Using patient names in personal essay

[Guest ren 19]

When writing about a specific experience with a patient, is it better to give the first name or just the first letter of the name? eg. Karen or Baby K or K.

[Guest riffraff]

Is this through a volunteering experience? If so, aren't you under an agreement of patient confidentiality? I personally would not name the patient in the essay.

[Guest Jochi1543]

I would give only the initial. Or say something like "a patient I will call Laura" - that way it's assumed the name is fake.

[Guest 007]

I would be very careful here. I did describe an experience with a patient and family, but left it in terms of "when I volunteered in the emergency room I worked with a child who had a heart condition and I learned X, Y, Z." I was specific about MY experiences, but very vague about the patient and their circumstances. Ultimately, the essay should be about you anyway and descriptive items about other events tends to get cut (in my experience) due to the length restrictions.

 

Good luck!

[Guest ren 19]

thanks for the advice!

[Guest aneliz]

I agree... if you are going to talk about a patient, make sure that you focus on YOU and not the patient's story. You should talk about what YOU learned, felt, etc and how this influenced YOU and your path/decisions. Essay word counts are restrictive enough... don't waste precious space with the patient's story... because the admissions committee wants to hear about you, not a report on a patient.