Why I Want to Join Internal Medicine Residency

One of the most memorable experiences of my life occurred while I was in high school. My best friend fell to the ground and had a seizure just as a mathematics test was about to being. While the entire class scrambled away from him, the teacher ran to call the school nurse. She arrived just in time to move him away from the table and chairs that he had been hitting and then called the emergency services. They arrived in all their regalia. It felt like an action movie. At that time, it was the closest experience I had to a hospital but it had a lasting impact on me.

During medical school, internal medicine suited me perfectly. I enjoyed the vast and in-depth medical knowledge demonstrated by residents and attendings during my clerkship. It was interesting to see how important correlating each patient’s unique circumstance, background, and sometimes subtle clinical findings is to solving complex clinical problems. I learnt the importance of distilling and communicating overwhelming medical information into simple terms comprehensible by patients and their relatives to ensure proper understanding and adherence to the treatment plan.

David’s smile is also a constant reminder of the priceless and invaluable fulfillment I get from internal medicine. Before he became a patient of the renal outpatient clinic, I first met David during one of my emergency room nights during my Internal medicine rotation as an intern in LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria). He came in cardiac arrest and we quickly began resuscitation. Fortunately, he did fine and was later transferred to the floor. While on the floor, I had the opportunity to properly educate him and also partner with him in taking ownership of his chronic renal disease. It was a very fulfilling experience working with and educating him on all vital aspects of his care. The prospect of having this kind of long-term patient-physician relationships and the ability to achieve impressive health outcomes by working together with patients to own and manage their illnesses are some of the reasons why I want to be an internist.

Working in OOUTH (Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital) and Worthing Hospital has helped me develop a high intellectual curiosity and a goal-oriented approach in solving both clinical and academic challenges of each day. Though I am very productive and resourceful on self-directed projects, my experience working on these hospitals’ CODE teams has improved my ability to work efficiently in teams, providing my expertise, while offering and soliciting support when necessary. Compassion, empathy and selflessness are traits that I have developed and refined while providing volunteer medical outreaches to underserved communities in Nigeria on various occasions. Interacting with patients and learning from them has helped me to understand also that health is a privilege that every human deserves and we as physicians provide tools to make health a reality, without judgment.

I look forward to my internal medicine residency with great enthusiasm in the hope to get a well-rounded exposure in all fields of medicine. I aspire for a career that affords me an opportunity to share my knowledge and enthusiasm for medicine with aspiring clinicians in clinical and academic medicine. I am also constantly impressed by the evolution of research and updates that abound in this field and I will genuinely cherish an opportunity to add to this growing body of medical knowledge. I desire to pursue a cardiology fellowship after residency but I am very open-minded to see what the future truly holds. I strongly believe that joining your internal medicine program will set me on the right path to achieving these with the ultimate goal of improving patient care and quality of life.