My College Experiences: Preparing Me for Medical Practice

During my sophomore year of college, I had the privilege of watching a cardiothoracic surgeon perform an aortic dissection. Throughout the procedure, the surgeon’s expertise and precision kept me in awe, wondering if I had it in me to hold another person’s fate in my hands, He was aware that one small mishap in the procedure could mean the death of his patient, yet his movements and demeanor looked that of sheer confidence, as if what he was doing was no more complicated than writing his name.

The mastery of knowledge and attention to detail the doctor displayed was something I had come to love about the medical profession Whether in surgery, internal medicine, or dermatology, doctors are able to focus solely on the task at hand, ignoring all distractions I approach my life with this conviction: academics, extracurricular activities, and especially my research I strive to do my best in my work, always pleased to see positive results, but even more motivated when failures occur My projects gave me the deepest appreciation for the exactness that was necessary for their success.

A single miscalculation or a simple oversight of using an expired compound could mean months‘ worth of work ruinedt Discipline is law in the scientific community, much as it is in surgery, and obstacles such as impatience or negligence can kill. Such meticulousness is essential to success as a doctor, yet I found that there lies another side to medicine, much the complete opposite As young students aspiring towards medicine, many of us would watch the television show “House, M.

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D.”, and dream of being the “Gregory House” of our departments: a brilliant doctor, despite being socially and empathetically inept Sometimes, it seems the hardest part of medicine is the people, understanding the emotions of the patients, not the diseases or the injuries Understanding how they feel, how they will react to a diagnosis, on top of being able to treat patients, is what I believe transforms a good doctor into a great one During the volunteer and shadowing opportunities I had, I was able to witness the doctors‘ interactions with their patients.

Some of the best doctors in their field would come and go, issuing treatments to be administered or performing surgeries on sick patients. Yet it was the doctors who would come to sit and talk, sometimes for over an hour, asking how the patients were doing and inquiring about their lives outside the hospital that seemed to leave the biggest impact on the patients. During this time, they were treated as people, and not as just patients. When these doctors left, these patients remained with a sense of hope, and oftentimes, with a smile on their face. To be able to understand my future patients and to further my insight and knowledge of the workings of the mind, I have taken on a second major in psychology As premedical students and biology—related majors, most of us spend our years in college learning about how the human body works, whether through sheer interest in the topic or merely as tools to further our occupational goals.

I have always taken an interest in the inner workings of the brain, how an object that weighs 1/40 of the weight of the body and takes up such a small space can be in charge of everything that we do. However, I came to realize that the importance of science in the medical field lies in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences. It was after my Sensation and Perception class that I became interested not only in the brain’s biology but also the mind’s psychology. The ability to understand, to empathize with another person is a crucial part of being a human being In my Social Psychology class, we learned about how people react to stimuli from others; “what happens when we deliver bad news; what happens when we deliver good news?” both biologically through the release of hormones and psychologically through the resulting emotions. Studying these reactions in a social psychology lab and practicing the much needed empathy which makes such a difference in hospitals, I have come to better understand how the mind works, immeasurably increasing my understanding and compassion for the life that patients lead.

Through my experiences, I have seen firsthand two completely opposite but essential sides of the medical field, the complete emotional and physical control that one requires to perform open heart surgery combined with the empathy required to successfully convince a weeping mother that her son is in good hands. As a doctor, I hope to be able to take what I have learned in my life sciences research and combine that with the compassion and understanding that I garnered from my work in psychology to become, not a hero who can promise to save every life that he comes across, but someone who strives to truly make a difference in my patients’ well-being. As I work towards my goal, I hope to become not only the doctor that can heal through medicine and treatments, but also bring hope and joy into the lives of others through compassion.