Penn State Hershey Case Study

1. WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO APPLY TO PENN STATE’S PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT PROGRAM?

The Penn State Hershey program is a rigorous academic program that will help shape the future of medicine and the health care system in the US. It is a program that is all-inclusive and extensive. This is one of the only programs that gives students some choice in their clinical rotations, allowing students to learn even more about the areas of medicine that they are most interested in. The goals of this program are very much in line with what I think it means to be a good healthcare professional. The mission of the program is “to prepare graduates to be academically, clinically, professionally, and culturally competent in the delivery of health care services,

Different communities have different expectations of the medical system, and different ideas as to what constitutes quality medical care. Therefore, in order to treat a patient effectively the PA has to understand more then just the medical illness that the patient is facing. When talking to a patient, the PA must understand cultural expectations in order not to accidently offend a patient or their family. In addition, knowing the cultural background of each patient potentially gives the PA some additional insight into the patient’s situation, which might be crucial to determining the appropriate course of medical care. In many cultures, there are alternative remedies to medical problems, other than those proposed by modern medicine. There are cultures that see medical issues as manifestations of non-physical problems, spiritual or other. Patients seek help in many different places, and the PA must know what cultural practices each patient might adhere to, so that the modern medical approach does not interfere. For example, it is important for the PA to know any herbal remedies that the patient might have tried because they could interfere with the treatment that the PA wants to try. It is also possible that some of the medical problems that present themselves to the PA, when first seeing the patient, are actually caused by the cultural healing practices that they subscribe to. In order for a PA to provide the

I have volunteered twice internationally, both times in Israel. While in college, I spent the summer working at Terem, an urgent care facility, serving a population in and around Jerusalem. While at Terem, I had the opportunity to both learn about a variety of in-house procedures, and to see diagnostic practices in action. After graduating from college, I worked for five months in a children’s hospital that specializes in respiratory and physical rehabilitation. It was facinating to see the way long-term care works and the ways different aspects of care can be intertwined in a hospital. These two experiences were exceptional learning opportunities in their own right. But they also showed me the differences between the ways that the health care system works in the United States and abroad. I was able to compare my experiences there to the four summers that I spent volunteering at Mount Sinai-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. I also have had the opportunity to work in a more paramedical capacity. I work with a young boy with achondroplasia dwarfism. As a result of his medical condition, his oxygen intake needs to be constantly monitored. For him a common cold can turn into something more severe, such as pneumonia, and therefore his overall physical health also needs constant monitoring. These experiences have provided me with a diverse background in thinking about