I love my work as a PA, and finally getting to the point where I’m feeling some level of competence in my practice but with my patients. However, I want to not just meet the standard of care, but I want to provide true excellence in care. I think the best way to take my practice to the next level would be through the rigorous and systematic education of medical school and residency.
Because of your experience with medical school admissions, I wanted to ask your thoughts on one aspect of my application. I have made a few mistakes in my career that may jeopardize this goal of going to medical school, but hopefully not to an insurmountable degree.
Initially, in PA school I was reprimanded for taking a day off of a clinical rotation in order to attend a residency interview. I was cleared to go to the interview by the nurse practitioner with whom I was rotating, but I did not formally get the absence excused by my PA program director. For the unexcused absence I was charged with academic dishonesty.
Upon graduation, I was accepted to an emergency medicine residency. While applying for my state X medical license my PA program director indicated that for this unexcused absence I was on probation from the PA program rather than just charged with academic dishonesty. When the state X medical board reached out to me about this probation I was shocked, and in somewhat of a state of panic that my dream job was in jeopardy because of what seemed like an inaccuracy on the forms submitted by my PA program director. I emailed the dean of students who agreed to write a letter on my behalf explaining the situation. After receiving his email I made the mistake of asking for a copy of the documentation that was submitted to the state X medical board by my program director because I believed that I was misrepresented. My goal was to furnish this information to the dean of students that he could specifically address any inaccuracies. Unfortunately, when I made this request to the state X medical board I indicated that the dean of students had requested that I obtain and furnish him a copy of the documentation provided by my PA school program director which was not true. I believe at some level I was trying to establish credibility that the dean of students actually had my back, and agreed that I was not on probation as a result of this unexcused absence. The way I wrote my email indicated that he had specifically requested a copy of the information which was untrue. Subsequently because of this untrue statement as well as the disciplinary action while in PA school I was denied a state X medical license and lost a dream job and a chance to live in the same state as my fiance who is a resident physician.
I was able to get a state Y medical license, on the condition that I complete a specific program of remediation for my actions which I have successfully completed and am in good standing with all regulatory bodies.
Because of this failure in my past I want to be completely transparent in a medical school application. I have learned some very hard lessons on communication as a result of these blunders. I know that this is somewhat of a difficult question to ask, but I was wondering if you have any specific suggestions about where in the application process I should address such a cumbersome topic. There is a point in the AMCAS application that asks about disciplinary action in school where I will be addressing the unexcused absence and resultant academic dishonesty obviously, but how do I bring up the license denial?