My time working at the Apple Store formed the foundation of my professional development. I learned how to talk to customers in a mature manner and to keep my cool under pressure. I had just turned 18 when I got the job and I quickly learned that I would be interacting with highly educated and accomplished clientele that were coming into the store to spend a lot of money. During my employment, I helped physicians, businessmen/women, and even met a man who summited Everest for a charity dedicated to individuals with special needs. There is a certain level of maturity and respect that is needed when talking to someone who not only is much more accomplished than me and who is about to spend a couple thousand dollars on a device that is going to become an integral part of their life. My training taught me how to connect with these customers and figure out what they wanted out of their Apple device and how to match them with the correct one. Additionally, not every experience at the Apple store is positive. A lot of customers get frustrated when they have to wait in line for a sales person and also when their devices don’t work properly. I had a few experiences that truly tested my patience as an 18 year old but I am proud to say that I never lost my cool. My proudest moment was when I was able to successfully clear a list of 27 customers waiting to talk to a salesperson. During my undergraduate years, my professional development took a backseat to my personal development. I spent most of my time in the books, learning how to keep house and live on my own. Throughout medical school I was able to jump start my professional development again. A lot of that came through seeing patients on my own, navigating difficult situations with patients and keeping a mental bank of all the times that I was impressed by an attending’s level of professionalism or lack thereof. I feel that going forward, having a list of “what not to do” is equally as important as a list of actions to emulate. Patients can present challenges to the medical team and its our job to stay calm and figure out why a patient is acting a certain way. On my family medicine rotation, a patient sought care for a sinus infection but when asked about a colonoscopy, refused because she believed it was “too much testing.” As a health care provider, it is easy to get angry given all the evidence to the contrary but I had to remain level headed and try to probe the patient about their reluctance. I can only imagine the level of frustration of pediatricians when parents refused to vaccinate their children. Nevertheless, the children still need medical care. With regards to an attending’s professionalism to examples stand out. The first is when my IM attending would end every patient presentation with “is there anything else WE can do for this patient?” I felt this was a wonderful way of making sure that everyone on the team feels like a valued member. On the other hand, during my OB rotation at an OSH, I had to scrub a case with a private attending who was verbally abusive to the OR staff. I have learned a lot about professionalism so far in medical school and these two CPAs will speak to what I have achieved. One is the narrative from the UPRSN ring and the other is a CPA from my pediatric GI rotation. CEO 6.0
“Narrative: Zachary was a very professional student who was inquisitive and asked insightful questions. He was engaged in patient care activities and went above and beyond in the care of his patients. His presentations were excellent and demonstrated this in-depth knowledge of his patients. Zachary was a very kind and compassionate student who worked well with all members of the team. He was respectful, responsible and dependable even when on a very busy and challenging service. He was willing to learn and worked hard to improve his medical knowledge base. His surgical and procedural and management skills were solid. Zachary was professional and interacted well with his patients and all members of the team.”
Portal Evaluation Report (40)-2fuigod
Going forward, I strive to uphold the standards of professionalism and become a well-respected member of the medical community.