College Admissions Essay: A Career As A Nurse

I am Amanda Selich, 27 years old, and have been living in San Francisco for roughly 10 years. I grew up in the East Bay with my 3 siblings and was raised by a single father. Much of my childhood was spent taking care of my younger siblings. This responsibility was so demanding I was forced to drop out of high school and become their “surrogate mother”. However at the age of 24 I was able to get my GED and finally attend college. In fact this past May I graduated from City College of San Francisco with highest honors in Science and Math.

As of 2008, there were about 753,600 Licensed Practical Nurses and 2,618,700 Registered Nurses in the United States (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010-11). In the year 2018, the LPN employment percentage is expected to rise 21% while the RN rate should be approximately 22% (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010-11). This may not seem that high, but it is, when one considers that the expected employment rate for a Dentist is only expected to be 16% (U.S Department of Labor, 2010-11). Nursing is a highly respected and sought after career because every person that enters this profession is able to make a difference and is needed by the general population for his/her skills and contributions to the medical field. When a person is contemplating entering

I choose nursing as my future career because I enjoy working with others, helping others feel better, and educating people. These three topics are all involved in what nursing is. I believe that nursing is focused on the holistic care of individuals and their families in order to achieve and maintain an optimal level of health, a great quality of life, and comfort. This is done through the promoting healthy living, providing a safe environment, preventing illness, and the caring for the individual and the family.

My Career Path When you were a kid, did you ever wonder what you wanted to be when you grew up? I didn’t think about it very much, but when I did think about it I had no clue what I wanted to be. When I got into 7th or 8th I started thinking that I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up, but I still didn’t know what kind of nurse. I knew there were many different types of nurses, but didn’t know exactly what they did.

Becoming a nurse has been my career goal for as long as I can remember. From the time I was old enough, I have had jobs ranging from food service and bagging groceries at the local market, to sales. All of these things provided monetary value to me, but none fulfilled my life enough to choose that as a career path. I have always wanted to have a profession that allows me to help and serve others and my present position as a Certified Nursing Assistant has shown me that becoming a nurse would allow me to do that.

My desire to pursue a nursing career stems from a deeply rooted love for the medical field. As a child, I was fascinated with the healthcare setting, so I set my heart on a path towards the field of medicine. Growing up, my mom worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant at a local nursing home. I remember going to work with her at the age of eight for bring your child to work day. I instantly fell in love with caring for others who were unable to do for themselves. I have always been a kind and compassionate person willing to give my last to make sure others do not have to go without. The satisfaction I felt from being able to brighten my mother’s patient’s day just by offering a helping hand was irreplaceable. From that moment on I knew the medical field was home for me.

Throughout our lives, we will encounter different people that will leave imprints in our career. Some of them will lift you up and some will bring you down. The person that I am sharing with you is someone that inspired me to forgo my pursue of my Master’s degree. The reason I picked this person is because she isn’t only a mentor, but someone that I look up to and rely on when I have questions. As a young registered nurse, we need someone to lean on especially when working the night shifts. Resources are scarce at night, and having someone who has the wisdom to teach us the policies that our hospital have, someone who’s there to give us a hand when the going gets tough, that’s what she has been to me.

I remember at a young age telling my mother that I wanted to be a nurse just like her, she told me to choose a different path. Her response surprised me but did not stop me from pursuing my dream. I am passionate about being a nurse and what that role means. With recent frustrations with others in this profession I finally understood why my mother told me to choose a different path. I have always believed that being a nurse is an honor, that we are the voice of not only our patients but the communities they come from. When you continually work by those who do not share those beliefs and values it can break you. A nurse that truly cares and understands how

Nursing is the career I want to pursue, not because it pays well or because its easy, but because no matter if you clock out at the end of your shift, you're still a nurse. You could be on your way home and witness a crash. As soon as you get your degree you become a nurse that never gets to really leave her job. Thats why you can't be going into nursing just because of the pay or just because your friends are. Its a calling, only a nurse can take pride in giving someone a bed bath. Nurses are blessings, they are the first person a baby sees when it opens its eyes after birth, and the last person most people see before they die. Thats the beauty of nursing, to be able to see life the way no one else can, and if that isn't the best gift there

There are a few events in my life that have influenced me to become a nurse, but just one that has given me the calling to further my degree. As first an LPN or Licensed Practical Nurse then as an RN or Registered Nurse, I have overcome a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in the path of obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in the field of Nursing. Less than six weeks after taking the State Board Exam to complete my LPN Certificate, I gave birth to my second daughter Layla. She and I both developed infections as a result of an extended labor process. I went home after three days in the hospital; Layla spent a week in the NICU. During that time my husband and I took turns staying with our baby girl from very early in the morning to very late at night.

Nursing, for me, is not just a profession. It is my passion. I took up nursing because I want to take care of sick people. I want to be able to help them get better.

Being a nurse is a very important and compensation profession. Nurses care for people through dying, pain, grieving, pain, injury and health. Nurse’s care is just not help through all this they also prevent disease, promote health and educate the patient. That’s why I want to become a nurse, this is the professional where I can help the patient who is in pain and support them through out the pain. Since, I was little kid I always wanted to become a doctor or nurse. I am always their who needs help, I love helping people who needs help. Soon as I turned 14 years old, I started volunteering at Riverside Methodist hospital so I can be familiar with the health care field. I do know that becoming a nurse means I have to have to be open,

The career i chose is nursing because since i was a little girl i have always loved taking care of people and learning about the human anatomy. Both my parents believe that me being a registered nurse will most suit me in the future. “Being a registered nurse provides coordinate patient care, educate patients and the public about various health conditions, and provide advice and emotional support to patients and their family members” (“Summary”). This means i will be caring for patients all around the clock at many different hours of the day.

To pursue a career in nursing would mean entering a career that will test you both emotionally and physically. The job demands your heart and will question your sense of ethics between right/wrong but the endless rewards you can reap from this field makes every sacrifice worthwhile. When I was an inexperienced nurse starting off, I was caught off guard with the impact of change I was able to bring to my patients. While only being limited to the inpatient setting, those 12 hour shifts became a time to not only help improve my patients’s acute medical issues but to educate about lifestyle changes, learn about their life stories, and provide opportunities for the promotion of health.

Why do I want to be a nurse? If you were to ask me that same question years ago, I would’ve given you a funny look and tried to persuade you that all nurses are girls, and if a guy is a nurse he’s potentially gay. However as a kid, I was always caring and compassionate, people would tell me that I should be a nurse because not just because I was always very caring and compassionate but also because, I’m patient, kindhearted, I’m dependable, and I know how to work as a team. For so long I would continually renounce any suggestion of becoming a nurse.