Health Professions and What Experiences

¶ … health professions and what experiences have led you to this decision and what you hope to gain from your chosen profession? Like most students who have aspirations of completing a medical program and entering the health care field, I am motivated by a combination of intellectual challenge, a desire to learn as much as possible in areas that interest me, and by a general desire to make sure that my life's work contributes in some meaningful way to the welfare of others.

Ever since I can remember, I have always been interested in science, and more generally, in understanding how things work, especially anything related to physiology and the biological sciences. Possibly unlike many of my counterparts, I have already experienced the responsibility of delivering acute health care services to someone in need who relied on me in a substantial way to ensure his comfort and health.

That experience crystallized the importance, as well as the potential personal satisfaction, of working to help patients overcome physical ailments and to live the most productive and fulfilling life possible, given the limitations imposed by medical concerns, health issues, and the ravages of old age.

Specifically, I witnessed my aging grandfather's steep physical decline after the age of 70 and I had the opportunity to contribute to his care and, eventually, to help devise and perfect an original apparatus that helped him regain some of the independence and dignity that had been threatened by his age-related health issues.

After a lifetime of having supported his entire family through his hard work, my grandfather became wheelchair-bound and incontinent and I witnessed, firsthand, how these limitations robbed him of the joy for life that he had always exhibited, ever since I could remember. The combination of immobility and incontinence resulted in his becoming something of a recluse who had lost confidence in social situations and he was becoming a lonely old man; despite having a loving family, he was choosing to isolate himself socially more and more.

In addition to the physical discomfort he suffered, he was terribly embarrassed about his situation and it began to dominate his life. Adult diapers only exacerbated his loss of self-esteem and internal catheters presented too great a risk of recurring urinary tract infections.

With the benefit of access to the necessary materials from my father's practice as a cardiovascular surgeon, I began experimenting with a design for an external catheter that might increase my grandfather's independence and confidence but without presenting the same types of health risks as an internal catheter.

The entire process from conceptual design to a practical and usable prototype took months, but eventually, we were able to construct a wearable external catheter fashioned mainly from components of an oxygen mask, a standard hospital urination drainage bag, and lengths of two-centimeter tracheal intubation tubes. Once we produced a reliable design, the benefits were immediate, because my grandfather quickly regained his desire to leave the house and to socialize with others, both of which he had chosen to do less and less after his problem first developed.

That experience was one of the most.