Here's my PS. I mostly want feedback on organization and clarity, but if you've got content suggestions, I'm all ears.

I tried to listen as a first responder delivered what little information was available from the minutes between their arrival and ours. My attempts to process the information were challenged by my own audible counting—twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty—and the somewhat clumsy retrieval of a bag valve mask and placement of the clear plastic over the man’s mouth and nose, creating a C-shaped seal as I had been taught. After delivering two breaths, I placed the heel of my right hand against the man’s sternum and continued to administer the brutal compressions. I traced the flow of blood as I had learned it in my EMT course and mentally followed its progressions with each subsequent thump. The door slammed behind me and the sirens wailed once again as four EMTs bounced around in the patient compartment of the speeding ambulance, each performing his own task and adding yet another piece to the mosaic of the in-progress cardiac arrest.

Though my experiences have infrequently been filled with the same drama of a cardiac arrest, these calls epitomize the collaboration that attracts me to and defines medicine. From the field to the hospital, management of these calls—despite its apparently hectic vignettes—is nearly seamless in the face of dynamic situations.

Even the more routine contact I have had with medicine has been underscored by cooperation as part of an effort to deliver patient care of the highest quality. I have been fortunate to have had both active and passive roles from which I could participate in and observe healthcare. These two roles converge in my position as a pharmacy technician at the Greater Greenwood United Ministry Free Medical Clinic, which aims to serve those members of my community who would otherwise not have access to vital medical care. Key to care here is communication among clinicians, pharmacists, and counselors to decipher and resolve the complex set of personal and physiologic circumstances their patients face.

Despite a long-time interest, my pursuit of a career in medicine has been most influenced by the role physicians play as educators, a role evident to me only after a year of working abroad as an English teacher and one that I came to note frequently in the interaction between physicians and patients at the free clinic. My time spent living in France was the result of a strong desire to exit my comfort zone and experience another culture. I had spent years learning the French language and culture without having set foot outside my own country.

Employment as an English teacher in the small town Sablé-sur-Sarthe was, in the beginning, secondary to my life as a temporary expatriate. However, I soon garnered an appreciation for education and renewed my commitment to being a life-long student and have had the continued opportunity to engage in the role of a teacher through tutoring at my local university and counseling patients in medication compliance at the free clinic. Having had the opportunity to observe clinicians teach their patients about their ailments and having had the role of an educator myself, I have an immense appreciation and admiration for efforts to explain maladies and courses of treatment to patients so that they equally contribute to decisions regarding their health.

Among all possible career paths, few offer the same privilege as medicine. My entry into the medical field was filled with many conversations that I, at the time, considered firmly in the category of “too much information.” Although not always relevant, these pieces of their lives that patients shared with me—betraying details some consider too personal for even close family—exposed the amount of confidence they placed in me as a healthcare professional. This level of trust is self-evident in the practice of pre-hospital medicine since the majority of patients invite EMS personnel into their own homes, but it is characteristic of all areas of medicine.

A prelude to my experience in the practice of medicine, my work in EMS is characterized by usually transient relationships with patients. Through my opportunities to shadow physicians, I have discovered the incredible depth prevalent in a long-term bond between a patient and his doctor. Physicians accept a great deal of responsibility and accountability in managing a patient’s health, the trust for which is every bit as dependent on the physicians’ medical prowess as their ability to listen to, understand, and care about their patients as people.

The role a physician plays in society is perhaps one of the most dynamic and diverse, requiring synthesis of an ever growing body of knowledge and skills to deliver care of the highest quality both independently and as part of a team of providers. The implicit trust the physician-patient relationship engenders hinges on a physician’s ability to treat illness and injury as well as their ability to teach and diffuse often complex information to patients and families so that they may take an active role in their own health and well-being. These are the roles I believe my experiences would allow me to thrive in, and these are the roles I wish to fill in society.

Thanks for your time. I'd appreciate any advice you've got.