Once a doctor has decided on which fellowship she/ he wants to apply for abroad, the selected hospital/mentor will require a Statement of Purpose / Motivational Letter along with all the other relevant documents. The letter for visa processing will be issued by the hospital/mentor on receipt of this letter only, so it should be written in the doctor’s own words and submitted as quickly as possible.
The letter should be of about 1 page (300 to 500 words). The content can be divided across 3 to 4 paragraphs. This needs to be in a statement form and should not look like a CV, so there should not be any lists of any educational endeavors in this letter.
Mentioned below are points on which you can work to elaborate details and draft the letter.
Points for a Motivational Letter
- Drive towards the current field – explain the reasons for choosing medicine as the career.
- Journey through the graduate years of medicine. – college / university
- Academic achievements through the years of graduation.
- Family background, if relevant – education/ professional background – anyone belonging to the medical fraternity.
- Reason/ drive for opting for the specific specialty.
- Journey through the post-graduate years of medicine. – college / university
- A special attraction to a specific subspecialty, for e.g. spine/arthroplasty in case of an orthopedic surgeon.
- Present work status-
- About work experience, professional experience, and skills gained through the experience
- Specific life goals related to the profession, setting up own hospital, research, NGO, etc.
- Specific actions/plan to achieve this goal.
- How through his/her practice his aspirations are getting achieved – achievements relevant to the aspirations
- Participation in seminars / workshops/ conferences.
- Fellowships/observerships attended to enhance knowledge in a specific area.
- Research papers published in domestic/international journals.
- Paper / poster presentation at conferences.
- Any Achievements/hobbies like sports, art, etc.
- Explain the reason for applying for the fellowship.
- Explain the reason for choosing a particular hospital/mentor.
- Learning expectations from the hospital/mentor.
- Describe the strategies you will use to deal with the challenges of studying in a cultural environment different from your home country.
- What do you plan to do after completing this fellowship?
