I could not be more devoted to lifelong education in nursing. Thus, I seek to become the most effective nursing leader and educator possible. My next step is to become an FNP to improve the quality of life for people in my communities, both here in America and in my country of origin, Guyana. I have looked very closely at the Psych NP's role. I have thought about pursuing an intensive focus on gerontology because of my incredible passion and intrigue for both areas. However, focusing on nursing care from a family perspective – family-centered nursing - stole my heart, and this is my calling.
Born and raised in Guyana for the first 12 years of my life and going back to visit at least once a year since that time, I look forward to contributing to the diversity of your program as a woman of color who is fully bicultural and multilingual, keeping close ties with my community of origin in Guyana, one of the most impoverished communities in the Western Hemisphere. I hope this will help me excel in global health issues, focusing on the Developing World where healthcare challenges are particularly urgent.
Improving my patients and their family's quality of life is my central goal, and I have already been achieving it every day that I have served for the past three years as a senior psychiatric nurse. Throughout this intensive and sustained experience with older patients, I have become increasingly attracted to a family-centered perspective concerning nursing and health care, which embraces caring for my patients' children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I crave the versatility of the FNP Role, working with the patient across the lifespan.
Having earned my BSN at Boston College in 2012, I am well on my way to a first-class education in nursing. I am most excited about getting my master's degree in preparation for FNP certification at XXXX University. One thing that I have learned as a nurse is that you must be able to meet patients where they are in life to respond to the vast diversity of simultaneous challenges confronted by the FNP: helping patients manage acute and chronic illness and prevent disease by educating the community.
These past three years serving as a nurse in a psych unit have helped me to much better understand the whole gambit of medical challenges faced by patients and their families, not only in terms of mental health but especially in the way that mental health issues are so often intertwined with physical problems, together affecting the entire family. One patient I learned a great deal from stands out in my mind to this day, is a 79-year-old woman who was transferred to the psych unit after going to the Emergency room more than twelve times in one month. This patient was extremely challenging, she needed a great deal of attention, inventing things, and taxing one to sort out legitimate needs from imagined ones. By attending to the patient holistically, listening to her, and finding out that she was lonely and scared of dying alone, I was able to care for her and did not find her as challenging as some of my co-workers; after discharge, the patient would frequently call and ask to speak to her me. I haven’t been able to check up on her as much as I would like.
This patient is only one of the many examples of patients who end up in a psychiatric unit because of multiple emergency visits. My motto is that the greater the need, the more noble the endeavor, one patient at a time. I will always remain engaged with my community as a volunteer, serving at free community clinics and giving my all to providing holistic and continuous care to underprivileged and at-risk families in my communities.
XXXX is the best fit for me because I see it among the best programs online to continue working while I study for my master's. XXXX has the perfect combination of online components and face-to-face interaction with classmates and professors. Making a collective investment in communities is a core value for XXXX, which dovetails nicely with my belief that it takes a village to raise a child.
Most of the members of my community are immigrants from the Caribbean, many of them undocumented and unable to get the attention they need. I plan to give as much time to them as an FNP as possible after distinguishing myself as a nursing student who is extremely sensitive and capable of creative ideas concerning some of our most vulnerable underserved populations in the USA.
My long-term goal is to open a mental health clinic in Guyana. One of my inspirations for this is the high suicide rate in my land of origin. After gaining several years of additional experience as an FNP, I hope at some point also to continue my education in either gerontology or mental health. Ten years from now, I see myself doing research on how to best care for underserved populations, especially those with mental illnesses.
One issue that receives a lot of attention in our communities in Connecticut that are of color is the prevalence of gun violence. I look forward to engaging with this issue in years to come. I am concerned as a nurse with the threat to public safety posed by firearms in our community, from various angles, from gun safety to coping skills for victims. As a college student, I volunteered at our Community Day events to raise awareness about gun violence in our community and the role that healthcare professionals can play in education and prevention.
I take pride in myself as a kind woman who finds profound joy in caring for and serving as an advocate for my patients. Having grown up in a country with a very primitive health care system, I am genuinely passionate about promoting health education and services to marginalized communities.
Thank you for considering my application to your FNP Program at XXXX.