My Most Defining Experience With Osteopathic Medicine

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My most defining experience with osteopathic medicine was shadowing a family physician, Dr. Truong. I was impressed by his holistic, patient-centered care and his hands-on manipulative skills. Not only did he provide the medical treatment to his patients, but he cared for them mentally and spiritually. For example, he asked his patients about their life goals at their initial visit, and he reminded and encouraged them to work towards their goals during their future visits. He also promoted healthy lifestyle, such as eating low sugar, high vegetable diet and doing exercises regularly. As a result, one of his patients lost 20 pounds by following his advice. Additionally, Dr. Truong used OMT and acupuncture to help his patients relieve their pain. One of his patients had serious knee pain that could not be treated by others. He found a spot on her thigh and performed OMT, and the pain never came back again. He also taught me the four tenets of osteopathic medicine. With my knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, which shares some similarities with osteopathic medicine, I quickly comprehended its philosophy.
Shadowing Dr. Truong sparked my interest in osteopathic medicine. Then I started to explore this profession by reading books. The more I learned, the more I found it is what I want to do in my future practice. Not only do I want to treat patients and their diseases, but I also want to address underlying causes and fix them. I want to specialize in OMT and use my hand to bring instant relief to suffering patients. I also learned the training in osteopathic medicine places emphasize in primary care, which is my interest because it allows me to develop a long-term relationship with patients, address the full range of their needs, ...

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...orget some small work done by others. Therefore, when I prepared for an official presentation, I spent a lot of time going over my past conversation and checking with my managers to make sure I put all the people who helped us during our acknowledgement slights.
I also have strong desires to serve others, including underserved populations. While serving at a homeless shelter Bowery Mission, I realized that the homeless usually need more help in health care but have inadequate access and limited medical knowledge. I am interested in working in in underserved areas as well as serving underserved populations because I can maximize my impact by fulfilling their needs.
I hope to bring my qualities, such as integrity, interpersonal skills, and my strong desires to serve others, to LMU-DCOM where I can receive the education to become a successful osteopathic physician.

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