Personal Statement Example: My Career in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Nothing brings joy to life than delivering a newborn baby. My career journey in Obstetrics and gynecology began with my fascination with womens health. I have since then developed it through ways such as clinical experiences, personal explorations, and intellectual stimulation. While pursuing my medical studies at the University of Baghdad, College of Medicine, I had the privilege of attaining a vast range of clinical experiences from different hospitals such as Icare Surgical & Optical centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Al-Amal Maternity Hospital in Amman, Jordan, and Al-Kharkh General Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, just to mention a few. These hands-on experiences have substantially complemented my classroom years, and I have since developed a keen sense that I have always wanted to further my passion through my career in obstetrics and gynecology.

My first true insight into the clinical experiences and aspects of specialty came in 2012 as I was interning at the Al-Kharkh General Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. Here, I performed general and physical examinations on patients and also prepared them for discharge. I, however, attained the most fundamental experience at this hospital when I was tasked with the responsibility of managing emergency cases such as UTIs, gastroenteritis, and diabetic management. I took with me this as the most rewarding experience, and in 2013, I enrolled as a Resident Doctor at the Obstetric and Gynaecological Residency Training Program in Al-Amal Maternity Hospital Amman, Jordan under the supervision of Dr. Raed Khalifa. Although the year 2013 brought about one of the most exceptional experiences in the realm of my career, it was during this time, that I experienced the greatest setback in both my academics and professional journey when I lost my father.

My fathers death took a toll on my career, and at some point, I felt like giving up. This was mainly a hard time in my life since other than dealing with the pain of losing my father; I also dealt with numerous challenges in my career journey. For instance, during my training, I had to stay up overnights to save the lives of delivering mothers and also went through trouble handling mothers in pain in the accompaniment of their furious husbands and families. Worse still, my greatest challenge was the huge demands and pressure to perform by the hospital. Nonetheless, during this time, I found great solace in the manner in which all the tough times and suffering of both me as a caregiver and the mother dissipates when the newborn baby starts crying. The smiles and the tears of happiness on the parents faces change everything.

Besides I furthered my medical training, I realized that I enjoyed and performed best in theatres where I effectively put into practice every hands-on experience I had attained over the years. For this reason, throughout my various clinical rotations and experiences, I have furthered my interest in gynecology owing to its primary goal of improving womens quality of life. This interest was particularly evident as I interned at the Jordan Hospital in Amman, Jordan, where I was privileged to work in surgery rotations. One of my primary responsibilities was the admission of patients and also arranging of follow up charts and medication lists. This experience was rewarding since I got the chance to interact with different patients and subsequently became a part of their medical journey. Also, I also developed a great interest in primary care as was responsible for observing the progress of patients in the first and second stage of labor while in the wards.

Today, however, I am working as a Doctor Assistant, at the Icare Surgical & Optical center in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and currently practicing medicine and developing myself further studying Canadian regulations and guidelines. I believe that I am at a point in my career where I am confident of working in any obstetrics and gynecology environment. Similarly, my experience working across multiple clinical platforms has helped understand that communication skills are of utmost importance beyond the manual skills required in my career field. Thus, throughout my clinical experiences, I have genuinely evaluated myself, and I have realized that I have an outstanding ability to establish rapport with almost all kinds of patients.

This being said, during residency here in Canada, I want to train with an outstanding academic program that fosters good team rapport and encourages a learning environment. I also hope to build a firm foundation on the basic principles of obstetrics and gynecology, with the additional benefit of subspecialty exposure. By training under the guidance of skilled physicians in a well-equipped institution and an outstanding residency program, I hope to achieve all my set goals and objectives.