Reflective Essay: A Clinical Analysis

Choosing to commit to the field of medicine was one of the hardest decisions I have made in my life. Being a first generation college graduate and a potential medical school candidate is a double edged sword. It is an accomplishment, yet it is a road that I had to wander without much guidance. I do not come from a family of established physicians. My mother carved her way to a casino supervisor starting off at the very bottom. My father performed extraneous amounts of physical labor to make his living. From watching their struggles, I understand the importance of hard work and patience. Coming into college I knew I had to hit the books as hard as I could and persevere through any pitfalls that came. Eventually I reached a point where I really questioned if I …show more content…
A young man in his middle twenties looked at me with concern. He knew I did not know his language and the staff told him that I was new. I was sweating nervously as I had to remember the procedures the medical staff taught me on how to administer a vaccination. Clean, wipe, slightly pinch part of the deltoid, then inject. I let out a sudden sigh of relief. The patient picked up on my sigh and looked at me with puzzled look, then said “Thank you” in English, smiled and left. Then I continued to prepare and administer more vaccinations that week. The next week was dedicated to phlebotomy and I trained and observed for a majority of that week. This was the roughest week because no two people had the same result from venipuncture and I came to learn that the hard way. Thankfully I did not run into any major problems, but I did have times of unsuccessful venipunctures. Sometimes barely any blood filled the tube. Every time I messed up I was discouraged at first, but somehow there was this burning motivation to not mess up the next time. I learned from my failures and just kept pushing through and I am so thankful that the patients were so kind to