In April 2006 I decided I to drop out of high school to escape from a troubled home and inner-city neighborhood. All I sought was a safe environment, to learn a trade, and I planned even before quitting school to get my GED as soon as possible and go to college. Soon, I enrolled in a government-funded program called Job Corps, passed my GED, and became a Certified Nurse’s Assistant which set me on the path of advancement as a healthcare worker.
My first job was at a nursing home caring for geriatric patients. I enjoyed listening to their stories and worldly wisdom about life. At that time, I began taking classes at ____ Community College. One day I came across a flyer on a bulletin board detailing a program that allowed students interested in careers in medicine to study tropical medicine for 2 weeks in Iquitos, Peru. While listening to the presentation, I grew increasingly excited as I began to sense that this adventure would provide me with solid direction for progress in nursing, especially helping the underserved. Afterwards, I stayed around and waited so that I could speak with the event organizer and presenter. He handed me an application and said, “We’d love to have you join us this December.” When December rolled around, I was on a plane headed for the jungles of Peru. I was excited by the fact that I was flying into a zone where I could be exposed to diseases such as Dengue fever, malaria, and a host of other ailments rarely if ever encountered in the USA. I came back to the states with a renewed sense of purpose.
XXXX University’s Online PMHNP Program is the right choice for me because of the thoroughgoing, rigorous nature of your program and the way in which it combines online learning with brief but intensive immersion experiences on campus. My principal professional dream, which reflects my vision and philosophy concerning what it means to be a nurse practitioner is to become highly competent at the assessment, examination, and diagnosis of patients—in addition to the development and implementation of treatment plans and caring for the physical, psychological, and spiritual welfare of each and every patient to the fullest extent of one’s ability. In my case, what I have found to be most rewarding and the area in which I plan to develop a lifelong specialization—eventually hoping to publish in this area—is geriatric patients with mental health issues.
I look forward to enjoying a variety of professional experiences after completing your program at XXXX. In addition to spending several more decades serving in hospitals, I also look forward to working in a private practice of psychiatric health clinicians where I will be able to learn as much as possible about the broad gambit of mental health conditions and what works best as a treatment and why, especially for the underserved. I look forward to building a research base and writing projects, beginning in your program, focused on the mental health issues that most commonly affect older African Americans of and the special needs this population has. Pursing this subject would allow me to excel as a nurse as well as a patient advocate, honoring my suffering people since I am myself African American. Mostly raised by my grandparents, I find myself particularly attracted to older African American patients because they remind me of my grandparents. At some point, I would like very much to earn a doctoral degree in nursing and become a nurse educator as well as continuing to practice. The program that I most admire and plan to apply to once I earn an advance degree is the XXXX Center for Brain Health at the XXXX clinic in XXXX.
Six months into nursing school I received a call from my 70-year-old mentor who I had known since age 15. He had fallen on the floor in his home and could not get off the floor. He asked me to move into his home to care for him during the last year of his life. I did so; and I learned to manage type II insulin dependent diabetes, gout, and congestive heart failure. This lasted from December 2014 to February 2015. I currently work as a charge nurse at a 94-bed psychiatric hospital working in the geriatric ward, psychiatric intensive care, and our chemical dependence unit. I intend to study part time so that I can continue to gain experience as a nurse.
I plan to become a board certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner specializing in geriatric mental health issues and actively engaged in the service of underserved and/or indigent patients. America needs Black men - as inclusive role models - to choose the role of mental health services provider in our community, especially for those individuals that are in need and unable to pay for those services.
I have proven that I am a survivor growing up in a single mother household and raised by a mother with chronic mental health issues. I learned how to deal with my circumstances, stay out of trouble, and channel my energies constantly into positive things. The brief time I spent in Peru allowed me to pick up conversational Spanish and I continue to improve my Spanish daily. It is important for African American nurses to make this special effort to learn Spanish since it is the language of so many of the underserved in America and I especially enjoy any opportunity to use my Spanish as a nurse.
Thank you for considering my application.
PMHNP Psychiatric and Mental Health Masters