How to Write the Nursing School Personal Statement

A nursing career provides individuals with the opportunity to assist patients in a supportive setting while also allowing them to find their existential fulfillment. Because of this, many students choose to pursue a career in the sector, and you are one of these individuals. Are you looking forward to receiving an admission letter? In order to submit all of your application materials in a timely manner, you’ll need to write a fantastic personal statement for nursing school, which is an important component of the process. According to a CNN story, a large number of applicants are rejected from nursing programs, which is regrettable. Even if you believe you have strong writing abilities, you must hone these skills and tailor them particularly to your nursing school application personal statement. After all, you’re hoping to increase your chances of being accepted. You will be more successful if you follow a process and study the most important points about this essay.

Work in Preparation

Make sure you don’t just sit down in front of the computer and start typing away. Preparing to write a convincing personal statement for your chosen nursing school requires a significant amount of time and effort on your part. As experienced writers are well aware, the craft of writing is a process that takes time and effort.

Step 1: Conduct an investigation into the schools

Each institution will have its own set of requirements, and you’ll want to know what those requirements are before applying. There are a variety of benefits to investigating alternative programs. For example, you could begin by ranking the programs according to your personal choice. Second, you have the authority to choose which schools will serve as reach schools and which institutions will serve as safety schools. This procedure will also assist you in gaining an understanding of how competitive your personal statement should be when applying for jobs. The greatest of the best University of Pennsylvania, John Hopkins University, and Duke University are the top three nursing schools in America, according to a rating of the 2020 Best Colleges for Nursing in America. Consider going over your personal statement with a fine-tooth comb if you’re applying to one of those establishments.

Step 2: Express Yourself Creatively

At some point during your academic career, you’ve almost certainly been requested to write freely about a topic of interest to you. As you begin to see the prompts from various nursing programs, feel free to type your thoughts into a word-processing application on your computer, preferably in a separate document. You could set yourself a challenge by responding to one or more of the following prompts: What was the driving force behind your decision to pursue a nursing career? Does the applicant have any other information that you would like the admissions committee to be aware of about him or herself that has not already been included in the application? (2000 characters maximum)

Discussion topics include your interest in and understanding of the role of clinical nurse leader. What life events have influenced your decision to pursue this field? (2000 characters maximum) The Doctor of Nursing Program’s mission is to develop nurse leaders at the highest level of nursing practice in order to improve patient outcomes and put research findings into practice. Describe a situation in which your leadership abilities were demonstrated. (2000 characters maximum)

You should discuss the clinical specialty area that you are interested in seeking further education in. What life events have influenced your decision to pursue this field? (2000 characters maximum)

In your workplace, talk about a certain population that you are interested in. What kind of encounters have you had with this particular group of people? What kind of health-care needs do you believe this target population is experiencing? (2000 characters maximum. See more nursing school personal statement questions on our website. While the institutions to which you are applying may not ask the precise topics you have in mind, you have at least begun to pique your interest in terms of what you might write about if you are accepted.

Step three: Consult with an Admissions Counselor.

Make an appointment with an admissions counselor when you’re cutting down your list of nursing schools to consider attending. If at all possible, try to plan an appointment on campus so that you can get a feel for the atmosphere of the institution. If a face-to-face visit is not possible, as is the case with the current Covid-19 pandemic, consider scheduling a virtual or telephone session. During your interview, an admissions counselor will offer you with particular information on the appropriate personal statement for their nursing school. In other words, various schools have varied expectations of their students. Despite the fact that the admissions counselor may not be able to answer all of your questions, you still have a chance to gain useful knowledge from them.

Step 4: Examine the conventions of the genre

In order to apply at either the undergraduate or graduate level, you must demonstrate that you are already familiar with certain genre standards. What you must understand is that a personal statement can be rather different from other academic papers that you have written in your previous academic career. Penn State provides some excellent advice on the elements that should be included in a personal statement. In the case of a personal statement, you might believe that it should be written in a five-paragraph format, with the thesis statement appearing as the final sentence of the introduction. Even though some personal statements follow this pattern, others use a more reflective framework to convey their thoughts.

Step 5: Conduct a thorough review of the requirements

To make sure you know exactly how many nursing school personal statements you need to write for your application and what the requirements are for each one, you should consult with an admissions counselor. Consider the following scenario from medical school. When applying to medical school, students are often required to submit one longer essay followed by a number of shorter ones. Knowing what is expected of you by the individual programs to which you are applying will help you plan your time and resources more effectively. Remember to pay special attention to any deadlines that may be set. Submitting an application after the given deadline will almost certainly result in a significant reduction in your chances of being admitted.

 The Writing Methodology

You might assume you’re finished with the research process and have obtained enough preliminary material to start working on the final edition of your essay when you’ve finished with it. Writing, on the other hand, is a time-consuming activity. Making sure you give yourself plenty of time to complete this process will improve your chances of writing a captivating essay.

•  Step 1: Make a copy of or write down the prompt

You must follow the directions given. Period. Keep in mind how important it is in the profession of nursing to adhere to established procedures. It is possible that the admissions committee would question your talents in the sector if you fail to adhere to the criteria for a nursing school personal statement. Printing out the question or scribbling it down is extremely important since it allows you to visually assess whether or not you have completed all of the required tasks. Pay close attention to the way the prompt is written. Additionally, take note of any length constraints; you may be required to write at least a particular number of words or to ensure that your essay does not surpass a certain number of characters, for example. When there are character limits on essays, it is important to determine if the character limit includes or excludes spaces. As you go through the writing process, make a note of each criterion on the prompt and cross them off as you complete them.

