nursing student biography examples

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Example of a personal biography for a registered nurse.

In most cases, a resume will suffice when applying for nursing jobs or other opportunities. But at times a personal biography is required, especially when applying to graduate school, vying for awards and other honors, or contributing articles or presentations to industry publications and conferences. Your biography shouldn’t repeat everything listed on your resume, but should highlight key qualifications relevant to the situation and the audience.

Write for the Audience

Your biography should be tailored to your audience. Health care professionals should use technical language and a more formal tone. If you’re applying for a master’s program in nursing, for example, your bio might begin by noting that you graduated summa cum laude and that the university named you outstanding senior nursing student. When writing for a lay audience, adopt a more informal and friendly approach. Some schools require that candidates have specific work experience. You can write, for example, that in two years as a pediatric nurse, you've treated patients with conditions ranging from asthma to severe anemia, and have accumulated 1,500 clinical hours providing direct bedside care.

Start With Your Current Situation

Begin your biography by describing your current role, duties and achievements. List all relevant credentials, such as nursing licenses, degrees and certifications. If the bio will accompany a journal article discussing emergency medicine, for example, write: “Lydia Jones, RN, BSN, MSN, works as the nurse manager for the emergency department at XYZ Hospital in San Diego, Calif. She has 20 years of experience in emergency and trauma medicine and is a member of the California Emergency Nurses Association.”

Build Credibility

Include anything that will enhance your professional reputation, including leadership experience and contributions to industry conferences or publications. For example, after introducing yourself, note that you’ve contributed articles to several industry journals and consumer publications, including Emergency Medicine Today, RN Journal, U.S. News & World Report and Time. Or, note that you’ve been interviewed by several publications as a medical expert, or that you served on a commission created by your city’s mayor to develop solutions for common public health issues.

Showcase Credentials

Demonstrate your expertise by mentioning your training and experience. For example, write: “Samantha Harris, RN, BSN, MSN, earned her bachelor of science degree from the University of Cincinnati and her Master of Science in nursing from Johns Hopkins University. She has 25 years of nursing experience and 10 years of experience as a clinical nurse specialist. For the past five years, she’s overseen nursing care in the oncology department at Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ill.”

How to write a registered nurse resume →.

Example of How to Write a Nursing CV →

How to Write a Reference Letter for a Registered Nurse →

The average salary of a pediatric office nurse →.

Nursing Opportunities in the Bahamas →

Preparing a Curriculum Vitae for Teaching Nursing →

NBC Chicago: How to Write a Snappy, Tight Professional Bio
UMass Amherst Alumni Association: The Seven Steps to Writing a Professional Bio

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Nurse Bio Examples: A Step-By-Step Guide

Your biography should be tailored to your audience. Health care professionals should use technical language and a more formal tone. If you’re applying for a master’s program in nursing, for example, your bio might begin by noting that you graduated summa cum laude and that the university named you outstanding senior nursing student. When writing for a lay audience, adopt a more informal and friendly approach. Some schools require that candidates have specific work experience. You can write, for example, that in two years as a pediatric nurse, youve treated patients with conditions ranging from asthma to severe anemia, and have accumulated 1,500 clinical hours providing direct bedside care.

How to Write a Nurse Bio – Tips & Samples

When you may need a nurse bio

Different educational and vocational opportunities may require a nurse bio. Students may need to include a bio when applying to an undergraduate or graduate nursing program. Additionally, nurses applying for a different role may need to write a professional bio. This can happen when nurses:

You may also need to provide a bio if you apply for or receive an award or special recognition. Your bio may appear on your company website or in the documentation that recognizes your achievement.

What is a nurse bio?

A nursing bio, or biography, highlights your key education, experience and qualifications. Your professional biography allows you to provide more details about the information on your resume. You can also discuss other opportunities or roles that dont appear on your resume, such as volunteer roles or personal achievements.

How to Write a Nurse Bio

Here are the steps you can follow to write a strong nurse bio:

1. Write an introductory paragraph

Your introductory paragraph introduces you to readers and typically includes general information such as your name and post-nominal letters, such as “BSN” or “RN.” Your introductory paragraph should also include your educational or professional goal. For example, if you are applying to graduate school, your goal may be to earn a masters degree in nursing. If you are applying for a job, be sure to state the specific position youre applying for, such as director of nursing.

Example: “My name is Susan Hale, BN, MSN, and I am applying to the Middle City University Doctor of Nursing program.”

2. Detail your education

This section states the schools you attended. Generally, you do not need to include your high school. You can begin your education section with any college education, including community college courses, associate degrees, bachelors degrees and graduate degrees. If you have a high GPA, typically 3.5 or higher, you can include this in your bio to help you stand apart from other candidates, especially if you are applying to a graduate program as this demonstrates your ability to succeed in an academic environment. You might also include if you graduated summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude.

