autobiography, nursing program PLEASE HELP!

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Hello everyone,

I just joined this site and I was wondering if anyone out there could shoot me a few ideas over! I am trying to get into the nursing program at my college. One of the requirements to the application is a 5 page handwritten autobiography. I haven't really had that interesting of a life. I mean what are they looking for? What high points should I aim for? Do I talk about why I want to be a nurse or why I would make a good nurse? Or just stick strickly with an autobiography from the time I was a child until now.. which would pretty much go like this... i went to kindergarden at a catholic school and kids were mean and made fun of me cause i was fat. i had an alcoholic father but a mother who was supportive and always there for me.. i contemplated suicide in 5th grade and left catholic school for public.. they weren't nice there either and pushed me down bleachers and called me names... from 7th to 8th grade i lost 120lbs and all the people that were mean suddenly wanted to be my friends... my father is still an alcoholic and ignores me... i tutor kids for an A+ scholarship.. get sick with a renal abcess and can't move around for 2months and gain 50 pounds back.. now i'm in school trying to get into the nursing program and my mom has dementia and my father is still an alcoholic?

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Exactly! I had something similar for my entrance to nursing school. What they want is pretty much what you listed here but how did you handle it and how did it change the person you became and how do these experiences tie into the type of nurse you will become.

They are not looking for a Hollywood life but someone who is real and can relate to other real people. They are looking for students who will not look down on a patient who is an alcoholic or overweight or has other issues.

You must present yourself that while you have had these experiences, they have made you a stronger person (from what I picked up out of your post) and shaped your desire to help others as being a nurse.

Good luck.

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Specializes in CC, MS, ED, Clinical Research.

No way! Do not put a label on your head by describing yourself as suicidal. Family histories are full of alcholics and depression (ie passing from one generation to the next) which will put a question mark over you.

Describe your normal life and maybe one big obstacle you've overcome. Tie the obstacle to your desire to become a nurse and how it will help you relate to others in the same situation. Relate how the obstacle has made you health conscious etc. Go straight to the heart of why nursing is for you and why you're choosing their program.

If grades and test scores are equal this report can make the difference. Write it from the heart, write with optimism, and write to get in the program. Good Luck.

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:smackingf Leave out the major drama (all families have it). Include what would make someone want you in a program. What events have POSITIVELY effected you? What makes you a better candidate than someone with the same basic qualifications?

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Specializes in none.

I would leave in some of the drama but avoid words like 'suicide' and the 'kids picked on me'. That sounds too much like a martyr. Say in stead "I had a lot of bumps and bruises in life so I can relate to the mental and physical pain of people better than most. I can give them the empathic help they need." Play up loosing all that weight. Then you go on to tell your problems and how you overcame or coped with them. Show them your one strong person. Go get 'em, Kid

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Specializes in Med/Surg/ICU (esp r/t mass cash event).

Remember that this isn't a school project. What they are looking for is to know what kind of person you are and what kind of nurse you will be. YOUR objective is to be admitted into nursing school. Both require professionalism and a sort of self-editing. Think about your thoughts on "helping people," being of service, interest in nursing science, your love of academia (for this purpose, you love school :). Tell them the truth, woven to create a story that answers the question, "Why would *I* make the best candidate for your nursing school?" not 'Here's my whole life regurgitated in 7 pages.' Good luck!

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