I was talking in my last blog about personal statements, and I thought I’d focus on UCAS personal statements in this entry. UCAS personal statements are very different to ones you will write as a qualified nurse or midwife. When you’re applying for a nursing course your personal statement needs to reflect your absolute commitment to a career as a nurse, and the skills you’ve gained / work you’ve done that would support that.

When you apply to become a student nurse you have the opportunity to to choose which branch of nursing you want to study. You can choose adult, mental health, learning disability or child branch. Many universities look for a commitment to one branch of nursing  only, so unless it’s absolutely necessary, only apply to branch of nursing on your UCAS application form.

Places usually go quickly so it’s important to get your UCAS application in as soon as possible. If you’re hoping to become a student nurse in Sept 2012, you need to be applying now. Part of your nursing course application includes your personal statement. This is your opportunity to give the admissions officers an insight into your motivation for becoming a qualified nurse and pursuing a nursing career.

Be honest and open about your why you want to become a nurse, and give a real insight into your background and your knowledge of the job. It’s important to show that you are completed committed to nursing, and to the branch that you’re applying for. There can be such strong competition for places that the universities want to be sure they are taking in students who are committed to completing the course and working as nurses after they qualify.

As with any job application or university writing, it should be all your own work. A university will check for plagiarism in your personal statement, so don’t be tempted to search online for nursing personal statements to copy and paste from. Make it personal to you and your reasons for becoming a nurse. It should take you several drafts to be completely happy with it, so don’t leave it until the last minute before you start work on it.

You can start simply by gathering the key points you want to mention and then start putting them into an order. You’ll find that tackling a personal statement in stages is much easier than sitting down to write it from start to finish in one go. Some people find the opening and closing sections the hardest parts to write, so why not write the main part and add the introduction and closing statements in at the end.

A great personal statement could be the difference between you being invited for interview and not, or eventually being offered a place, and not. It’s worth putting the time and effort into making sure you’re is the best it can be.

You might be interested in this article to give you even more detail about UCAS personal statements: How to write a Personal Statement for a Nursing Course Application