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Primary Care Personal Statement

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I want to empower my patients to take control over their health; the best way for me to accomplish that is to remain in direct and prolonged contact with the same patients over time as their primary care physician. My own life and my teaching experience equip me with the tools and passion to care for patients over a lifetime through primary care.

My parents, both remarried, each struggle to find quality primary care providers in their communities; my mother is Mexican-American and my father lives in rural Appalachia. Having lived with each parent at different times in my life, I have experienced these difficulties in accessing affordable care firsthand. These hardships fuel my dedication to bring quality medical services as a primary care …show more content…

After college, I taught in my hometown at an inner city high school where I fell in love with the vocation. Through primary care, I can couple my passion for teaching and my excitement to heal. Other specialties, like surgery, although rewarding in their technical difficulty, would not provide me the direct and prolonged relationship building that I valued as a teacher. As an educator, in order for my students to trust in their own abilities, I had to prove each day that I was invested in their learning and success. I consistently showed up for them when few other adults in their lives had. Building that trust helped them to believe in themselves and in their future. They were empowered. Primary care will allow me to build similar relationships with my patients; I can strengthen their pride in their health through consistently investing in their wellness over time. This emphasis on relationship-building makes primary care so different from other specialties. I absolutely love that I am not in full control of the patient as a primary care doctor. I must constantly prove my value and trustworthiness as a healer to my community and build relationships in order to work with patients toward their wellness. Just as I prized teaching for being student-centered through relationship building, I am excited for a patient and community-centered career in primary …show more content…

Having grown up without access to affordable healthcare, I am dedicated to returning to underserved communities like my own to help others as a primary care physician. Raised in a dual-culture life, coming from both the Hispanic and Appalachian communities, I understand how difficult it can be to find affordable quality healthcare. I recognize that my future patients may similarly hesitate to visit a physician due to reasons including language barriers, finances, immigration status, lack of coverage, and lack of geographic access. I will use the skills I gained as an educator, as well as my personal hardships, to find creative ways to dismantle these complex structural barriers for marginalized populations. The longer I am in the educational and medical systems, the more I understand why so few are able to make this same commitment to primary care. I am sincerely, personally, and deeply devoted to this area of practice, and that is why I am asking for you to support my pursuit of these

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