Should I include this in my personal statement?

[macintosh]

Hello All,

Just wondering if I should include something in my personal statement.

Basically I had a few years experience caring for a elder person, my adorable grandmother.

I along side my mother, Looked after her for 5 years, my mum being her main career my grandmother had a stroke and was paralysed from her left side.

So her condition requires 247 looking after, which my mother took on happily.

Now getting to the point, I was shown by the District nurse who visited every 3 weeks ;

• giving her medication 3 times a day
• checking her blood sugar level
• giving insulin through a needle
• and generally looking after her, I have had trained experience in handling commode and hoist, ( machine which helps my grandmother to get off the bed and onto the chair and vice versa.)
• Feeding her food ( feeding food was a general thing I was not shown by the nurse any technique to feed her, although it was a challegen to get her to eat at times.)
• Ordering her medication lol I ran around in errands in and out the chemist and GP .

She died aged 97 years old, last year of a heart attack, but I must say those 5 years were the best years of my life.

Anyways sorry if I got a bit personal there, but that’s just my point do you think this is to personal to put on a my ‘personal statement’ supporting why I want to study medicine?


Some advice will be much appreciated thanks
Regards,
Ella

[BabyDoc06]

Hi,
Sorry to hear about your grandmother. This experience over the last 5 years is really excellent material for a personal statement as long as you can say what you learnt from it and not just list what you did.
Personal statements are marked not only on achievements but on reflecting on what was learnt from them. Saying things like "I learnt to understand the challenges of caring for a elderly person and how people can work together in a team to provide good patient care"... something like that is what markers are looking for.

Good luck for the future...

[Miss Monkey]

My personal statement was quite personal, and I think that probably got me my interviews. I would definitely mention it (could be good inspiration for your openin paragraph) but as mentioned above, be sure to show what you learnt from it as well as what you actually did.

[yeliab_cram]

You have to be careful not to labour the point. So long as you use your experience to make a point in your PS, ideally with some reflection as mentioned by a poster above then it can be used to enhance your application as an experience of medicine, which is after all a caring profession.

[Fried_Rice]

As people have said, writing how this experience has influenced you and what you've learned from it will sound great on a personal statement.

What doesn't sound good is a list of the procedures, skills or whatever that you have learned. I have read so many personal statements of people getting carried away listing the surgical procedures, skills, or whatnot they learned or observed during work experience.

Always, always focus on why what you are writing about has made you a stronger candidate for medicine, helped you grow as a person or made you certain that medicine is for you. Otherwise, leave it out of your personal statement!

Good luck!

[gymmet]

Yeah, I would suggest that it's a great thing to say 'why a doctor' in the first paragraph but don't let it dominate your whole personal statement, or go into such detail as you did here - summarise it more generally perhaps. But it looks like you're off to a good start - I admire you for what you did.

[Seren y Gogledd]

I talked about both my grandmothers in my PS and elaborated on my succinct points in the interviews. That would probably be a good chance to talk about the experience you've had with clinical procedures. Be careful though - you might get the "why not nursing" question if you elaborate TOO much.

[sayaaahh]

So sorry for your loss, she sounds like she was an amazing and very well loved woman.

From my experience I would agree with the advice here.....I didn't put that I am my mother's main carer in my PS (she has MS, and is in a wheelchair now), but it did come up in interview. I was a bit surprised how impressed the interviewers were. They said that this kind of experience was very pertinent to a career in medicine, and they would make a note of it in my interview notes.

So if I were you I would write it succinctly in your PS in terms of how it has affected your outlook - more details on the practical skills you learnt can be discussed at interview, as it will be picked up on I'm sure.

Best of luck
P.S. check your spellings of carer and career!

[Smurfy88]

The most important thing with the personal statement is that it has to be personal. So, you have had first-hand experience of the hardship of being a doctor. You have worked with people, and interacted with your grandmother to make sure that her last few years we as happy and comfortable as possible. I truly admire people who put their all into trying to make someone else happy - it's a unique attribute to have in a doctor. So yes, by all means, do mention it in your personal statement. My advice, however, would be, don't talk about it TOO much, because the universities may think you are looking for the sympathy vote, even if you're not. I'd explain clearly and concisely what looking after my grandmother taught me, and how it made me so sure of medicine.

Best of luck!

[Gizmo says -]

The most important thing with the personal statement is that it has to be personal. So, you have had first-hand experience of the hardship of being a doctor. You have worked with people, and interacted with your grandmother to make sure that her last few years we as happy and comfortable as possible.
I truly admire people who put their all into trying to make someone else happy - it's a unique attribute to have in a doctor.

its a poor attribute to ave in a doctor, surely?
indulgin one patient means the others suffer.

aye, nuffing wrong wif mentioning it mind sure dooby.