Hey guys! I'm new to this, but I am currently applying to PA school and have just finished up my narrative. Any help/feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks!.
It's a peaceful Saturday night in Rhode Island and I am on duty, relaxing with the crew and attempting to get some studying done. I have worked many shifts at Emergency Medical Services, but tonight is different. Something doesn't feel right. It's nearing midnight, and the rain has just started to downpour. I am getting ready to lie down to get some sleep when tones drop. A blurred voice comes over the radio and dispatch asks us to respond to a possible overdose of a young woman in a nearby building. I jump up, hop in my boots, and my feet are moving before I can even process what I am doing. My heart starts racing and my mind runs with it. I can feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins and in this instant, nothing is more important than saving a life.
I hop in the back of the ambulance and we rush to the scene, anxious and ready. We find a young woman, supine on the floor, barely responsive, eyes rolling back, and an empty bottle of pills nearby. We are able to arouse her enough to find out she has also consumed alcohol. She wanted to kill herself. We immediately initiate transport and the Para medic on duty starts an IV. Her respirations are dropping, and she is in and out of consciousness. In what felt like an instant, we arrive at the hospital and quickly transfer care to the ER staff. It is in this hectic moment, amongst a mix of different emotions, that it clicked. I knew for certain that medicine is what I was called to do.
I have had many experiences in my life, but nothing has impacted me the way in which medicine has. The feeling of knowing that you, single handedly, have the ability to change the life of another is one that is truly indescribable. I have grown up around a hospital setting my entire life with my mother working in an ER, allowing me to see and hear a lot of things. However, in both situations, that of EMS and my mother's ER experiences, there was no follow up. It's like asking a question and never getting an answer or beginning a sentence but never finishing it. It leaves one anxious, curious, and unsettled. This is what sparked my interested in exploring different career options.
In my search to discover a profession consistent with not only saving a life, but following and maintaining a quality of life as well, I came across both MD and Physician Assistant professions. Initially, I wanted to become a doctor. It sounded great on paper, but no longer appealed to me when I fully understood the demands of the job as well as the abundance of unforgiving sacrifices along the way. This led me to explore the job of a Physician Assistant to ensure it was in deed what I desired. To do this, I spoke to and shadowed a few working PA's, all working in different specialties. In each case, although the work environments were different, the outcomes were the same. Lives were changed, questions were answered, and quality care was provided. The individuals had time to have a personal life as well as develop interests outside of work, two qualities in which I value deeply. Their passion for their work was contagious and their knowledge, admirable. It is this combination that has led me to say, with confidence that becoming a Physician Assistant would truly be a dream come true and is where my passions lie.
It's a peaceful Saturday night in Rhode Island and I am on duty, relaxing with the crew and attempting to get some studying done. I have worked many shifts at Emergency Medical Services, but tonight is different. Something doesn't feel right. It's nearing midnight, and the rain has just started to downpour. I am getting ready to lie down to get some sleep when tones drop. A blurred voice comes over the radio and dispatch asks us to respond to a possible overdose of a young woman in a nearby building. I jump up, hop in my boots, and my feet are moving before I can even process what I am doing. My heart starts racing and my mind runs with it. I can feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins and in this instant, nothing is more important than saving a life.
I hop in the back of the ambulance and we rush to the scene, anxious and ready. We find a young woman, supine on the floor, barely responsive, eyes rolling back, and an empty bottle of pills nearby. We are able to arouse her enough to find out she has also consumed alcohol. She wanted to kill herself. We immediately initiate transport and the Para medic on duty starts an IV. Her respirations are dropping, and she is in and out of consciousness. In what felt like an instant, we arrive at the hospital and quickly transfer care to the ER staff. It is in this hectic moment, amongst a mix of different emotions, that it clicked. I knew for certain that medicine is what I was called to do.
I have had many experiences in my life, but nothing has impacted me the way in which medicine has. The feeling of knowing that you, single handedly, have the ability to change the life of another is one that is truly indescribable. I have grown up around a hospital setting my entire life with my mother working in an ER, allowing me to see and hear a lot of things. However, in both situations, that of EMS and my mother's ER experiences, there was no follow up. It's like asking a question and never getting an answer or beginning a sentence but never finishing it. It leaves one anxious, curious, and unsettled. This is what sparked my interested in exploring different career options.
In my search to discover a profession consistent with not only saving a life, but following and maintaining a quality of life as well, I came across both MD and Physician Assistant professions. Initially, I wanted to become a doctor. It sounded great on paper, but no longer appealed to me when I fully understood the demands of the job as well as the abundance of unforgiving sacrifices along the way. This led me to explore the job of a Physician Assistant to ensure it was in deed what I desired. To do this, I spoke to and shadowed a few working PA's, all working in different specialties. In each case, although the work environments were different, the outcomes were the same. Lives were changed, questions were answered, and quality care was provided. The individuals had time to have a personal life as well as develop interests outside of work, two qualities in which I value deeply. Their passion for their work was contagious and their knowledge, admirable. It is this combination that has led me to say, with confidence that becoming a Physician Assistant would truly be a dream come true and is where my passions lie.