Walter Wall

I am grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson NCIN foundation for awarding me with a scholarship to attend nursing school.  The confidence that the foundation has in me will only reinforce my commitment to becoming a nurse.  During this past year of taking prerequisite classes—anatomy, physiology, statistics, etc.—I have developed a new respect for the mental discipline required to become a nurse.  It requires hard work and many hours of studying the complex intricacies of the human body and mind.  I am attracted to nursing because of its dual perspective of attending to the needs of both the body and the spirit.

I believe that nursing plays an important role in society in helping to assure a necessary balance between illness, health maintenance, and health education.   The conventional role of the nurse is to provide patient care, but that role extends far beyond the institutionalized health-care setting.  Nurses attend to clients in the home, but they also devote themselves to underserved populations in remote rural communities.  Nurses care for the poor in public health clinics, but they also work in private hospitals.  Some nurses work in war zones and are universal ambassadors of peace.   I believe that a nurse, like a teacher, is entrusted by the public to become actively engaged in the environmental, physical, mental, and emotional care of others.  In short, nursing is extremely diverse, but the central concern of the profession is human caring.

I am confident that my experiences as a classroom teacher have provided me with a set of skills that will enhance my role as a nurse.  Just as a student’s learning is the top priority of a teacher, so should the patient’s continuity of care be the primary focus of the nurse.  Like a teacher, the effective nurse must be observant, nonjudgmental, and emotionally stable.   Communication is an essential skill and the nurse must know how to listen.  Above all, one must have empathy for the patient as a person.

I realize that nursing can sometimes be a very stressful job and I have demonstrated through my success as a classroom teacher that I work well under stress.  Colleagues, students and friends typically comment that I am able to maintain an even and level-headed approach in stressful situations.  I have also demonstrated as a teacher and student that I am responsible and know how to manage time effectively.  Above all, I have demonstrated in my personal and professional life that I have the desire to help others and to make a contribution.  It is for these reasons that I wish to become a nurse.