3. Discuss your work history

Discuss previous positions youve held, with a focus on nursing experience or related roles in the medical field. You can list your job responsibilities and any awards or recognition you received while in those roles, such as employee of the month. Highlight skills you have that correlate to the program or job to which youre applying. For example, if youre applying for a head nurse position, include any leadership positions youve had. If you are applying to a graduate program, you might mention your experience with certain software or team projects.

5. Include any other relevant qualifications

After your work experience, you may want to add a section for other qualifications or skills that make you a well-rounded candidate, even if they are not directly related to nursing. You may include:

These extra features may help you become a more appealing candidate. They can also show that you have soft skills that can help make you successful in the role, such as communication skills, leadership skills or technological proficiency.

6. Proofread your bio

As with any professional document, review your biography before sending it for spelling, content and grammatical errors. Consider asking a colleague or family member to read your bio and provide feedback. You may also want to check your bio on different screen sizes to make sure readers can access the file from several types of devices, such as a laptop or phone.

Tips for writing a professional nurse biography

Here are several helpful tips for writing a nurse biography:

Choose a professional design

Your biography is a professional document and should look neat and organized. It may be the piece that introduces you to a hiring manager or program director, so it should reflect positively on you. Choose a font that is easy to read and at least 12 point or larger. Avoid graphics or distracting colors. If possible, create a bio that complements your resume and cover letter in style.

Speak to your audience

Taylor your professional biography to the audience receiving it. For instance, if you are providing a bio for your companys website, you may choose to add a few personal details, such as your hobbies and the names of your children. For a bio that accompanies a job application, you may want to highlight professional or academic accomplishments, such as serving as president of your nursing class.

Make it personal

You can use you biography to connect with readers on a personal level. Consider sharing a powerful moment during your nursing career or an incident that led you to pursue nursing. These anecdotes can help you engage the reader and make your bio more memorable.

Review other biographies

If possible, you can ask to see other biographies as an example of what an employer or director is looking for. Reviewing other bio can help you craft one with a similar style and tone. You can also make notes of what types of information other nurses included.

How do you write a nursing bio about yourself?

Write an introductory paragraph. …
Detail your education. …
Discuss your work history. …
Include any other relevant qualifications. …
Proofread your bio.

How do I write a biography about myself?

Introduce yourself. Start your bio with a brief introduction that shows who you are. …
Keep it concise. Start with a word count in mind. …
Use third person. It may feel strange or even challenging to write about yourself. …
Write strategically. …
Include your contact information. …
Edit thoroughly.

What is the profile of a nurse?

Introduce yourself.
State your company or brand name.
Explain your professional role.
Include professional achievements.
Discuss your passions and values.
Mention your personal interests.

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20+ Student Biography Examples

Welcome to the world of students! We have created an amazing collection of 30 student biography examples to help you write your own.

As a student, you are likely to be writing a variety of biographical pieces. Whether you are writing a personal profile for your CV, a biography for an awards application or a biography for a college admissions essay, it’s important that you construct an interesting and engaging narrative of who you are.

Student Biography Examples

1. Growing up I was always interested in the sciences and technology. In high school, I excelled in math and science classes, which led me to pursue a degree in engineering. I went on to earn my Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and am currently working on my Master’s in Civil Engineering. After I finish my degree, I plan to use my knowledge to help improve infrastructure in developing countries.

2. Since a young age, I have been passionate about helping people in need. During college, I decided to focus my studies on sociology and political science. I used my knowledge to take action and participated in several non-profit organizations to promote social justice. With the help of internships, I have also gained experience in policy development and public relations. I’m currently working on a graduate degree in Social Work and aim to eventually work for the United Nations .

3. As a freshman in high school, I was unsure of what kind of career path I wanted to pursue. After talking with my parents and teachers, I decided to start college as an undeclared major. After two years of exploration, I settled on a double major of business and economics. I’ve been able to take advantage of various opportunities on and off campus and served as an intern in the Human Resources department of a major banking firm. I look forward to earning my degree and using my skills to become a successful business leader.

4. I never thought that I had the ability to become a professional photographer, but my high school photography teacher pushed me to pursue my dreams. I learned how to use a variety of cameras, develop photographs, and post-process my images. I continued my photography studies at college, where I gained additional knowledge in studio lighting and digital editing. I was even able to gain experience in the fashion industry, interning for a well-known photographer . Today, I am working as an event photographer, documenting weddings, reunions, and corporate events.

5. When I was younger I was passionate about art, which prompted me to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. During college, I was able to gain experience as a studio assistant and also learn various digital and traditional art techniques. With the help of a scholarship, I was able to travel to various countries and learn even more about different art styles. After graduation, I started working as a freelance artist and have been able to produce several commissioned artworks and pieces.

