Help with Vanderbilt MSN Essay Question

Nursing Students NP Students

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I am working on my MSN application for the Vanderbilt ENP program. I have written my statement of purpose and am trying to tackle the short essay questions. I am having some minor difficulty interpreting exactly what kind of answer to provide on two of them.

1. What is your concept of nursing? Why do you want to become an advanced practice nurse?

I can answer the why part quite easily. But I am not sure I understand "concept of nursing" portion. Is this something specific? I have asked Dr. Google, but I am not finding anything specific or consistent. I understand nursing concepts in terms of educational objectives and I am familiar with the different scholarly theories and models of nursing. Neither of those seems right.

Is this just another way of asking, "What does nursing mean to you?" Or is there something more specific I am missing?

2. What is your understanding of the advanced practice role in your selected specialty?

Are they asking if I know what emergency nurse practitioners do? Should I just describe the ENP role and cite some sources? Or does it seem like they are they looking for personal experience based opinion?

The prompts seem very short and I don't want my application put aside because I didn't provide the desired information. Any additional insights or opinions are much appreciated.

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