Dear young Sanaa, remember how you took care of your dolls with nurture, love, and care? That is what a nurse does. As a child, you played with dolls learning how to be empathetic, which means the ability to share feelings. You grew up watching some of your close relatives battle with various debilitating illnesses. The impairing muscle disease Polymyositis besides other ailments you saw your aunt and kin face with poise and joviality shaped the reasons why you want to become a nurse, especially a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Even though one of your young cousins lost his battle with bullying to suicide, you took that tragedy along with others to develop the tenderness and desire to help heal those early in life to promote wholesome healthy practices for living and fostering a sense of freedom and communal equality. Nurses operate in a hospital, a healthcare facility, or an office setting to assist doctors with patients’ healthcare. A nurse is compassionate, hardworking, trustworthy, and ethical. All characteristics which make a great nurse. A nurse who holds these traits can tend to patients with understanding and proficiency along with the medical skills they acquire during college and on the job. Nursing is a rewarding profession that allows the caregiver to form good relationships with their patients contributing to their comfort. This is all that nursing means to you and your reasons for joining the healthcare industry. Dear young Sanaa, your caring nature and professionalism are being put to use in relation to nuturing your CNA clients with the five senses of nursing: a warm touch, a listening ear, a cordial smile, a centralizing smell, and a perceptive need for a compliment which can turn a patient's frown upside down. There's something else you’ll need to know before becoming a nurse. That is ethics and ethical behavior. Ethics is complying with the guidelines of H.I.P.A.A., keeping patient info confidential along with maintaining patient values throughout care. Ethics points to the fair and equal treatment of patients. Ethics refers to nurses avoiding patient harm. Ethical behavior is doing not only what you feel/know is right or wrong but also considering the patient’s point of view. Nurses have respect and dignity for every person they treat. They promote the health and safety of the patient. This goes along with your feelings of ethical values that are essential to healthcare. Nurses are advocates for patients that encounter dilemmas every day which may test their values. Ethical practices give patients the right to decide on their health based on their beliefs. The right to deny medical treatment beneficial to their recovery may conflict with medical suggestions. Ethical behavior causes the nurse to balance patient benefits with patient beliefs. Nurses have enormous responsibility and decision-making conduct that is universal to practicing integrity. The profession you have chosen young Sanaa is noble and essential to serving others with the same loving care you gave your babydolls. Your childhood sculpted your decision to enter an occupation encompassing the care of individuals from the ages, of birth to adolescence. This you practice daily as a student and a CNA Professional. Dear young Sanaa, you are on your way and I am proud of who you’ve become, a Nursing Student, a licensed CNA, and soon a licensed Pediatric Nurse.

I want to pursue a career in the health sciences field of Nursing. I want to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I chose this field because, at a young age, I found myself being good at nurturing the people in my family afflicted with debilitating autoimmune diseases. Especially my fraternal aunt. I watched her deal with her disease Polymyositis with joviality and grace. She refused to allow the muscle crippling disease to ruin her zeal and zest for life. Though she succumbed to the illness at a young age, she made sure to live her life to the fullest. She found joy and happiness in family, friends, and socialites. Those around me besides her that suffered from an illness also made the best of their situations. Thus their plights motivated my decision to become a Nurse. I see myself continuing with my certification as a CNA and becoming a well-rounded Practitioner. I work to assist elders in nursing homes and assisted living to acquire the best care and have a good quality of life. My experiences have given me an understanding of having a career in the medical field. Though the hours of holding down college and work can be grueling, it is worth the reward of assisting others to feel well. I plan to utilize my knowledge in my career to open a practice serving Pediatrics. I believe caring for children will foster wholesome practices for healthy lifestyles that will spill over into adulthood. I am well on my way. I intend to obtain a career that I find rewarding yet challenging which brings unpredictability and complexity. A degree in the STEM field provides just that. It offers critical thinking and innovative expression which allows for creativity. I am artistic and enjoy every opportunity to display my gift. A degree in such an area, like Nursing, gives fuel to success. My career path relates to Nursing because it aids in the understanding of self-care and health. My future endeavors speak to the importance of preventative care. My career plans relate to also doing well academically so that future certifications come with ease. While in Nursing School I hope clinicals will introduce me to different aspects of Pediatrics from birth to adolescence. CNA is an important aspect of my plans because I'm taking care of people and I need to be able to nurture people's minds, bodies, spirits, and souls effectively. I hope to establish a practice that positively affects both children and parents through safe and viable practices providing them with healthy applications and exercises they can apply to all areas of their lives. I want to treat children wholly not just medically. I have cried at the loss of those close to me who surrendered to their sicknesses. I have rejoiced at the births of new lives who have entered my world through family and friends. I want to contribute to that joy by lengthening the lives of those I touch and who touch me with compassion and healing through the degree of Nursing which fosters knowledge and information in such technology. The loss of someone you love can be devastating; but more so when you lose them to suicide. I had to cope with this tragedy at a young age. I lost a close relative to self-infliction when he took his life at the age of twelve. He was relatively small for his age and endured bullying gruesomely both socially and cyber ally because of it. I had to navigate the shock, confusion, and despair along with family and friends to overcome the challenge of healing. I wrestled with the terms of his death and the conflicting emotions I felt for quite some time. I didn't understand how someone who came across as happy-go-lucky could be so distraught silently. I initially was upset when I grew older and more comprehensive of all close to him having missed his intentions as well as his abandoning us. I dealt with the barrage of emotions by allowing myself to feel the pain. I am thankful to my parents for this also. I found myself journaling and drawing to remember the good times and accept the joyous aspects of his life and mine in it. I attribute my parent's efforts to keeping me actively involved in connecting with others through shared interests to a healthy healing process. It also helped that the community rallied together to create an anti-bullying rally honoring him to bring awareness to the problem associated with his demise. Today the county where we are from still promotes organ donation by driving licensure in his memory with a picture of him and how he lives through many with his viable organs which were donated by his family. It's a testament to how good can prevail over evil and how time can heal all wounds.

