xborndaballx
Oct 8, 2012
Graduate / 'exceptional physician assistant' - my CASPA PA motivation essay [4]
'physical therapy vs other health care careers' PTCAS Narrative SO FAR
I have started my essay, so far i have the entire thing minus the conclusion, any insight would be greatly appreciated! thanks!
Describe your decision making process in choosing physical therapy as a career choice versus other health care careers.
Every since my Junior year of high school when I started volunteering in the hospitals patient transport department, I knew I wanted to be a part of the healthcare field, I just didn't know what yet. As I continued to volunteer I was exposed to many different healthcare fields. This helped me solidify my decision that healthcare and helping others is what I essentially wanted to do.
As I entered my freshman year of college I still had no idea which career path in healthcare I wanted to pursue. All I knew was that I wanted to help people feel better and get back to their lives as quickly as possible. So from sophomore year until the end of my junior year I started exploring different healthcare professions, I shadowed and volunteered in the hospitals case management office, an in-patient and out patient pharmacy, a physician assistant, a wound care nurse.
I still continued to shadow the wound care nurse, Ron, who would teach me how to check blood pressure, packing wounds and the differences between lab values in patients. I was exposed to a great deal while I was with him, but the one thing that I took from that experience wasn't just the knowledge, but was the fact that I had learned to care for someone and interact with the patients on a more professional level. He would always ask me what I aspect I enjoyed most about healthcare. I told him about how I really wanted to be apart of the strengthening process for the patient and wanted them to have a smooth transition back into their normal lives. To my surprise he instantly suggested that I shadow a physical therapist, as I would extremely enjoy everything that they do. At this point I started doing some research about the field and found three physical therapists that allowed me to shadow them.
I started to shadow the physical therapist in 2 different settings; the first 2 were outpatient settings, which dealt mostly with patients seeking treatment exercises to strengthen their injuries after having surgery. Mostly the patients had either shoulder surgeries or total knee replacements. I enjoyed these experiences because allowed me to be apart of the patients healing process. Unlike other fields in healthcare where the healthcare professional doesn't end up seeing the patient once they've left the facility. Physical therapy is different in the sense that it gives me opportunity to view the patient's progress from the time they get out of surgery to the time they are fully healed and back to their everyday lives. One patient in particular that helped me make my final decision that I really wanted to pursue physical therapy was a 3-year-old boy named Zane. He contracted meningitis and was taken to the hospital. The doctors, not being aware that he may be allergic to the medication that was given caused him to loose his vision, his hearing and immobilizing him because of all the skin irritation. When he first came in he couldn't walk at all and he was extremely disoriented due to the lack of hearing. As therapy progressed we saw significant improvement just after a few weeks of treatment. After he has gotten a cochlear implant put in and could hear he was progressing even faster, he started to walk against the wall on his own and could even start going up steps. Just seeing this accomplishment gave me chills to see that one day that will be me who will be helping patients achieve goals that will be set for them.
Being able to see the many patients that I did allowed me to reinsure myself that physical therapy was the career path for me.
'physical therapy vs other health care careers' PTCAS Narrative SO FAR
I have started my essay, so far i have the entire thing minus the conclusion, any insight would be greatly appreciated! thanks!
Describe your decision making process in choosing physical therapy as a career choice versus other health care careers.
Every since my Junior year of high school when I started volunteering in the hospitals patient transport department, I knew I wanted to be a part of the healthcare field, I just didn't know what yet. As I continued to volunteer I was exposed to many different healthcare fields. This helped me solidify my decision that healthcare and helping others is what I essentially wanted to do.
As I entered my freshman year of college I still had no idea which career path in healthcare I wanted to pursue. All I knew was that I wanted to help people feel better and get back to their lives as quickly as possible. So from sophomore year until the end of my junior year I started exploring different healthcare professions, I shadowed and volunteered in the hospitals case management office, an in-patient and out patient pharmacy, a physician assistant, a wound care nurse.
I still continued to shadow the wound care nurse, Ron, who would teach me how to check blood pressure, packing wounds and the differences between lab values in patients. I was exposed to a great deal while I was with him, but the one thing that I took from that experience wasn't just the knowledge, but was the fact that I had learned to care for someone and interact with the patients on a more professional level. He would always ask me what I aspect I enjoyed most about healthcare. I told him about how I really wanted to be apart of the strengthening process for the patient and wanted them to have a smooth transition back into their normal lives. To my surprise he instantly suggested that I shadow a physical therapist, as I would extremely enjoy everything that they do. At this point I started doing some research about the field and found three physical therapists that allowed me to shadow them.
I started to shadow the physical therapist in 2 different settings; the first 2 were outpatient settings, which dealt mostly with patients seeking treatment exercises to strengthen their injuries after having surgery. Mostly the patients had either shoulder surgeries or total knee replacements. I enjoyed these experiences because allowed me to be apart of the patients healing process. Unlike other fields in healthcare where the healthcare professional doesn't end up seeing the patient once they've left the facility. Physical therapy is different in the sense that it gives me opportunity to view the patient's progress from the time they get out of surgery to the time they are fully healed and back to their everyday lives. One patient in particular that helped me make my final decision that I really wanted to pursue physical therapy was a 3-year-old boy named Zane. He contracted meningitis and was taken to the hospital. The doctors, not being aware that he may be allergic to the medication that was given caused him to loose his vision, his hearing and immobilizing him because of all the skin irritation. When he first came in he couldn't walk at all and he was extremely disoriented due to the lack of hearing. As therapy progressed we saw significant improvement just after a few weeks of treatment. After he has gotten a cochlear implant put in and could hear he was progressing even faster, he started to walk against the wall on his own and could even start going up steps. Just seeing this accomplishment gave me chills to see that one day that will be me who will be helping patients achieve goals that will be set for them.
Being able to see the many patients that I did allowed me to reinsure myself that physical therapy was the career path for me.
