Motivation Towards Becoming a Physician Assistant - Personal Statement Example

My Inspiration to Become a Physician Assistant Going to work, every day a short slogan at the hospital's entrance greets me: "It is not the hours we put in on the job; it is what we put into the hours that count." This small quote, bubbling with meaning, has changed my perspective on what hard work is, right from the day I noticed it. As a clinical laboratory scientist in a blood bank, I now find that the days I work the hardest are my most satisfying and rewarding days. Those are such days when there are trauma patients and I rush to the emergency unit to issue O negative blood.

I see glimpses of a patient's body jolting in spasm or lying unconscious, and rush back to the lab to begin thawing plasma, selecting platelets, and cross matching blood. On other occasions, I attend a postpartum mother in disseminated intravascular coagulation, a heart surgery that has gone bad, or a severe gastrointestinal bleeder. I handled different cases like these every day and it has not only taught me how to manage a situation in a stressful environment but also the importance of working together in a medical team.

However, as soon as the physician ceases issuing orders, the interaction I had with a patient stops. Every patient then becomes just another sample and a name. Despite the satisfaction I derive from being a part of a recovery team, my role leaves me with questions about the patient's conditions and recovery, to which I receive no answers. This imbibed a feeling within me that I should do something more than just the mechanical duties. I wanted also to experience the humanitarian part of actually caring for a patient.

Even though labs play a crucial role in diagnosis, I still feel that I am not contributing much towards the caring aspect in the performance of my duties as a health worker. Therefore, I started volunteering in the emergency and neonate intensive care unit where I worked. There I have been able to witness other side of traumas, have become able to match a name with a face as well as finally see the torturous sufferings transform into remarkable recoveries. I no longer just prepare syringes of blood for a baby, but hold the premature baby that is on steroids because her mother was on drugs.

These gratifying experiences made me realize that I can render more services as a health care provider. Thus I started volunteering with several physician assistants at an emergency care clinic. It amazed me how these physician assistants are able to not only alleviate patients' pains but also mitigate their worries and concerns in just one visit. They instilled hope in their patients when those ailing people really did not have any. They have taught me that being empathic to patients is as significant as providing care to them.

In addition to working at the clinic, these physician assistants also specialize in other areas that interest them such as orthopedic and ophthalmologic departments. Due to my affinity towards pediatric and emergency medicines, I would be able to specialize in both without the extensive schooling as a physician. The experience I gleaned from being a technologist, coupled with the volunteering I've done, has deepened my compassion besides solidifying my determination to become a physician assistant.