Shadowing Experiences And Influences On The Field Of Medicine

Improved Essays
1. Please briefly share the influences on your decision to pursue the field of medicine, including shadowing experiences and other medical related activities.
2. Please describe your interests, activities, hobbies, etc., outside the area of health sciences.
3. Please describe a role you have held in a meaningful group/peer-related activity.

When I was small, my family and I lived in the developed and popular city of Mashhad. My dad who is a doctor, had at the time a small clinic that was approximately an hours away from the city, located in a village-like area where except my dad’s clinic and another clinic there was no other medical providing center. With a vivid memory, I remember the impression that I formed of my father’s profession during
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In his clinic I met a particular type of people that I would normally not see in the city, and I noticed details such as the way they act, they way they speak, and even the way they smelled that was detestable for me at the time; thus, I asked my dad why he chose to rent a clinic so far away, and deal with people who were so different. To this day I still remember my father’s response “A doctor does not segregate”. Reflecting on this response, I later realized that if my father was not the person to challenge his own comfort and rent that clinic, the villagers would have had an even more limited access to doctor. Furthermore, I realized the deep extent of a doctor’s role in a patient 's life as my father would often receive gifts such as fruits and dairy from the villagers. During my time in Persia besides my father, who set an example for me as a doctor, my mother who is a midwife also manifested to me the capabilities that a doctor must have. Most of the hardship that my mother went through to become a midwife took place before I was borne but through my mother’s vivid recounts, I comprehended the bravery of a doctor. As a program that was implemented in Persia, graduating doctors needed to serve one to two years in a health facility in …show more content…
Thus, I enrolled in a volunteering program at Greenwich Hospital in order to not only encounter a doctor’s working environment, but also to serve the patients who are a member of my community in Greenwich. In the hospital my job can range from sorting and arranging hundreds of mails, escorting patients, helping with maintaining hygiene, to sending flowers to the patients. According to my supervisor and the volunteers’ website, there are approximately a total of 700 volunteers who the staff believe to be the unsound heros of the hospital. Due to the number of volunteers, the staff assign us to different sections of the hospital within which assigning to be an escorter is one of my favorite as it allows me to encounter patients and doctors from different departments. Gradually from observation and conversation with many of the doctors in the hospital and some of my father’s friends I perceived the drudgery, the stress, the paper works, the coordination, the management skills that are necessary for surviving in this field after having endured the hardship of medical school. Besides volunteering I also have the experience of shadowing a doctor. For five different days in the last five months I shadowed Dr. Nameen who is a renowned psychologist. This experience allowed me to have a closer look at the everyday life of a

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