn't matter if I am a surgeon or an ER physician. I can see now that the second statement is a better description of this fact.
I have shadowed physicians from different specialties but I am most interested in the ER. I have over 250 volunteer hours at my local hospital ER. An incident that happened when I was sixteen sparked this interest and it has grown with my exposure to the hospital exposure. Do you guys think I should include this in my personal statement?
Thanks guys.

As an aside, you probably don't want to refer to a doctor that works in an emergency department as an "ER physician"; there is no specialty of Emergency Room. The specialty's name is Emergency Medicine and these doctors are Emergency Medicine physicians.

I bring this up so you avoid insulting anyone; it is possible that an EM physician may be the one reviewing your application. How much this offends an EM doc varies from region to region and from physician to physician; some find it very insulting while others refer to themselves as ER docs. Think of it this way, it is like calling an emergency medical technician an ambulance driver; it can be insulting for some.

As an EM resident, I am still undecided on this issue, but many of my faculty would be insulted by the phrasing ER doc. I am pretty sure that if you are going to be so bold as to claim this profession in your AMCAS PS, then you should be accurate and correct in every aspect (you opened the figurative door stating that you want to pursue this profession, now you have to show them that you know what you are talking about).

Granted, this will probably be a non-issue for most PS readers, but it’s an easy fix to avoid insulting anyone.

 

[wanderer]

As an aside, you probably don't want to refer to a doctor that works in an emergency department as an "ER physician"; there is no specialty of Emergency Room. The specialty's name is Emergency Medicine and these doctors are Emergency Medicine physicians.

I bring this up so you avoid insulting anyone; it is possible that an EM physician may be the one reviewing your application. How much this offends an EM doc varies from region to region and from physician to physician; some find it very insulting while others refer to themselves as ER docs. Think of it this way, it is like calling an emergency medical technician an ambulance driver; it can be insulting for some.

As an EM resident, I am still undecided on this issue, but many of my faculty would be insulted by the phrasing ER doc. I am pretty sure that if you are going to be so bold as to claim this profession in your AMCAS PS, then you should be accurate and correct in every aspect (you opened the figurative door stating that you want to pursue this profession, now you have to show them that you know what you are talking about).

Granted, this will probably be a non-issue for most PS readers, but it’s an easy fix to avoid insulting anyone.

Do most EM docs feel that "emergency room" is offensive relative to "emergency department?"

 

[BrainBuff]

i would personally cut the specifics, and leave it at being a physician. the reason i say that is that most medical students, from what i hear, start medical school wanting to be one thing and finish up wanting to be something completely different. If you talk to almost any medical student, they will tell you that it is too early to positively know what you want to do. I believe that admissions committees will tend to think the same way. They might view it as an instance of naivety and it might not work in your favor.

Just my opinion 🙂
good luck! 👍

1+

 

[tremulousNeedle]

Do most EM docs feel that "emergency room" is offensive relative to "emergency department?"

From my observations, this is variable, but doesn't carry the same weight as what I mentioned earlier. Doctors probably are not as offended at this as when they are called ER docs. ER is possibly an insulting name for where someone works, while ER doc is possibly an insulting name for a medical specialty and chosen profession (this is much more personal).

An OR is an OR, but there are many rooms in an ED. So I guess you could argue that I work in Emergency Rooms, but that’s just silly.

 

[Evergrey]

I have volunteered and shadowed in an ED, but when people say the word, erectile dysfunction springs to mind instead. Yes, I know I have a problem.

Anyway, staying on track, I'm not personally a fan of saying what specialty you want to be in a personal statement because realistically, no amount of shadowing/volunteering can prepare you for what being in that specialty is ACTUALLY like. It is beyond our realm of experience as pre-meds (or MS1s and MS2s for that matter). This is my personal opinion, but I don't think you can really know what the other side of the fence is like until you've been in those shoes yourself.