Prompt: The personal statement is your opportunity to tell the Admissions Committee about your specific interest in WesternU for your nursing education, and to explain your motivation for graduate study to become a master's prepared nurse. In addition, amplify what you would like the Committee to know about your academic qualifications, personal attributes and work experiences that uniquely prepare you to become a professional nurse.
Saturday evening, 5:00 PM. Patient documents. Phone calls. Account records. Sanitary wipes. Bloody instruments. Loose teeth. Back to patient documents. After crossing these items off of my agenda, I switched off the lights and closed up my mother's dental office. The ride back home was a silent one and I wondered to myself, was this all worth my time?
When I was in elementary school, I was always eager to answer the common question concerning the type of field I wanted to enter when I grew up. Without a doubt, I wanted to be a dentist, just like my mother. Filling out various forms with shiny, fancy pens, and probing the insides of someone's mouth with complex instruments seemed fascinating. Upon entering high school, I had the opportunity to assist my mother in her dental clinic. This became an eye-opening experience because for the first time in my life, I could actually engage in the operations of dental work. I filed patient documents, recorded incoming checks, answered phone inquiries and responded to patients' needs. I also learned to maintain the facilities and sterilize dental equipment. From these experiences, I acquired a detail-oriented mindset and a passion for assisting the needs of others. I grew selfless and desired to focus my attention on understanding the complexities required in this field.
As I entered college, I explored more options in the health sciences and realized that my former training in my mother's dental clinic did not fully satisfy my curiosities for the health industry and my passion for assisting others on a comprehensive scale. My mother's dental clinic was only a fragment of the larger expectations I had for the future. Thus, I made the transition from the small, dental clinic to the grand hospital floors through the COPE Health Solutions Clinical Care Extenders (CCE) Internship program. This was an exhilarating opportunity for me to not only further expand my insight of the health field, but also experience unprecedented direct patient care in a larger clinical setting. In the two years of rotating among different departments (Medical Surgery/Definitive Observation Unit, Emergency Room, Obstetrics and Mother and Baby Care Unit), I had spent every shift working alongside nurses. Under their guidance, I was able to engage in multiple hands-on experiences. I performed vital sign procedures, bathed and fed patients, prepared patient rooms, sent specimen to the laboratory, obtained necessary equipment for the nurses, and fulfilled other basic requests of the nurses and patients. In doing so, I was fortunate to witness a few real-life operations such as C-sections, circumcisions, births, and other extreme cases. As a result, I was able to draw on the skills I attained during my time in this internship. I became adaptable to the procedural logistics of each new department I had entered. In the Medical Surgery/Definitive Observation Unit, I honed my reasoning skills to accommodate the different needs of each patient. In the Emergency Room, I learned to communicate effectively with both the patients and nurses in this fast-paced environment, and without a doubt, I became an essential asset to our nursing team.
Although my initial desire was dentistry, these past experiences have led me to conclude that the nursing profession would be my ideal career path. Having acquired organization and maintenance skills at the dental clinic as well as problem solving and communication skills from the internship, I am well prepared to take on the challenges associated with the nursing profession. However, nursing requires much more than possessing aptitude. It requires discipline to provide efficient health care, attentiveness to make sure responsibilities are thoroughly fulfilled, dedication to preserve the integrity of the nursing profession and, most importantly, compassion to enhance and extend the quality of lives. These are qualities I have fostered through the skills I gained and the experiences I have undergone as a dental office assistant and hospital intern. By combining both aspects, I am highly well-prepared for what the masters prepared nurse entails.
As I face a change in career paths, away from dentistry and towards nursing, my continued ambition is to provide and advocate for equitable, quality patient healthcare on a holistic perspective. What many may perceive as the pressures of a job, I find invigorating and I anticipate challenges that keep me on my toes. By completing the Master of Science in Nursing- Entry Level (MSN-E) program at Western University of Health Sciences, I am assured I will be provided with high quality education rooted in the principles of humanism and improving the lives of patients through team work. This objective is a shared value with my professional goals and commitment to focusing on wellness promotion and illness prevention from holistic, family and community perspectives. Although I will be facing an accelerated and rigorous program, Western University of Health Sciences is a university that will train me to successfully achieve my career goals as a family nurse practitioner. I look forward to an enriching experience afforded by your institution.
This became an eye-opening experience, because for the first time in my life, I could actually engage in the operations of dental work.
This was an exhilarating opportunity for me to not only further expand my insight of the health field, but also to experience unprecedented direct patient care in a larger clinical setting.
In the two years spent rotating among different departments, (Medical Surgery/Definitive Observation Unit, Emergency Room, Obstetrics and Mother and Baby Care Unit), I had spent every shift working alongside nurses.
I performed vital sign procedures, bathed and fed patients, prepared patient rooms, sent specimens to the laboratory, obtained
Having acquired organization and maintenance skills at the dental clinic, as well as problem solving and communication skills from the internship, I am well prepared to take on the challenges associated with the nursing profession.
By combining both aspects, I am highly well-prepared for what the masters prepared nurse entails.
What many may perceive as the pressures of a job, I find invigorating and I anticipate challenges that keep me on my toes.
:)