I want to pursue a career in the health sciences field of Nursing. I want to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I chose this field because, at a young age, I found myself being good at nurturing the people in my family afflicted with debilitating autoimmune diseases. Especially my fraternal aunt. I watched her deal with her disease Polymyositis with joviality and grace. She refused to allow the muscle crippling disease to ruin her zeal and zest for life. Though she succumbed to the illness at a young age, she made sure to live her life to the fullest. She found joy and happiness in family, friends, and socialites. Those around me besides her that suffered from an illness also made the best of their situations. Thus their plights fueled my decision to become a Nurse. I am well on my way to doing so with a certification as a CNA. I work to assist elders in nursing homes and assisted living to acquire the best care and have a good quality of life. My experiences have given me an understanding of having a career in the medical field. Though the hours of holding down college and work can be grueling, it is worth the reward of assisting others to feel well. I plan to utilize my knowledge in my career to open a practice serving Pediatrics. I believe caring for children will foster wholesome practices for healthy lifestyles that will spill over into adulthood. I intend to obtain a career that I find rewarding yet challenging which brings unpredictability and complexity. My career path relates to Nursing because it aids in the understanding of self-care and health. My future endeavors speak to the importance of preventative care. My career plans relate to also doing well academically so that future certifications come with ease. While in Nursing School I hope clinicals will introduce me to different aspects of Pediatrics from birth to adolescence. CNA is an important aspect of my plans because I'm taking care of people and I need to be able to nurture people's minds, bodies, spirits, and souls effectively. I hope to establish a practice that positively affects both children and parents through safe and viable practices providing them with healthy applications and exercises they can apply to all areas of their lives. I want to treat children wholly not just medically. I have cried at the loss of those close to me who surrendered to their sicknesses. I have rejoiced at the births of new lives who have entered my world through family and friends. I want to contribute to that joy by lengthening the lives of those I touch and who touch me with compassion and healing.

Free tuition is almost unheard of in the US. Most students continuing education accrue mountains of debt doing so. I have been working diligently since high school to address my college education costs. Fortunately for me, I have acquired scholarships and grants that have tremendously assisted with my higher education journey financially. My job as a CNA also permits me to eliminate some of the burden of student debt, as well as my family. I continue to address student debt by continually working hard to attain good grades which places me in good standing to apply for scholarships and grants. I also maintain employment to aid in miscellaneous finances related to my education. In the future, maybe America will adopt practices like other countries to offer the tuition-free college. More students may enter colleges or universities if they were able to financially. Making choices to better yourself should not be dependent upon social or financial status. Students should be able to attend schools of their choosing and not based on unreachable criteria like costs. Low income should not be a basis for not receiving a quality education. The old quote that a mind is a terrible thing to waste rings true. Economic backgrounds keep too many talented and intelligent people bound. Just like America issues free tuition to international and domestic students, those born in the US should receive equal treatment. I have even considered studying abroad to alleviate the financial degradation college offers in the US. There are benefits to tuition-free education. I know thus far I have been stress-free concerning overall education expenditures because of it. Recently my concerns have skyrocketed since my situation changed. With the end of my free ride due to the conclusion of scholarship aids, I worry that my future as a college graduate will be harder to grasp. However, I will not give in to the anxiety it caused or give up on someday holding my college degree. I have a purpose in healthcare that shall be fulfilled. Until America gets on board with providing free education to its students who desire to pursue continuing education. There are numerous ways to improve my chances of becoming the Nurse Practioner I aspire to be. It will take extended sacrifice and determination. My moxie will not die with my dwindling financial security blanket. I will pick myself up by the bootstraps and persist to gain control over my situation and win. I will continue to budget, work, obtain high academic standing, apply for financial aid, and submit as many scholarship applications as I can to end victorious over this economically crimpling college system the US has. I know that my hard work and tenacity will pay off. At the culmination of my educational journey when I hold my degree in my hand, my certification under my belt, and my practice up and running successfully, I'll be free to reap the benefits of my labor and pay it forward.