Personal Essay: A Career In Medicine

A career in medicine has been a childhood dream for me. I was born and raised in a small and underdeveloped city in Sri Lanka, where hospitals and doctors were sparse. At the age of ten, I lost my father due to a lack of immediate medical care. Shortly thereafter, a civil war erupted and I witnessed countless deaths throughout my childhood. At a young age, I understood that many deaths could have been avoided, if the sick and injured had access to medical professionals. These experiences have fueled my passionate desire to live my life as a physician.

My goal was and is to be a competent doctor and provide compassionate care to all patients. With much dedication, I became a doctor. I wanted to help the underprivileged, especially those in rural areas. I began work in North Sri Lanka where the civil war had most severely afflicted and I witnessed an average of 100 casualties daily. As there was a shortage of medical professionals, I gained the opportunity of becoming a well-rounded physician.

I came to Canada because my wife is a Canadian citizen who is also pursuing her medical career in Canada. This gave me the opportunity of working in a medical community abroad, which I knew would

I consider myself to be a mature, goal oriented, and dedicated individual who enjoys interacting with groups of people. I am devoted to improving the health of the entire population through population-based assessment and intervention, and take part in shaping public health policies. As a physician, I prefer not to depend on pharmacotherapy as a primary tool of treatment. Instead, I want to recognize the underlying cause of a disease and by preventive measures bring about real change at a population level. These attributes are important qualities of a public health physician, and I am confident I possess them