PharmCAS Personal Statement (identifying details)

[Br-Alexander]

So, in the personal statement, I'm wondering whether admission committees would want me to include the identifying details of my experiences.

For instance, I worked at CVS pharmacy as a technician for about a year.
Would they prefer:
"I worked as a pharmacy technician for a year at CVS Pharmacy." or
"I worked as a pharmacy technician at CVS Pharmacy in Coon Rapids, MN from June 2013 to June 2014."?

I currently work in a hospital. Would out-of-state institutions want to know exactly where the hospital is located, or is just the name of it enough? I ask because they likely won't know which hospital I'm talking about as many hospitals throughout the nation have the same name.

Also, when I talk about my shadowing experiences, and I talk about patient-specific cases that I remember, would they prefer that I refer to the patients by name (obviously, I would use just the first name and nothing else to identify them)? Or just be generic and use the word 'patient' (which might get repetitive)?

For example, should I say:
"I shadowed an MTM pharmacist and I remember one of his elderly patients, Johnathon, who………so on and so forth" or
"I shadowed an MTM pharmacist and I remember the case of one specific elderly patient who………so on and so forth"?

And while I definitely know NOT to use both the first and last name of any patients, would it be okay if I used both the first and last name of any of the medical professionals that I worked with? Or would the admission committees frown upon that? The admissions committee at one of the schools I'm applying to might know some of the healthcare professionals that I'll be referring to, as well as some of the people who wrote my letters of recommendation. I'm wondering whether they would like or dislike if I mentioned them by both first and last name in my personal statement.

Thank you so much for reading all of this and I appreciate all of your thoughts!

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[NextStepTutor_4]

For the first example, I would probably mention the location and time frame because this gives your reader information about the setting you worked in (are you in the same state? was it a very rural or very urban environment?) as well as where this fits into your timeline (did you work while concurrently in school? do you currently work there?). You could decide to write "a small town in Minnesota" or "started working there in 2013 / summer or 2013," or really whatever helps them understand your story better.

Ultimately whether or not you put any of these details in your personal statement likely won't impact your admissions prospects, especially since most of this will likely be elsewhere in your application.

In the latter example, I'd defer on the side of caution for sure. Consider referring to any patients by initials, and to be really cautious, made up initials (patient AB or WH) to avoid HIPAA violations. When referring to a mentor or supervisor, it's generally fine to mention them by their full name and position so your reader knows their relationship to you. For example, when writing about research experiences, a lot of times people will write that they worked in the lab of Dr. so-and-so. If anything in your personal statement frames one of these individuals in a negative light, even if some kind of mistake that was made, under those circumstances I might anonymize them.

 

[Br-Alexander]

Thank you so much! I really like the ideas you suggested.

 

[NextStepTutor_4]

Thank you so much! I really like the ideas you suggested.

Good luck! You can't go wrong