How to Write a Nursing School Personal Statement in 7 Steps

If you are going to enter a nursing school, get ready for the application process. What does it include? Apart from the transcripts, test results, and letters of recommendation, it is necessary to submit a nursing school personal statement. This type of essay does not come down to your personal story. The personal statement is meant to demonstrate your unique qualities which make you the right candidate to join a nursing program. And for many applicants, it is a real challenge to present this kind of paper in a proper way. 

The admission process is pretty competitive in most nursing schools. Thus, the personal statement helps to select only the best candidates who can contribute to the nursing field. That is why you need to make it stand out. Some institutions provide candidates with specific prompts to include in your essay. Whereas, others require a general personal statement that means you can choose a topic yourself. However, these two types of personal statements are similar in many ways. They are written to specific nursing programs and basically correspond to the same criteria. But they also can vary in length, structure, and formatting. Anyway, in your personal statement, you should prove your ability and desire to become a promising nurse capable to take care of people. The admissions committee does not check your flow of thought but if you have the mindset appropriate for nursing.

How to write a personal statement for a nursing school? This is the first question each applicant asks. So, let’s look into it in detail!

What to Include in a Nursing School Personal Statement

Forbearing from retelling your life in this type of essay, you should still integrate some personal components into it. In the personal statement for a nursing school, it is important to highlight your devotion to this profession and preparedness to enter it. There are a great many things to include in the personal statement, but not all of them will be relevant to you. Although, here is a list of issues the admissions committee expect to see in a good essay:

• Education and qualifications

A successful candidate should have the appropriate background. Specific classes you attended, scores, certificates, and training can demonstrate your skills and devotion. If you read some books or guidelines on nursing disciplines you can also mention it.

• Work experience

If you had a relevant experience related to the nursing field it is necessary to highlight it. That tells much about you as a professional and can turn out to be a reason to consider your application. You can also ask your employer for a letter of recommendation.

• Nursing skills

There is a long list of skills relevant to nursing. They include, for example, some general categories like the ability to manage stress, effective team-working, time-management, and so on. More specific skills like speaking a foreign language are also appreciated.

• Volunteer experience

If you worked as a volunteer, make sure to include it in your personal statement. That will make your essay stand out. The admissions committee pays close attention to this kind of experience. It indicates your intentions, so let your actions speak for you.

• Motivation

What inspired you to become a nurse? This is a story that is worth telling in a personal statement. To make your essay a success, integrate some examples from your life. It will be quite convincing for the admissions committee.

• Professional goals

Your career objectives may tell much about your incentives and show what kind of person you are going to become. For some nursing programs, it is an obligatory requirement. 

Besides, many institutions require discussing a practical issue that has an impact on healthcare. You can also explain how a degree in nursing will help you achieve your objectives.

How to Write a Personal Statement

Even if you did the preliminary research on a topic of your personal statement, that may be not enough to produce a final version of the essay. Take a deep breath and prepare for the diligent work on your paper. 

First of all, pay attention to the primary criteria of a personal statement for a particular nursing program. Quite often it is necessary to reflect your interest in a particular nursing field and relate it to your experience. Thus, you need to observe the information about a specific program on the website and answer the question if your goals are a fit for it. Some institutions require addressing the relevant practice related to the specialty. So make sure to reflect this experience in the personal statement.

Strong arguments on why you are passionate about the profession will help to power up your essay. So, it is recommended to prepare a list of reasons that make you the right candidate. Criteria for the length and formatting of a personal statement may vary in different institutions. But overall it is quite a brief format. So make sure to include your accomplishments, interests, skills, and potential contribution to the field without overwhelming your paper with unnecessary details. The main purpose of a personal statement is to provide the admissions committee with information that was not covered in other parts of your application. Thus, to make the process of writing easier, follow these steps:

Step 1: Look through the criteria carefully

Some institutions provide applicants with detailed prompts or lists of criteria for a personal statement. It is necessary to observe them and note all the crucial moments. You can write them down or print them out to check the requirements while writing. If the personal statement has any limits on length or a certain number of characters, pay attention to whether they include or exclude spaces.

Step 2: Work out the ideas for your essay

Employ some brainstorming techniques to work out good ideas for your personal statement. This stage does not imply organizing them into the draft. Far more important is to shape and summarize your insights which serve the purpose of your essay and make it stand out. You may write down some sentences to select those which fit the outline best.

Step 3: Produce the draft

When you have some interesting ideas for your personal statement, it comes to organizing them into the first draft. Overall, making drafts is quite a necessary skill. It helps to reduce stress and overcome anxiety while writing an academic paper. The draft implies you can make changes. Even if it is comprehensive enough, there is always some space for self-critique. Anyway, at this stage, you need to work out the outline including all necessary sections in it, and sorting your ideas between them.

Step 4: Begin by writing separate paragraphs

To start writing is basically the most difficult part of any academic work. So, it is not obligatory to begin by writing an introduction. Instead, develop those sections you feel comfortable with. Even if you have a draft, some valuable insights could slip through your fingers. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with a powerful introduction. Do not waste your time, pass to writing what you know. It might give you inspiration for the rest of your paper.

Step 5: Aim for the quality of content

Sentence structure, grammar, and spelling matter. But they are not these issues you should prioritize while writing a personal statement for nursing school. Instead, pay close attention to developing core ideas, addressing the prompt, and properly organizing the information. Work on the quality of the content as much as you can. Leave fixing grammar and proofreading for the stage of revision.

Step 6: Revise your paper

That is time to polish your nursing school personal statement, fixing grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, removing all errors and unnecessary details. Take into account that sometimes it is not enough to revise your paper once. Experts recommend undertaking three rounds of revisions. Though, putting the paper aside for a day or two might help with editing. 

First of all, fix grammar and sentence structure, removing errors. Secondly, get rid of needless details: they might matter for you being irrelevant for your essay. Thirdly, check if your personal statement meets the criteria. You can have more than three rounds of revisions, it is up to you.

Step 7: Review your personal statement with a tutor

You should not neglect to proofread. So, turning to a writing center or a professional custom writing service could be really helpful. A tutor will provide you with some valuable insights into your personal statement. Then you might make some marks to refine your essay before submitting it. If you do not have access to the writing center, you can ask your peers or friends to review your essay to get unbiased feedback.

Conclusion

Becoming a professional nurse is a long way full of challenges. And the personal statement for a nursing school is the first step to enter a profession. To make it a success it is highly important to cut through the clutter. Remember, the nursing program you are applying for should help to reach your long term goals. That is why it is necessary to reflect on why you are the right candidate for it.

The earlier you start to work on the personal statement, the better result you can expect. The proper research on the subject and the prompt can also turn out to be the ace in the hole. Your background, career objectives, and intentions should serve the purpose of your essay. However, sometimes it is quite difficult to concentrate on the paper and produce a winning one. Especially if you apply for several nursing programs. Anyway, you can turn to the professional custom writing service, for example, Get Nursing Essay, where a lot of grounded specialists with relevant degrees are out to help you.