Medicine

Select three (3) characteristics that you believe best define a PA, and explain why you selected those traits.

Describe a personal challenge from your past, the manner by which you addressed it, and what you learned from the experience.

Describe your patient contact or healthcare-related experiences. How did these influence your decision to select the PA profession?

What was your undergraduate major? How did your coursework prepare you for becoming a PA student?

Info can be taken from my previous personal statement:
I’ve been in the USA for the past 7 years when my ulcer brought me to the ED. I have no idea that meeting PA there will completely change my life and my goals. This young woman was everything that I can dream of: classy, confident, professional and very calm. She was trying to ask me as many questions as she can about my condition and I was questioning her about her position. Holding a Bachelor degree in PR was helping me to multitask, making decisions quickly based on facts, resolve all conflicts with customers and ability to prioritise and plan effectively. Until this day when I learned about the Physician Assistant profession. I went to sleep with the new dream of becoming PA.
Next step was to start my prerequisite and the list was long…Chemistry and English composition went great. First Biology I felt. Never forget this feeling when I signed APA in a maternity unit 12 hours after giving a birth to my son and went straight from the hospital to my Final. Lack of sleep, stress and absence of repeating all my materials make me recieve 71. I was crying in a bathroom and telling myself that medicine is not for me. Otherwise how can I feel one of my favorite courses since high school? So I lost in a postpartum routine and signed up for volunteering at American Red Cross, until one night I just couldn’t sleep because my life didn’t feel complete. My aunt in Russia kept sending me videos and photos from her new work place: she became a President of the Irkutsk Children Hospital after completing her anaesthesiologist fellowship and worked in a trauma center for 5 years. I found myself smiling every time when I was watching it. Physician career was very attractive as well. It was the time to make a deep breath, overcommit and study more effectively. As a result I’v got “A” in both BIO.
Now it was a hard choice to make MD or PA. After I obtained my CNA license and almost instantly was hired to the Morristown Medical Center at one of the busiest ortho units I had a chance to see both professions from inside of the field. One time I was doing midnight vitals for my PT and he seemed OK, sleepy, but what caught my eye he was sweaty and cold, pulse and blood pressure was a little low which is typical for this time of the day. I instantly told the nurse, she was busy and didn’t seem too worried. Doesn’t feel right inside my gut. I keep pushing her, she becomes annoying with me. I went to charge the nurse and at the end PT was having a sepsis. Nurse apologized at the end of the shift, but this feeling of helping to save life was the highest adrenaline ever. Spending 3 weeks of every summer in Russia I was shadowing my aunt all shifts. In the meantime I was keeping up with the rest of the courses and doing virtual shadowing with MD and PA. Covid hits us hard. I was sleeping 4 hours, being a full-time worker and a full-time mom. One thing I’ve learned is NEVER predict life expectancy for the patient. During this time my 85 yo father-in-law who has a history of diabetes and skin cancer got Covid related pneumonia, sepsis and I was preparing my husband to sign DNR and make arrangements, telling him he has maybe 10% chances to leave. He survived. Flew back to NJ by himself and drank tea in my kitchen yesterday. But it helped me to make my choice. I strongly felt for PA. And the reason was a career that would fulfill my interest and love of medicine, support my family, and fill my urge for lifelong knowledge. I had the grades, the experience, the volunteering but was that the career I wanted? Could I see myself mastering only one specialty? Would I have the work-life balance I sought out? (realistically, the answer is yes, there are plenty of badass women physicians that have babies and are present in their family, so this shouldn’t be a deciding factor). BUT a Master’s degree that would allow me to practice medicine – to diagnose and treat patients – but also being team-based care with a collaborative physician, and lateral mobility to change specialties really appealed to me. I’m ready for this journey and prepare for the challenge.