Medical Assistant Personal Statement

If you asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” at the age of 5, I’d tell you I wanted to be a vet. At the age of 10, I would have replied “a doctor”. At 15, I would've said nurse. Now, at 18 years old, I have the dream of becoming a physician assistant. The path of my dream occupation has been relatively linear. I’ve known since I could ever remember that I wanted to be in the medical field. My grandmother was a nurse and I think her compassion for helping others rubbed off on me. I always looked up to her, so I consider working in the medical field to be continuing her legacy. But, Why PA school? Why not just go to medical school? I’ve gotten this question from a lot of people and it’s a question I’ve had to ask myself as well. PAs work interdependently with their supervising physician to “take patient histories, perform physical examinations, order laboratory, and diagnostic studies, prescribe medications, and develop patient

Acceptance rates for medical school are higher than for PA school. “Only 33% of applicants were accepted to PA schools in 2016-17, whereas 41% of applicants were accepted to MD schools” (2). Due to such a competitive application process, I’ve already started building my resume. A very important part of your application is patient care hours. Many schools require around 1,500 hours of healthcare experience to grant an applicant admission. Healthcare experience includes EMT (emergency medicine), registered nurse, emergency room technician, medical assistant, medical technologist, CNA, or respiratory therapist (3). Thankfully, I’ve gotten a head start on these hours because I became an EMT in my sophomore year of high school. However, this experience will not suffice, so I’m enrolled in a certified nursing assistant (CNA) school this summer. In order to strengthen my application, I will also be pursuing volunteer work and hopefully participating in a research lab on