Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Period 7
Mrs. Cramer
College Application Essay
Nursing
When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of becoming a doctor. I wanted to be seen as a
woman with intelligence and not just as a “pretty nurse that couldn’t pass medical school”. As I
grew older, I realized that I did not want to be a doctor at all; I wanted to be a nurse. Being a
nurse is so much more than the salary and daily vital signs you take; its working long hours
comforting a struggling patient and their family, its doing everything you possibly can to ease a
drug addicted baby, but not being to stop the horrid screams, and it's also losing some of your
most precious patients and still having to get up the next day and do it all over again.
Wanting to be a nurse began when I spent a lot of time with my grandma at the doctors,
the nurses would always make sure she was comfortable with what was going on and they also
helped me understand the confusing medical procedures. Nursing for me is about compassion
and empathy and wanting to do everything in your power to help someone no matter how big or
small the problem is. Not everyone is cut out to be a nurse, you have to be strong yet have a soft
spot, you must be willing to go the extra mile for the patient, but also know when you need to
stop, and its working all throughout the night without a bathroom or lunch break.
Luckily for me there is a program in my high school that allows you to take vocational
classes. The class I took was called Health Occupations, and it basically prepares you for any job
in the medical field. I took the class for the past three years and during my senior year I started
clinicals to help me train to become a CNA. Being a CNA is certainly not the same as being a
Registered Nurse, but it’s the first step. Being a CNA, you are at the bottom of the chain of
command and you spend the most time with patients, making you the most informed about a
patient's conditions and feelings. Its then up to the CNA to notify the nurse if believe there is a
change. Going to clinicals every morning made a big difference in my attitude, I was happy to go
in and make the residents day better by just communicating with them and treating them with
respect. Many of them don’t get to see family members so the CNAs are the closest thing to
family.
The Health Occupations program really helped me develop a set plan for my future career
and calling. Without a program like this I would've been forced to choose a major out of high
school with no guidance or head start. Programs like these are a resourceful tool to help students
earn good paying jobs right out of high school with no degree necessary. With the help of my
grandma and the health occupations class I've chosen what I want to do for the rest of my life to
hopefully spark an interest in a little girl like those nurses did for me.