The University of XXXX is my first choice for graduate study in preparation for becoming a CRNA most of all because of your simply outstanding reputation on a global level. I crave the sheer academic rigor of one of the world’s finest Nurse Anesthesia programs, the prestige earned through a lot of devotion and hard work. I appreciate the vast intellectuality of research taking place at Penn and the global nature of the research interests of the faculty, setting an excellent example for students as model of lifelong learning geared towards the progressive advancement of society worldwide through enhanced nursing care. I am attracted to the clubs and organizations at Penn and all of my friends and colleagues say only extremely good things about the CRNA Program at Penn. Finally, by coincidence, your location is excellent, only 45 minutes away from where I live with the full support of family, friends, colleagues and community.
I have been a nurse since 2012 and have worked in a variety of settings, including critical care and a Post Cardiac Catheration Unit as well as home health nursing. Since April of 2014, I have been serving as a Critical Care Nurse in our Surgical ICU at XXXX Hospital Center. Especially since my arrival in our ICU, I have paid close attention to the CRNAs, observing their every move insofar as I had the opportunity to do so. I very much love the vast diversity – people, cases, treatments – found in our ICU. Now, after more than two years, it pleases me greatly to have fully mastered much of the technology, monitors and other devices, especially mechanical ventilation. I greatly admire how our CRNAs manage their patients comprehensively from hemodynamic adjustments to airway support and I also crave the heightened responsibility and autonomy of the CRNA, performing at the highest level of commitment and achievement possible. Nurse Anesthesia also appeals to me because of the broad variety of professional opportunities, including the VA, military, ambulatory surgery centers, trauma centers, obstetrics, and rural areas. I hope to someday start a small clinic in the remote village of India where my parents were born and raised. I thank you for considering my application to your very special Nurse Anesthesia Program at XXXX.
Probably my foremost professional role model and direct inspiration has been my aunt who is a nurse. I grew up listening to her stories from the hospital and her heroism and devotion to her patients inspired me to choose nursing as my own career, in fact, my calling. My aunt once told me that giving everything that you have to a total stranger in their time of need is the greatest feeling on earth. Each day that I serve, following her example, I reaffirm this to be true, sustaining me and driving me forward. My grandmother will also always be with me as a nursing professional. I will always think about her every day, especially my working days, how I cared for her in her own final days when I was 16 years old. I realized through her that every breath of life is a special gift and no one learns this lesson better than someone who nurses a dying patient day and night. At the end of the day, taking care of my grandmother gave me a sense of reward: giving her a bath, feeding her, holding her hands when she was in pain. My sister has also been a great inspiration, one year older than I, she is developmentally challenged. Even though I was the youngest I always took the role of the older sister to protect her and to help her along.
We came to the USA from our native India when I was two. Despite the fact that I was raised in Philadelphia, I have grown up thinking of myself as Indian, and this is reflected in my long term goal of service as a nursing professional – particularly with respect to the underserved. I look forward to spending as much time as possible on medical missions in support of surgical teams in our country of origin, India, where the need for life-saving and enhancing surgery is very great among the medically underserved.
