Personal Statement - Using First Name of Somebody

[potazzium21]

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[LizzyM]

How would you feel if his mother read your essay? That exact thing happened at my school... the mother was a faculty member but not a physician. What made it more unsettling was between the time the essay was submitted and when it was read, the boy had died unexpectedly!

Now decide. You might just want to pick a short name that begins with the same letter and put the name in quotes such as "Chad" rather than Chris.

 

[To be MD]

On my personal statement, I talk about an experience I had working at a camp for kids with muscular dystrophy. I use my camper's first name and say his age when talking about him.

Should I not? He's not technically a patient in a medical facility, even though there were doctors and nurses helping out onsite, so I don't think HIPAA applies.

Should I shorten his first name to just his first initial anyways?

Do NOT use his name. You can call him/her by his first letter (e.g. J thanked me for bringing the groceries.). Or, say something like, "I taught my first patient (I'll call him John) how to play foosball."

 

[ChrisMack390]

I used some patients' initials in my EC section. I thought that was best.

 

[LizzyM]

Dont quote this post please

Hmm this is interesting. My first patient that I interacted with at my volunteer gig was so impactful to me.

Then tell me how he impacted you. Make the PS about you, not him. " I could tell you about a patient I encountered in my first job out of college. He told me he was a veteran but that might have not been true. Whether it is true or not is not the issue. "Bob" challenged me, lied to me, stunned me, woke me up, and surprised me again and again. Decades later I can still see him sitting in the hallway glowering at me. He pricks at my conscious and reminds me of how green, how naive I was as a new grad and how much I could learn from a patient who arrived at the hospital on what was, for both of us, our first day. "

 

[raca1111]

Sorry to hijack this post but what if we just used a random name but didn't make it clear that it wasn't his real name (not putting name between quotations)?

 

[ChrisMack390]

Sorry to hijack this post but what if we just used a random name but didn't make it clear that it wasn't his real name (not putting name between quotations)?

Then they adcom would have no way of knowing whether you did that or are completely unaware of HIPAA.

 

[LizzyM]

Are you suggesting to leave those details I mentioned out? The way you have described it seems to be less impactful than if I were to mention specifics about the situation and related them to my own life and how they enforced the reasons why I wanted to pursue medicine.

Well, you seem to think that you might have been obligated to report abuse but did not report it.... that would be a red flag in my book. What if you are the only person to whom he would confide?

 

[raca1111]

Thank you, glad I asked @gonnif [USER=665486]@ChrisMack390[/USER]