•  Next, implement a brainstorming technique.

I have no doubt that you have some excellent brainstorming strategies under your sleeve. The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides several really useful brainstorming approaches that you may utilize in the absence of a formalized brainstorming process. Try to avoid the temptation to jump straight to the first draft’s final version. Brainstorming allows you to get all of your thoughts out on paper. For example, you may look at the question and make a list of any thoughts that occur to mind while you read it. No need to be concerned with organizing them or fully developing the material just yet. While brainstorming ideas, you might also create a formal framework to guide your thinking. Determine which technique is most effective for you.An  approach that some authors choose to use is the actual penning out of sentences as a brainstorming tool. Simply writing or typing down whatever ideas come to mind would suffice in this situation. This activity would benefit from the use of a clock. After that, you can go back in and refine your ideas.

• Step 3: Write the first draft of your essay.

Writing may be a frightening experience. It’s possible that you’ll feel as though you’re completely committing to whatever words you put on paper. However, the drafting process aids in the alleviation of this anxiousness. When you sit down to write the first draft, you already know that you will make revisions to it. The upshot is that you no longer feel under time constraints. Others find the process of writing to be stressful and inconvenient; for others, the mere concept of it causes them tension and inconvenience. If you fall into the latter category, make a timetable for yourself. You may set out an hour each day for a week to put together the first draft of your manuscript. Even if you enjoy writing, this technique will work for you.

• Step 4: Begin with what you already know.

Many writers become so preoccupied with the opening sentence of their introduction that they lose sight of important topics that may have been included throughout the rest of the essay. If you have four key themes that you would like to address in your nursing school personal statement, for example, you may write about them as follows: Your natural instinct may be to write about the experience that occurred first in the order in which it occurred before moving on to the subsequent experiences. Consider the possibility that you would be more comfortable writing about the second or third chronological experience instead. Begin with the first few paragraphs. You can then organize the rest of the essay around them. Getting started on a writing project is typically the most challenging aspect, so starting with something you are familiar with might serve as a springboard for the rest of the essay.

• Step 5: Determine the importance of higher-order issues.

The structuring of a piece of writing, responding to a prompt, and developing ideas are all themes that are frequently considered more significant than difficulties such as grammar and spelling. In your nursing personal statement, you should, of course, use polished grammar and suitable sentence structure, but these considerations are less critical in the first draft. Make sure to pay close attention to the substance as you are writing your initial draft. Work to arrange the paragraphs in a logical manner, and make every effort to develop your ideas as much as possible. When it comes time to revise, you will be concerned with issues like as grammar, sentence structure, and proofreading.

• Step 6: Put the Essay to the side and move on.

When it comes to the writing process, time management is critical, as previously said. It is also necessary to distance yourself from your work for an extended period of time before reviewing it, which may seem counterintuitive. For the most part, putting your job aside for at least one day is a wise decision. Consequently, you will have the necessary amount of time to thoroughly evaluate the modifications that you choose to make. After finishing the initial draft of your paper, it’s tempting to go right into the revision process, and this impulse is especially powerful when the deadline is approaching quickly. However, it is possible that you will overlook essential facts. Waiting gives you the opportunity to recall additional significant elements that you want to mention in the essay. – A break from your personal statement gives you the mental space you need to perhaps come up with new ideas for it. Removing yourself from the project for a period of time might also be beneficial for editing. It is possible that you will include some needless details regarding events linked to nursing or your motives for becoming a nurse when you first start writing. These particulars may be essential to you, but they may or may not be relevant to your essay’s topic. Putting your work aside for a period of time will assist you in gaining that viewpoint. Furthermore, when you have just finished writing a paper, it is tough to spot proofreading and editing issues immediately. Due to the fact that you just finished writing it and are familiar with what the text is supposed to express, your mind is likely to interpret the work as being correct. These errors are more likely to be discovered when you return to the text later to read it again. Some people find that printing out the essay and modifying it by hand works best for them. Make sure to read the material aloud to yourself to identify any mistakes. In other words, you may be more aware of problems than you are of their presence.

• Step 7: Go to a Writing Center to get help.

If you have access to one, a writing center can be quite beneficial. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, written by Ben Rafoth, discusses why writing centers are so beneficial to students. The fundamental concept here is that you will have the opportunity to discuss your work with a tutor. In order to improve your work, you must seek the advice of an expert or a peer. Writing centers operate in a number of different ways. Others may demand students to read their papers aloud, while others may make markings on the student’s paper as part of the evaluation process. As a current college student, you most likely have access to a writing center that is conveniently located on the campus. If you don’t have somebody to look over and critique your essay (I’m shamelessly pushing our services page here), get someone to do so. Although it may be intimidating to share your work with others, bear in mind that an outside reader can provide you with valuable insights.

• Step 8: Revise, revise, and then some more

One round of revisions is usually insufficient when it comes to a significant piece of writing. Your personal statement for your desired nursing school should be as polished as possible. After that, you’ll have to decide how many times you’ll need to review the material. However, as a general rule of thumb, at least three rounds of changes should be completed. As you read through each essay in each round, you will most certainly spot grammar and sentence-level errors that need to be addressed and corrected. You will, nevertheless, gain confidence in your paper after a while of practice. Then you’ll be ready to submit the paper to the appropriate party.