6. As a child, I always exhibited an aptitude for mathematics and problem solving. After researching various career paths, I decided to major in Computer Science. I was able to gain valuable experience while interning at a tech startup and also during an internship with the Department of Defense. I am currently working on my master’s degree and plan to focus my studies on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

7. I have been involved in theater since I was a young child. During my high school years, I focused on honing my abilities through various extracurricular activities. I was able to gain valuable experience by participating in multiple productions and I even gained a scholarship for theater. I attended college to study Musical Theater and continued to foster my talent. With help from internships and workshops, I was able to build additional experience and formed a touring theater company with some of my colleagues.

8. From an early age, I was interested in the environment and the outdoors. I spent a lot of time reading environmental books and researching environmental issues. This passion inspired me to major in Environmental Science in college. I’ve gained valuable experience through various internships and part-time jobs. With the help of my degree, I’ve been able to work on several conservation projects and hope to soon work for a non-profit organization focused on sustainability.

9. When I graduated high school I wanted to focus my career on the medical field. After much research, I decided to major in Biomedical Engineering. During my time in college, I was able to gain a valuable experience by interning as a research assistant. I have been able to learn more about medical technology and have been able to contribute to various projects. I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and plan to continue my research in the field and eventually work for a healthcare company.

10. I have always had an interest in fashion and design, so when the time came to decide my career path it made sense to pursue design. During college, I was able to study many aspects of fashion and gain experience through various internships. I was also able to travel to other countries to observe trends and learn about different cultures. With my degree, I am currently working as a fashion designer and I plan to continue to use my creative eye to come up with innovative and stylish designs.

More Student Biography Examples on the next page…

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The Nurse Bio: Breaking it Down

February 10, 2021
Medical Bios

Healthcare professionals such as nurses, nurse practitioners, traveling nurses, and any of those practicing the various nursing specialties need their nurse bios written in a specific manner. Since the day-to-day duties are paramount to the recovery of patients, their achievements must be highlighted and positioned in a well-written bio.

We outline here several samples of what goes into a compelling nurse bio. Read the following sample nurse bio excerpt (names have been changed for privacy):

As a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, Veronica Jacobs brings empathy, an easygoing communication style, and a sweet sense of humor, making it easy for her to talk to patients and family members.

Serving in the military is always a great accomplishment to highlight in a nurse bio, or any other bio for that matter, and should always be included.

A proud U.S. military veteran, Veronica was an aircraft electrician in the Navy before she decided to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.

This is why Nurse Jacobs is so special and an asset to all her patients. She is a nurse practitioner who really cares about her patients and has the patience to explain what course of treatment is best and why. There isn’t anything routine about such a caring individual. If the patient isn’t feeling well, a kind approach will speed up the healing process as noted by science.

A typical day for Veronica includes assessing and diagnosing patients on mental health issues such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, or those who struggle with substance abuse or the heartbreak of dementia. Although Veronica is able to prescribe medication as a viable option, she has been very successful with the holistic approach of listening and educating the patient before resorting to medication, and many times it is a combination of all three. Veronica is a firm believer that the patient really understands why they are taking medication, and discusses with them how they feel about the treatment plan.

Here is another example from a different sample nurse bio. See how this nurse has gone on and taken a more prominent position in influencing other nurses and passing on her nursing gift. This is what makes her a standout.

Maria has also been hugely successful in leading accreditation site visits for several departments, including nursing, radiology, dental, medical laboratory technician, and paramedic programs. Creating new curriculums and researching what is needed for the future of healthcare is all in a day’s work for Maria.

Maria started out her career as a young staff nurse and worked her way up. She received her master’s degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin, where she graduated with honors. She was also in the Air Force, where she started as an Air Force Nurse, 2nd Lieutenant, gradually ascending to the rank of Captain. Her responsibilities included providing clinic care to all Air Force members and coordinating nursing services. In her role, she was usually put in the position of mentoring, supervising or creating plans for patient care, along with her usual nursing duties.

I n a world where everything is a trend, Maria is the one constant. From her love of the healthcare profession, to her empathetic nature as a driving force, she remains steadfast in her abilities and passionate for the practice. To have the ability to embrace change and find the knowledge in yet to be charted waters is one of Maria’s unique qualities. Strong communication skills and a kind soul have been Maria’s assets in her long career dedicated to service.

So always remember, in a nurse bio , you want to show that although different than a doctor, they fit into the health scenario. It’s important to describe the various qualities and skill sets that are all assets to their profession.

Learn more in our YouTube instructional video !

Need some more bio writing inspiration? Get our bio writing ebook, “Just Add a Smile and a Handshake — A Starter Guide to Writing Your Bio.”

