What Motivates You to Pursue Nursing As a Profession, Admission Essay Example

Through experiences in my life I have learned that I can make a real difference in the lives of other people.  As a health care professional, I will be able to touch human lives in such a close and intimate way, that no other career can offer. Whether I will be able to help a cancer patient to fight for his life, or put a bandage on a child’s hand.  I like to overcome challenges, and I want to gain more knowledge about life, the human body and diseases. I seek a career where my companionate and caring personality together with my thirst for knowledge will be well satisfied. I believe that I can thrive in such physically, mentally and emotionally intense environment. In addition, I would like to be a role model to my children as a caring leader, a team player, and a knowledgeable friend towards my patients.

Even since I was a child, I like dissecting frogs or worms. I was amused with the way the heat or the intestines looked like. I enjoyed separating the muscles and bones of their ligaments. My relatives would occasionally make a comment that I would become a great surgeon.  I think such comments initiated my love for biology, chemistry and medicine.  In my early adolescence, I had my firsthand experience dealing with hospital environment.  After spending several months in a hospital as a patient, I clearly defined a goal for myself: to become a physician. I felt that I would be a good doctor because of my experience as a patient. Ever since that experience, I find myself being able to empathize with sick people. I feel for them, I can be alongside of them as they go through their own emotions. I try to put myself in their shoes, and to respond with compassion and care.

Working as an instructor assistant with handicap children assumes a degree of difficulty and unpredictability. On day at The Stepping Stones (after school training facility for handicap children), Brien, a 10-year-old handicap student, vomited all over himself. To my surprise, two other instructors, who were more experienced and superior then me, were paralyzed with this scene and showed a clear sign of disgust on their faces. I felt really sorry and compassionate to this hopeless child. Seeing their hesitation, I was compelled to act and help Brien. I immediately took him to a bathroom, washed him and gave him my extra t-shirt. I still remember Brien’s big smile after when everything was over. The next day, I received even more satisfaction and pleasure from helping others, when Brien’s mother personally thanked me and brought me my washed t-shit. I was happy to know that I made a small difference in this child’s life as well as his family.

My thirst for knowledge leaded me to pursue a graduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology at SFSU, and later to accept a research assistant position at the UCSF Cancer Research Institute. In addition to my extensive and demanding course work in genetics, biochemistry, cell biology and cancer, I worked days and nights on my research as well as helping other postgraduate PhDs. I felt that I had a bottomless pit for knowledge and skills. My research work focused on the role of oncogenes and tumor suppressors in the aberrant proliferation of pancreatic cancer and melanoma. There was an oncology department at the Mountain Zion Hospital, which was the building next to us; therefore, I interacted quite often with cancer patients, doctors and nurses. Since some of my experiments could take weeks and even months, it was critical for me to apply my scientific rationale and judgment every step of the way. I kept a detailed log of all my calculations, procedures, theories and results. Therefore, months later, I could justify, modify, or even discard my experiments, theories and conclusions. I developed the ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules and conclusions. I could see relationship among seemingly unrelated events or objects. Thus, after deriving a specific rule, I arranged things or actions in a certain order or pattern.

Realizing my leadership and organizational abilities, one of my colleagues advised me to pursue a business career part time. My fragile beginnings leaded me to establishing a land development partnership, and later culminating in the founding an equity trading company. During my business career I learn to make critical decisions, which can profoundly affect me and others. Very often I had to deeply analyze and calculate certain things and quickly make a decision. I conquered much of my fear of making mistakes and decisions. I traded stocks, options, foreign currencies as well as real estate. The nature of this business greatly improved my stress tolerance, self-control, judgment under stressful conditions, interpersonal communicational skills, time management, resourcefulness and the ability to see the end result. I also have a realistic view of my own strong points and limitations. After carefully weighting all my options, I choose to prioritize all required tasks. I prefer not to overload myself to the degree of failing to accomplish anything or simply being negligent. After accomplishing important things, then I can work on something else, including improving my skills and knowledge. I believe that all these skills will help me to thrive in the accelerated academic environment of the ABSN program, as well as they will be a valuable asset in my health care career.

In every chosen career in the past, I wanted to impact the world around me. Even though, some of my endeavors were quite ambitious, they all were intended on improving other’s people lives. Whether it was my pancreatic cancer research, kitchen remodeling, assisting handicapped children, developing affordable housing, hospital intern, or even as a co-owner of an equity trading company. Someone might ask me,” why nursing, there are other ways of helping others?” I successfully helped others in many different ways, providing excellent customer satisfaction while working as a contractor, managing a lab, working with children and adolescents, counseling much older people, managing my own employees. However, again and again my love towards medicine has surfaced in my mind and heart.  It seems that I cannot let go my first love for medicine that I met in my early teenage years. I have come a full circle, I am here where I first started-trying to pursue a healthcare career. This time though, I intend not only to achieve but excel in it. Eventually, I would like to receive a master’s degree in nursing. One of my greatest compliments I have received was from my partner, who was also a physician. “During our business together, I got disappointed in everybody, but not you, Andrew”, he said. As a nurse I want to hold high my personal values such as integrity, compassion, and thirst for knowledge.