───〖MCA Application〗─── Hello! This is Buttercupkit’s medicine cat apprentice application, since those applications opened recently. I’ll cover all parts of the form in this project, and will also create added sections to go more in depth about specific aspects of the last part of the form. ───〖Name, Age, & Interest〗─── This is just the basic information in the start of the form. I put them all in one section, since they don’t take enough space to be deserving of their own header. 〈Character Name〉Buttercupkit 〈Character Age〉3 moons 〈Level of Interest〉10/10 ──────〖Reasons〗────── This section is for the “reasons why you would like the position of MC(A)” part of the form. I’ll provide an overview here, and following sections will go into more detail. → While researching what makes someone a good doctor, I found that Buttercupkit fits many of the suggested traits (though admittedly, not all). Some of his main traits, such as his empathy (and compassion), were mentioned very frequently throughout my sources— empathy was mentioned in all but the last, and the last one did still mention compassion. [ Unfinished ] ──────〖Personality〗────── ──────〖Research〗────── I’ve researched some traits that are optimal for those in the medical field, so I thought I’d put some of that information here and analyze how that relates to Buttercupkit. (Yes, I know— all of the research sections start with the phrase “according to.” I didn’t think it was worth wasting time finding unique ways to start for each link, when that time could be better spent on other parts of the application xD /lh) 〈 https://www.auamed.org/blog/7-essential-qualities-physician-2/ 〉 → The Research: According to the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, a good doctor/physician should be compassionate and empathetic. They should be diligent, resilient, passionate, and should simultaneously have confidence and humility. → Relation to Buttercupkit: Buttercupkit is both compassionate and empathetic— in fact, his empathy is one of his main traits in the personality description I gave him. He strives to see things from another cat’s point of view as best as he can, trying to imagine what it might like to be them. Individuals are important to him. Rather than just being another cat in a crowd, every cat stands out to him— every one of them has something unique about them, if he could just spend enough time trying to figure out what that unique thing is. The individual lives of others fascinate him as he wonders of how others must see things, knowing that he can never truly experience what they can, and he marvels at the concept of being himself instead of anyone else. His compassion, though not directly stated in his personality is shown in his considerate trait and his benevolence. He cares greatly for the feelings of those around him, and pays much attention to their troubles, no matter how small. He helps them whenever he gets the opportunity, eager to please and receiving joy by bringing happiness to others. The combination of his compassion and empathy lead to his potential to being a medicine cat in that way— but those aren’t the only traits to consider. He also fulfills the trait of diligence— in other words, he shows care in his duties and does his best to get them done as precisely as he has been told to do so. His diligence is largely a result of his considerate trait and his dependence on others. He is reluctant to disappoint others, so he does everything he can to avoid that, leading to sometimes overachieving with his duties. In terms of being a medicine cat, his diligence would also come from his benevolence and empathy. After trying to understand his patients so well, he would be even more terrified of messing something up and potentially putting their life at risk as a result. This, in addition to his lack of confidence, is what would lead to his diligence and conscientiousness. However, this unconfident trait of Buttercupkit I also directly fails to fulfill one of the traits of a good doctor, which is confidence. Buttercupkit is constantly second guessing his decisions, replaying interactions in his mind and worrying if he said the wrong thing, or failed to say anything at all when there was something he feels he should have said. He’s prone to embarrassment and self-consciousness as a result, and can be quite awkward. This will be analyzed further in the personality trait analyzation section of my application. While Buttercupkit isn’t confident, he does have humility. He is modest, sometimes underplaying his achievements— and this actually comes as a result of his unconfidence, as well as his empathy. Analyzing other cats so closely can lead to him comparing their achievements to his. He sees everything amazing about them, and all that they can do, and sometimes feels that his skills are a bit lesser when compared to them. >>
<< Resilience is another important trait of doctors, and while Buttercupkit does have it in a way, it is also slightly lacking. Buttercupkit can quickly recover from difficulties, largely due to his optimism. He believes that everything will work out in the end, even if something in the moment goes wrong, which helps him jump back into action when things go wrong. However, he is also rather dependent, so he might require affirmations from the other medicine cats that things can indeed be fixed before truly believing in himself to fix something. If something goes irreversibly wrong, such as the death of a patient, it may be much more difficult for him to recover. Optimism can’t help him here— there’s nothing more he can do to help that patient, and what has happened is irreversible, leading him to thing that maybe that once, things wouldn’t work out after all. Therefore, resilience is kind of in between for Buttercupkit. Lastly, he does fulfill the passionate trait. He feels very strongly about his opinions and views, even if he’s often rather reluctant to speak of them in case they spark arguments. However, when he truly believes something must be said, he is firm and unwavering, despite being a bit nervous. It can be difficult to change his mind on this sort of thing. As a medicine cat, this may lead to him sticking to what he thinks is the right treatment if he’s confident enough about it. He is also passionate in that he would feel strongly that he is glad to be a medicine cat. Helping others is one of his favorite things— he loves to see them smile after long, sad days, and watching someone get back on their paws after an injury would be rejuvenating to him. As a result, his passion for being a medicine cat would be very hard to break, and he’d very strongly believe that he had chosen the right path by becoming one. (Don’t worry, the rest of these won’t be as long— a lot of them are repetitive, so I can just use what I said here without having to rewrite it. Some of them might be a bit longer, though, since it’s not all exactly the same). 〈https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/envy/202010/what-makes-good-doctor-good?amp 〉 → The Research: According to Psychology Today, doctors should have good listening and observation skills. They should be empathetic and promote feelings of high reliability and safety. Good personality traits of a doctor can be analyzed through the Big Five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). They should generally score high in conscientiousness and agreeableness. Agreeableness can lead to a willingness to help, and this combined with conscientiousness can lead to higher psychological resilience, meaning that they would be less prone to burnout. Overall, a doctor should be compassionate/warm, understanding, empathetic, honest, competent, humane/benevolent, courageous, observant, receptive, an attentive listener, curious, committed, able to tolerate ambiguity, and able to “manage temporary gaps in understanding without undue frustration and negativity.” → Relation to Buttercupkit: Buttercupkit is empathetic/understanding and compassionate/benevolent/humane, which was already covered in the research from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. Buttercupkit certainly has good listening and observation skills, and is both observant and an attentive listener. This is because he is both perceptive and patient. He loves paying attention to tiny details, such as the precise sound a droplet makes as it falls from a tree after rain, but also during conversations or when watching other cats. He pays attention to all the subtle switches in their expression and movements, and hears every word. This also connects to his desire to understand what their life might be like— listening carefully can aid him in that goal. Buttercupkit often spends hours simply staring out the nursery, watching and observing, which is one of the most common examples of his observance. I think he could be considered honest and curious, though they aren’t specifically traits of him. In general, however, he cares a lot about his relations with other cats— so he’d be less likely to risk a lie. He may lie out of compassion, hoping to spare another of sadness or anger, but wouldn’t tend to lie over small things such as eating an extra piece of prey when he said he wouldn’t (though this isn’t impossible, since honesty isn’t really a prominent trait of his). He’s more curious than he is honest— often as a result of his perceptiveness, since he seeks to learn more about what he observed that is unfamiliar. However, he rules caution over curiousity. If discovering something unimportant holds any danger, it’s very unlikely that he’ll choose that risk. [ Continued here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/777815077/ ]
