Personal statement advice

[YBL]

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Hi all, I'm applying to a surgical sub specialty and I'm on the fence about writing about my own experience as a surgical patient. I had neurosurgery a couple months ago and it was a significant experience that has changed me and changes the way I interact with patients ie empathy, the importance of patient education, etc. I also understand surgical pain and the fear of going into surgery. Overall I think this experience will help me become a better surgeon. What do you guys think? I don't know if I should reveal this about myself or if i'll come off the wrong way 😕

 

[dpmd]

Hi all, I'm applying to a surgical sub specialty and I'm on the fence about writing about my own experience as a surgical patient. I had neurosurgery a couple months ago and it was a significant experience that has changed me and changes the way I interact with patients ie empathy, the importance of patient education, etc. I also understand surgical pain and the fear of going into surgery. Overall I think this experience will help me become a better surgeon. What do you guys think? I don't know if I should reveal this about myself or if i'll come off the wrong way 😕

If the surgery is one that has the potential for long term consequences then I probably wouldn't mention it (for example a recent craniotomy might make them worry about your brain function.). Otherwise, it might be an interesting thing that sets you aside from the rest.

 

[Doctorbob1485]

I am actually in a very similar situation. Back in march I had an unexplained cardiac arrest. My wife was giving CPR for 12 min and they underwent cooling protocol on me. They thought I may have had brain Damage but when I woke up I felt fine. They never found out what caused it exactly but they put an ICD in just in case. It was a crazy experience and I am including it in my statement. I returned to rotations immediately and even honored my two rotations after that. I'm kinda wondering if they will see this incident as a weakness and worry they I may have another one. Should I not talk about it? Its to good of a story not to though

 

[YBL]

If the surgery is one that has the potential for long term consequences then I probably wouldn't mention it (for example a recent craniotomy might make them worry about your brain function.). Otherwise, it might be an interesting thing that sets you aside from the rest.

Thanks for the reply! I had laminectomy and cystectomy of a spinal cord cyst which shouldn't have any long term complications. I thankfully recovered well and returned to school still able to stand long hours through surgery cases without any problems. I guess I'll have to make sure to make it really clear in my ps that I should be fine from here on out??

@ Doctorbob1485 That's a crazy story. I'm glad everything worked out fine..I'm really not sure what I would do in your case. But going off what dpmd said, your situation does have potential consequences in the future and it wasn't like my case where I got the thing cut out and it shouldn't bother me again so I would be careful about writing about it. Hopefully someone else will chime in about this.