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Personal Statement

I'm going into my second year of college and am aiming to go to uni and do an adult and mental health degree. For my personal statement they commend we do some work experience, however, with the coronavirus, this is not possible. How can I work around this issue?. Also, it suggests I do some extra reading that I can say I have done on my personal statement, but I do not know what I should be reading. Can you recommend any?
Original post by HannahG2003
I'm going into my second year of college and am aiming to go to uni and do an adult and mental health degree. For my personal statement they commend we do some work experience, however, with the coronavirus, this is not possible. How can I work around this issue?. Also, it suggests I do some extra reading that I can say I have done on my personal statement, but I do not know what I should be reading. Can you recommend any?

Im in year 12 too and I’m thinking Of doing pharmacy but I think things I’ve done can help you too because it’s all about the skills you’ve gained at the end of the day.
You can apply to Barnardo’s to volunteer. They’re desperate for volunteers. I had my first shift today and I absolutely loved it.( It’s also much harder than it looks). Not only will it help your personal statement it will look good on your cv as you’ll have retail experience.
Apply to a food bank. There’s lots of local food banks that are looking for volunteers especially during covid-19.
Online experience includes doing a healthcare course on futurelearn. They’ve got lots of courses that are really quick and easy to do. I just did one and I learnt so much about different medicines and health professions.
Download the app unicompare. They’ve got loads of anonymous personal statement examples for loads of courses including nursing. You can get some ideas of things you can do.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to private message me
Reply 2
Original post by Reviser101
Im in year 12 too and I’m thinking Of doing pharmacy but I think things I’ve done can help you too because it’s all about the skills you’ve gained at the end of the day.
You can apply to Barnardo’s to volunteer. They’re desperate for volunteers. I had my first shift today and I absolutely loved it.( It’s also much harder than it looks). Not only will it help your personal statement it will look good on your cv as you’ll have retail experience.
Apply to a food bank. There’s lots of local food banks that are looking for volunteers especially during covid-19.
Online experience includes doing a healthcare course on futurelearn. They’ve got lots of courses that are really quick and easy to do. I just did one and I learnt so much about different medicines and health professions.
Download the app unicompare. They’ve got loads of anonymous personal statement examples for loads of courses including nursing. You can get some ideas of things you can do.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to private message me

Thank you so much, ill have a look at them!
Reply 3
Have a look on the website Futurelearn. The are lots of free courses you can do that show outside reading and a long term commitment to your subject.
Reply 4
Original post by HannahG2003
I'm going into my second year of college and am aiming to go to uni and do an adult and mental health degree. For my personal statement they commend we do some work experience, however, with the coronavirus, this is not possible. How can I work around this issue?. Also, it suggests I do some extra reading that I can say I have done on my personal statement, but I do not know what I should be reading. Can you recommend any?

I presume you mean nursing.
Bear in mind that dual field degrees aren't that common, and are 4 years rather than 3.
Don't worry too much about work experience, lots of 1st year student nurses have absolutely no experience of healthcare whatsoever. The main thing is showing why you are so interested in that particular field of nursing and why you would be good at it.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 5
In your personal statement, if you don’t have any healthcare experience don’t worry, it’s not essential & many applicants don’t have any! As Emily_B said, a passion for the field is most important, and displaying interest!
In a personal statement, work experience is handy to talk about skills you learnt which are relevant to nursing... but don’t forget that you have a whole load of transferable skills from elsewhere which you can talk about if you can’t access work experience!
Look into values/characteristics that Nurses need, then see if you can relate any of your other types of experience to that... for example, (broadly speaking of course), nurses need to have good communication skills - you could maybe talk about an instance in college where you needed to do group work or communicate ideas? If you have any hobbies or interests, they will probably have equipped you with a lot of these transferable skills too - teamwork, leadership etc :smile:
In terms of extra reading, look into any contemporary issues facing your relevant field(s) in the NHS, the 6Cs of Nursing, also talking to current Nurses (whether registered or students) is useful to show that you’ve had discussions with those already in the field and you have an understanding of what you’re pursuing :smile: there are plenty of us on social media & a lot are happy for you to drop a DM :smile:
Original post by HannahG2003
I'm going into my second year of college and am aiming to go to uni and do an adult and mental health degree. For my personal statement they commend we do some work experience, however, with the coronavirus, this is not possible. How can I work around this issue?. Also, it suggests I do some extra reading that I can say I have done on my personal statement, but I do not know what I should be reading. Can you recommend any?


Remember that the equal consideration deadline is not until the 15th January. I'd be very surprised if you couldn't get some form of work experience or volunteering between now and then. Remember that it doesn't need to be directly nursing related - anything that demonstrates the relevant transferable skills is useful. Think about things involving vulnerable populations (homeless, addicts, elderly). There is a huge list of suggestions here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3546665


I'd also recommend looking at our PS guidance here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5550452

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