My Motivation to Get Medical Residency Program

Failure is the key to success that I faced when I could not able to make my way into my dreamed medical college. I applied next year and was in the top 15 students in the merit list. I was the first one among my family who perused medicine as a profession.

I have a very large family, and we are all very close with each other. We get together as a family regularly, to have dinner and catch up with one another. Once we were having a get together at my parent’s home, I was telling my aunt whom I had been with for most of the day about my experience in medical school. When suddenly she started complaining of severe chest pain and felt nauseated. Everyone immediately stopped their conversations and came to check on my aunt. The atmosphere quickly went from loud and cheery to anxious. Everyone thought she was just having some gastric pain as she complained of chest tightness. I was sitting next to her realized that it may not be as simple based on her severe symptoms. I decided to give her nitroglycerine, and immediately took her to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, she reported a sudden relief from the pain with the nitroglycerine. She was very thankful to me, and I was very happy that I was able to help her. Later-on we found out that she was having an anginal attack. That was the day I realized going to medical school to become a doctor was the absolute correct decision.

When you are able to lessen someone’s suffering and help them get better. You get a true sense of what satisfaction is. Shortly after I graduated from med school, my aunt was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, and later on treated with chemotherapy and hysterectomy. I used to visit her daily and she said to me frequently don’t you have anything to decrease pain this time. I felt helpless at that time, I could not do anything to help lessen her suffering. However, that experience helps drive me to become the best doctor that I can be so that I can help as many people possible. The experience with my aunt was one of the main reasons that I chose Internal medicine.

During my training in medicine I took care of patients and summarized their cases to the attending physicians. I was involved in providing the best treatment for their conditions and coming up with differential diagnoses. It was a process of brainstorming and following flow charts to come to final diagnosis by ruling out other differentials through analysis of their lab results. During this training, I was exposed to a variety of patients with different clinical presentations that helped boost my knowledge and clinical experience in internal medicine. I enjoyed spending time with the patients, and getting to know them, their problems, and backgrounds, all these things together helped me to get to know the patients and provide a better treatment plan to the patients.

After my medical school and training in Pakistan, I came to the United States and after a year of marriage and settling down. I did five clinical rotations in internal medicine and its sub-specialties including Hematology and Oncology, Geriatrics, Gastroenterology. I had two rotations in Hematology and Oncology in which I had the opportunity to see new emerging treatment options for cancer patients that improved their survival rate, and health-related quality of life.

In one of my clinical rotation, I was given the opportunity to do clinical research along with rotating in a hospital. Working as a research volunteer with the Arizona Cancer Center research team I gained vital clinical research skills and contributed to more than 10 projects. I was given the opportunity to do research on the supportive care of multiple myeloma patients and submitted my paper on Evidence-based recommendations for supportive care in multiple myeloma. While doing research in Arizona Cancer Center I saw and got to know many cancer patients. In my rotations for Gastroenterology and Geriatrics I was able to gain greater appreciation for clinicians and strengthening my passion to help people.

I believe I would be a good candidate for residency because of my hard-working nature, focus determination, knowledge, and the perseverance I use to achieve my goals. I am goal oriented, and passionate about helping people. I can assimilate well in any environment. I have the ability to conduct myself in a calm and composed manner in challenging situations with very demanding schedules. I am looking forward towards a residency program with a focus toward academic, teaching, and research opportunities along with exceptional patient care in a broad range of exposures that not only help polish my skills but also foster my analytical thinking in a challenging environment. Through residency I hope to gain a greater degree of self-confidence to work as a physician that can positively contributes to the community and help those in need. There is nothing more satisfying than saving a life or easing someone’s suffering.