Inspirational Personal Statements for Medicine

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Inspirational Personal Statements for Medicine

• Rachelle Pereira
• Careers Adviser

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What are we going to talk about?

• Organising your statement
• Presenting yourself in your statement
• Milestones managing your time

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Doctors Good Practice

• Good clinical care (treatment in emergencies)
• Maintaining good medical practice
• Teaching and Training
• Relationships with patients (communication)
• Working with Colleagues (working in teams)
• Probity (research)
• Health
• GMC Good Medical Practice guidelines
• http//www.gmc-uk.org/guidance

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Duties of a registered doctor

• make the care of your patient your first concern
  
• treat every patient politely and considerately
• respect patients' dignity and privacy
• listen to patients and respect their views
• give patients information in a way they can
  understand
• respect the rights of patients to be fully
  involved in decisions
• recognise the limits of your professional
  competence
• be honest and trustworthy
• respect and protect confidential information
• make sure that your beliefs do not prejudice your
  patients' care
• avoid abusing your position as a doctor and
• work with colleagues in the ways that best serve
  patients' interests.

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Organising your personal statement

• Your statement must include
• That you have the skills and attributes to be a
  good medical student and doctor/dentist
• That you have the desire to be a doctor/dentist
• That you know about the NHS organisation

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Differences between programmes

• 4-Year Programme
• Admissions wants to know about
• Your readiness for a very intense
• programme
• Key skills like problem solving
• Your self-motivation and initiative
• Your study skills
• Your commitment
• The 4-year programme is highly competitive 1000
  for 28 places (Newcastle 2005)

• 5-Year Programme
• Admissions wants to know about
• You as a person
• Why you want this
• What you would bring to the programme
• Your personal skills
• The 5-year programme is competitive 3000 for
  230 places (Newcastle 2005)

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Admissions Tests

• BMAT (biomedical admissions test) www.bmat.org.uk
• MSAT (medical school admissions test)
  www.acer.edu.au
• GAMSAT (graduate Australian medical school
  admissions test) www.gamsat.co.uk
• UKCAT (UK clinical aptitude test) www.ukcat.ac.uk

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Tip 1 Self-reflection

• You need to reflect on yourself show admission
  tutors that you really know your own strengths
  and weaknesses.
• For both programmes, the more reflective the
  better.

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Tip 2 Examples from School

• Dont use examples of skills development, work
  experience, or achievements from school.
• Use current examples from the past three years
  otherwise the admission tutor will think that you
  havent done anything worthwhile since school.

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Why do you want to be a doctor?

• In small groups of three, talk about your reasons
• for applying for medical school.
• Do not mention
• You have always wanted to be a doctor.
• You like science and people so you thought being
  a doctor would join the two.

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Whatever your reasons

• Make it personal, interesting, and honest
• Watch out for clichés
• Avoid making it too personal (i.e. wanting to be
  a doctor because of a family or personal illness)

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Tip 3 A doctor for life?

• It can take up to 12 years just to train to be a
  doctoryou need to show that your decision has
  been thoroughly thought out.
• Consider medicine as a career not just a
  calling.

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Tip 4 Talking about specialties

• Over 50 specialties and hundreds of sub
• specialties and combinations to choose from
• Do you know about all of them? If not, should
• you mention which one you would like to enter?

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What do you know about the NHS?

• What experience have you had in the NHS?
• What did you learn about yourself and the
• organisation?
• If you havent had experience why? Do you
• have other relevant experience or knowledge?

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Tip 5 If you have applied before

• If you have applied before to medical school
  after completing your A-Levels or any other time
  admit it!
• Discuss why you are trying again and how you
  have chosen to use your time since applying last
  time.

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Tip 6 Achievements

• Dont list all your achievements.
• Pick a few important achievements and talk about
  what you have learned about yourself. What did
  it feel like? How did it change you?

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Tip 7 Hobbies and Interests

• Be prepared to talk about your hobbies and
  interests in interviews. In your personal
  statement, dont say that you know or do
  something if you dont!
• You will be caught out and will be denied entry
  into the programme.

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Milestones

• Complete outline and check out referee
• Complete first draft and send to referee
• Have personal statement checked
• Secure reference and complete second draft
• Leave it for a few days
• Complete final draft
• Submit on-line or by post

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How the Career Service can help

• Drop in to speak to a Careers Adviser about your
  application or reasons for applying to medicine
  without an appointment M-F 1130am 430pm.
• Resources available about different medical
  schools and programmes, finance, medical
  interviews, etc.
• Web resource - http//www.admissionsforum.co.uk