Medicine in The Our World

Medicine involves a spectrum of responsibilities, challenges and rewards, and I believe I have the right skillset and attitude to approach these, such as: being an active listener and demonstrating resilience. The aspects of giving up my time for the benefit of others and being able to give back to my community as well as having a strong impact on people's lives, orchestrated my decision of studying medicine. By volunteering in a hospital, and clinical work experiences, I have also come to appreciate a doctor's role as not just a clinician but also a scientist and an educator. As a volunteer at the royal orthopaedic hospital, I was privileged to come into contact with both the healthcare team and patients.

Talking to patients from different age groups, backgrounds and conditions led me to appreciate the complexities of a dynamic healthcare environment while also building on my communication skills. Often the hardest part was working with patients with speech or visual impairments but this has further improved my skills in resilience and the ability to deal with difficult situations as well as empathy. During a placement at a biomedical institution within the cardiovascular research unit, I was able to see how concepts I grasped in my A level studies can be applied in a clinical field such as the process of taking and analysing blood samples from various patients of different ages at the haematology unit/burns department and how this can be used to further investigate the patient's conditions or alternatively the analysis can be used for clinical research in order to contribute to the advancements in medicine. Thus, a career in medicine would enable me to utilise my scientific background to a challenging degree; something which I look forward to.

Doctors must work effectively in healthcare teams, so they must recognise and respect the skills and attributes of other professions and my role as a human resources manager for my young enterprise group, meant that I developed an understanding and therefore believe I can meet this criterion. I often had to resolve disputes and use my negotiation and mediation skills when the situation became difficult, acting in an ethical manner. In aim to better myself, I reached out to take part in the UFA peer tutoring programme, where I had to help and mentor younger students. Sympathy and responsibility were very vital during the course of the programme, because I had to deal with students who may be more vulnerable or may be going through hardships, thus I did not only focus on the academic side, despite it being the main aim of the programme.

I am also part of a counselling programme within in my school, where I have the opportunity of supporting students who are struggling emotionally. This has taught me how to inspire trust within the people I work with, build a good relationship and think critically, alongside being caring and compassionate, in order to act in their best interests; all of which I am aware are essential traits of a successful doctor. My passion for the ever-evolving world of medicine has invoked me to undertake an academic assignment, based on an independent research on the immunopathology of type 1-hypersensitivity and the role of epinephrine in controlling anaphylaxis. As well as equipping me with excellent academic writing skills and independence, it has also led me to explore how doctors play a huge role in the advancement of medicine as researchers and that doctors must work as part of a huge professionally diverse team; I hope to explore this further during my medical studies. I have also undertaken the Lower Sixth Cambridge Chemistry challenge in order to deepen and challenge my understanding of my A-level chemistry studies; this has prepared me to show intuitive within my studies and strive to expand my knowledge beyond what is taught. Overall, I believe that I have what it takes to study medicine and become a successful doctor, and I am certain I'd like to pursue a career in medicine.