Nursing school entrance essay

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · Aug 11, 2013

I am a fan of telling anecdotes. Makes the essay more relatable

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · Aug 11, 2013

Duplicated

phuretrotr · Aug 11, 2013

From what I have heard, to make a competitive essay, is to just follow the basics but show the school who you are too.

- Stick to the word limit, 200-500 words in your case. It is a simple task and request.

- Include all parts of what they are asking for in the essay, in equal amounts. In your case, professional nursing goals, your definition of nursing, and career opportunities. I would say make each their own paragraph so it is easily noted when you are changing subjects. Remember, a paragraph is 5-8 sentences.

- Keep personal stories to a minimum. It is nice to hear that you loved your L&D nurse, and s/he is the one that inspired you to pursue nursing for yourself, but writing about your 19-hour long birth of your son and every tidbit the nurse did for you is unnecessary.

- Put yourself in the essay. You do not have to use big words and don't use clichés. This is your essay, and should show what you can do and what you know about yourself. No one wants to read a thesaurus or a quote snagged from the internet after searching for 5 minutes.

- Lastly, show who you are and what you will do. This is kind of like the last point but instead, are you a dedicated, empathetic, role-model or are you a get-by any way how, out-for-yourself, follower? You want to make who ever is reading your essay understand that you want this opportunity most and are ready for everything nursing has to throw at you. You are going to go great lengths, sacrificing wants, to achieve success in nursing school. You will not let anything stand in the way of your nursing books and you. You will protect your patients and provide safe care. Your footsteps will be the ones, who others want to follow in, in order to achieve your success.

Convey these points in 500 words and you got yourself a best-seller. :)

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 11, 2013

As to your personal nursing goals... think about what kind of nurse you want to be is not the same as tell us where you want to work. If you really want to convince them you have gone to the trouble of finding out more about nursing before you start (a very endearing characteristic in a nursing student), take a half an hour to read this and think about what feels best for you (so far):

Introduction to nursing theories

nlynrob · Aug 11, 2013

I transferred in to a BSN program last fall an had to write basically the same essay. I went to the nursing department homepage for each school and read everything. They had written what they expect from their students and a mission statement. Reading the mission statements helped me focus my essay for each particular school and tailor it towards them as they were all a little bit different. For the definition of nursing I looked through the ANA's website for some ideas on how to word my essay, which turned out to be a good idea because they put a LOT of emphasis on the ANA in Foundations of Nursing so in guessing they liked that in my essay :)

flyersfan88 · Aug 11, 2013

I stayed away from telling them the typical and overdone "I love helping people!!!!1" response as to why I wanted to become a nurse. I used an anecdote, and talked about my goals to change things in the field I wanted to go into. Make it heartfelt. They know you want to help people, so it doesn't really need to be reiterated.

WoundedBird · Aug 11, 2013

I laid out my ultimate career goal (flight nurse) and said that I also know that one clinical experience can change my goals and that I would always keep my mind open to all aspects of nursing and not pigeon hole myself into one speciality from the start of my education.