PS and parents in medicine? Qualities that make you a good doctor?

[danielcraig20]

1. I realize this is a cliche and frankly annoying thing to bring up when it comes to physicians in the family, and I know many posts say to thread lightly with this topic. I don't want to run the risk of people thinking I'm doing it for my family. In fact, they don't want me to go into it lol.

But, in terms of why I started exploring medicine in the first place is seeing my mother work as a doctor. Is a brief mention of this just to clarify why I felt interested in doing medical extracurriculars to see if medicine is for me? And leave the other 99% of it to be about my own patient interactions? Or should I leave the first part out?

2. For the PS, should I keep it as: Patient experience, reflect on why it was valuable to me + why it made me choose medicine, repeat with a few other important experiences in clinical settings?

Or work in my own qualities as well? I see mixed messages about "the PS isn't to show why you'd be a good doctor, it's to show why you want to be one" vs "show with your experiences why you'd be good for the field." My PS experiences certainly show empathy and interest in working with patients, but the more leadership/analytical qualities specific to being a physician are more relevant to my other, non-PS activities and research stuff.

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[deleted1044561]

There's nothing about most PSs that adcoms haven't heard already.

With that said, I'd go #2 and avoid mentioning parents unless directly asked all the way to matriculation date

 

[gulli_97]

PS is to show WHY and WHAT makes you a good doctor. It's fine to talk about how your interests started from seeing your mother practice. However don't just talk to about how her being a doctor that piqued your interest but certain qualities, the way she talked to a patient, a story, etc. Keep it to a minimum though.