Scholarship Essay Entry – Ian S.

Ambition and drive is a very personalized concept dependent on individual experiences. My ambition to be a medical professional who will make positive changes on numerous levels began with my interest in science and the human body. I have always had such a love for helping sick people that I have never seriously envisioned myself doing anything but.

Personal experiences with medical professionals have led me to strive to make small differences. A lifetime of compounded small positive differences, in my opinion, can accomplish more than the occasional life-changing difference. Everyone has had the experience where they feel ignored and even inferior when dealing with an arrogant doctor who merely consults the patient chart before scribbling something on a prescription pad. From these experiences, I have vowed to never become this man. I believe that the small changes that can be made toward the patient can make all the difference. If a patient leaves feeling like they were fully heard and dealt with in a caring manner, then their fears will be relieved as well as their opinion of healthcare as a whole. Simple changes like this can make all the difference. For example, I have been working in a pharmacy for over a year, and have been concerned more than once by some doctors' illegible writing. Little did I know that this problem contributes to more than 7,000 unnecessary deaths in the US alone.  My ambition has been to experience making these positive changes firsthand in the future and I am excited to do so.

My dreams and visions are of a larger scale than my personal ambitions previously described. From my job-shadowing a physician in our local emergency room, I have realized that changes need to be made to the overall integration of healthcare professionals. With our city being located directly on the Saskatchewan/Alberta border, interesting scenarios arise. These have been with incompatibility between provincial privileges for doctors, along with other issues. For example, doctors on one side of the border, but not the other, can access X-rays and lab results instantaneously on a universal computer system. Similarly, if personnel at our pharmacy want a drug history on a patient, they must search both provincial databases separately. Again, the privileges of the pharmacists and pharmacy technicians differ for both provinces. I have a vision of a federally integrated Canadian healthcare system. This system would have different facets and access available to various healthcare personnel, including doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and others. Much would be improved in patient care, service efficiency, as well as the minimization of drug abuse and other abuses to the healthcare system. I look forward to work toward my dream and vision in a viable fashion.

Throughout my career as a physician, I plan to impact every patient I meet on a personal level through my actions. I also dream of integrated healthcare on a federal level and will work toward this throughout my career.