I am a woman of Puerto Rican ancestry who was born in New York. Since late adolescence, I have been dedicated to my nursing career, completing my BSN and my MSN at XXXX College. Now forty-one, I am a nurse with time to develop a great passion for patients. I strongly feel the importance of providing adequate care to everyone, regardless of their socio-economic background. I am incredibly knowledgeable about and concerned with our geriatric patients. I feel strongly that a wealthy society like ours can afford outstanding nursing care for our elderly patients, irrespective of their ability to pay. I want to devote the balance of my life to this cause.
Ten years from now, I want to teach in a BSN program. I have heard that one never fully learns a subject until one teaches it. I have another academic interest in nurse-nurse relations, especially regarding hostility, what provokes it, and how it is best managed. However, I want to dedicate my professional life to investigating how to improve patient outcomes, especially for indigent geriatric patients or families with scarce resources. Even though I was born in America, I have retained my Spanish as part of my family tradition, and I especially prize my opportunities to use it on the job. Nurse-patient communication should occur in the language patients know best. I am pleased that there is a great demand for bilingual Spanish-speaking nurses.
I have over ten years of nursing experience in our hospital’s Progressive Care Unit, working primarily with patients on telemetry and mechanical ventilators. I am a charge nurse on a 25-bed step-down unit serving many cardiac patients. I perform clinical nursing assessments, develop, and implement nursing care plans, and provide cardiac monitoring, ventilator monitoring, and weaning protocols. I educate patients and their families and assist with discharge planning. I also provide orientation for new nursing staff. Before this position, I spent three years providing nursing care throughout Westchester County and the North Bronx. I performed assessments, administered medications, cared for wounds, changed dressings, etc. I especially enjoyed my collaboration with multidisciplinary teams in developing comprehensive care plans. I enjoyed providing emotional support and respite care to families in this position.
In my free time, I often volunteer in a hospital setting. Most prominently, I have devoted countless hours to Heart-to-Heart Seminar, doing blood pressure screenings, Safety Fairs, Flu administration, and infection control education for the community in both English and Spanish; I move around in volunteer circles because I see this as an essential aspect of a professional nurse that looks forward to fulfilling a leadership position in her field, especially if I am admitted to your distinguished program so that I will have an education in nursing that is among the finest. I take special pride in my contribution as a Puerto Rican woman to celebrating diversity in the medical community.
The most significant contribution I could make to society would be to help expand our nursing knowledge base through research and education to diminish health disparities in the community. My dedication, hard work, and strong will to succeed will help me excel in your program. I am convinced that your distinguished faculty will allow me to realize my dream. I would consider it a special honor and privilege to have the opportunity to pursue my education at XXXX.
Thank you for considering my application.