Cooke - Long Term Career Plans

What are your long-term career plans? (1500 characters or 300 words)

I envision myself as a primary care physician. Providing medical treatment for my teachers and classmates, my family, my friends and their children. Providing care to the people who took care of me in the town where I was raised. I picture myself a small town physician where I will provide health care for families from birth to old age. Where I know every family and have a positive impact on their lives by being their physician and friend. A town where I imagine myself waking up in the middle of the night to deliver a baby or perhaps holding the hand of an elderly patient as her life slowly slips away. I see myself counseling and consoling families I have known since childhood when they are plagued by cancer, heart disease or other life threatening illnesses. To provide a comforting presence from someone they know and trust. Someone who knows them and to be by their side during life’s most difficult decisions. By meeting their medical needs, I will provide a positive step towards making their future and their lives better. Through practice and treatment I will have a better grasp of the health needs of my community. I can better understand how to change the way health care is delivered and…I can also imagine myself in front of congress or the senate trying to persuade the government of the need for new health care laws and regulations to benefit not only my patients but every patient regardless of their financial status.