From Patient to Practitioner: Experience as a Physician Assistant

One particular memory that has shaped my foundational passion for medicine is a particular habit my grandparents had. Growing up, my grandfather stored home-grown pumpkins under our beds and my grandmother collected hundreds of water-filled Gatorade bottles throughout our home. As I matured, I realized these once perceived bizarre habits were practices that helped my family cope with their PTSD. My grandfather stored pumpkins under our beds because it was an old habit to avoid theft and starvation. My grandmother collected water bottles as a result of her son’s death from dehydration during the Cambodian genocide. Although deeply pained by these experiences, it has pushed me to mature and has ingrained a deep-rooted desire to positively impact the lives of others while being intellectually engaged and challenged through a career in medicine. With this goal in mind, insights I have gained through hands-on experience as a medical assistant and graduate student during clinical clerkships have led me to pursue a career as a surgical physician assistant.

My experiences as a medical assistant for a group of plastic and reconstructive, microvascular, craniofacial and hand surgeons drew me to the field of surgery. The patients I have encountered have provided me insight into the problems I will treat as a future PA such as invasive cancers of the tongue and face requiring muscle free flap reconstruction, Le Fort and mandible fractures, severely infected hand fractures due to crushing dog bite wounds, and infected aortic graft requiring debridements and omental flap transposition. Influenced in large part by these patient encounters, I have a strong interest in general surgery, acute care, trauma, and reconstructive surgery. A career as a surgical physician assistant appeals to me because it encompasses a wide spectrum of medical and surgical conditions with a diverse and exciting patient base, requiring diagnostic acumen, surgical expertise, and empathy.

Keck School of Medicine of USC Physician Assistant program has endowed me with a solid medical education and have provided many opportunities through my clinical clerkships to treat a wide spectrum of acute illnesses, injuries, and exacerbations of chronic conditions. In my general surgery clerkship at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, I skillfully first assisted in extremity amputations, cholecystectomies, liver biopsies and high impact falls from skiing accidents. In orthopedic and trauma surgery at Los Angeles County and USC Medical Center, I was highly involved in numerous reductions and stabilizations for automobile versus pedestrian trauma and injuries from high impact falls. In emergency medicine, I learned to thoroughly assess and identify medical conditions and level of risk and executed well-informed critical decisions in high pressure situations.

I have since found that diagnosing disease, determining the proper course of treatment in each scenario, and caring for complicated surgical patients are rewarding and challenging. A career as a surgical PA will allow me to utilize strengths I have developed thus far, including an ease of rapport with patients, an ability to educate patients regarding their health and disease, and strong commitment to medicine.

As PA student, my clinical experiences in general surgery and orthopedic trauma were most rewarding and am eager to continue my fostering my intellectual growth and clinical training through a surgical fellowship. _ will challenge me to grow professionally and personally and continue to expose me to a variety of surgical specialties. I bring with me a strong work ethic, desire to excel, and modesty to serve those whose health care needs have been entrusted to me. I hope to the surgical expertise and valuable experience in the management of acute illness and trauma and the exacerbation of chronic diseases. I am eager to begin a surgical fellowship so that I may gain the training necessary to become a well-rounded and confident physician assistant, capable of handling the many challenges of providing medical care in a fast-paced environment.