Need your nurse bio written by a professional? Learn about our professional bio writing services ! Contact us at WeWriteBios.com today! Please email us at [email protected] or call 818-488-1543.

WeWriteBios.com staff

WeWriteBios.com is inspiration and brainchild of Endrea Kosven, founder and CEO of EDK and Company. With over 15 years as a PR and marketing professional in Los Angeles, she helps her clients succeed in their professional branding and marketing efforts.

healthcare bio , medical bio , nurse bio , professional bio

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How do you write a nursing bio about yourself?

Write an introductory paragraph. …
Detail your education. …
Discuss your work history. …
Include any other relevant qualifications. …
Proofread your bio.

How do I write a biography about myself?

Introduce yourself. Your bio should begin with a succinct introduction that describes who you are.
Keep it concise. Start with a word count in mind.
Use third person. Writing about yourself can seem strange or even difficult.
Write strategically. …
Include your contact information. …
Edit thoroughly.

What is the profile of a nurse?

Introduce yourself.
State your company or brand name.
Explain your professional role.
Include professional achievements.
Discuss your passions and values.
Mention your personal interests.

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• Administered medication to 20+ patients daily, ensuring accuracy and adherence to doctor's instructions
• Worked effectively in a 200-patient facility, maintaining high standards of cleanliness and hygiene
• Reduced patient readmission by 10% by providing clear and concise discharge instructions
• Managed a ward of 50 patients, providing appropriate clinical care, resulting in improved patient satisfaction
• Implemented an improved patient documentation system that increased efficiency by over 15%
• Reduced medication errors by enforcing stringent check and balance measures, resulting in a 25% decrease in discrepancies
• Mentored 50+ nursing students annually, contributing to their professional growth and development
• Introduced a comprehensive training program which improved the competency of staff by 20%
• Drafted and implemented emergency protocols, resulting in 30% quicker response times to critical situations

5 Nursing Student Clinical Experience Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

Your nursing student clinical experience resume must encapsulate the breadth of practical skills gained during your studies. Highlight your hands-on experience with patient care, including any specialized areas like pediatrics or gerontology. Ensure your resume reflects your ability to collaborate with healthcare teams and communicate effectively with patients. Detail any procedures or treatments you have been exposed to, showcasing your readiness to step into a professional nursing role.

All resume examples in this guide

Traditional

Resume Guide

Styling your nursing student clinical experience resume: layout and format, writing your nursing student clinical experience resume experience, spotlighting your nursing student clinical experience hard and soft skills, the importance of your certifications and education on your nursing student clinical experience resume, deciding between a nursing student clinical experience resume summary or objective, additional nursing student clinical experience resume sections for a personalized touch, key takeaways.

Nursing Student Clinical Experience resume example

Nursing students often struggle with succinctly conveying the breadth and depth of their clinical experience on their resumes, making it difficult for potential employers to fully grasp their qualifications. Our guide helps address this challenge by providing specific strategies and examples on how to effectively communicate nursing clinical experiences, thereby helping students present a comprehensive picture of their skills and competencies.

Dive into this guide to learn how to craft a nursing student clinical experience resume that offers recruiters a clear view of your career journey:

Draw from our nursing student clinical experience resume samples, highlighting top skills, certifications, and more.
Illuminate the potential impact you can bring to an organization through your resume summary and experience.
Spotlight your unique nursing student clinical experience expertise, emphasizing tangible results and standout achievements.

Upload your resume

Drop your resume here or choose a file . PDF & DOCX only. Max 2MB file size.

Keep your nursing student clinical experience resume clear and concise. Top professionals narrate their career stories while highlighting their strengths.

Essential components for your infant nanny resume:

Header: Feature your name prominently. If you have a notable degree or certification, append it next to your name. Include contact details, a link to your portfolio, and a concise headline.
Summary or Objective: Align your professional trajectory and standout achievements with the desired role.
Experience: Craft concise bullet points, highlighting tangible successes and contributions.
Skills: Showcase them throughout your resume and consider a dedicated sidebar for emphasis.
Education & Certifications: Reinforce your credibility and demonstrate your commitment to the industry.

What recruiters want to see on your resume:

Direct patient care experience: This includes any hands-on experience in caring for patients, such as bathing, feeding, or administering medication.
Clinical skills: Specific skills such as phlebotomy, wound dressing, assisting with surgeries, etc. are highly valued.
Knowledge of medical terminology and procedures: Recruiters look for evidence that you understand the language and procedures used in healthcare.
Evidence of teamwork: Nursing often involves working in teams, so recruiters prioritize candidates who have demonstrated effective collaboration in their clinical experiences.
Communication skills: In nursing, clear communication with patients, families, and team members is crucial, so this is a skill recruiters will look for in your clinical experience.
How to Use Resume Lines
Resume in PDF or Word

Here are some quick tips on how to curate your nursing student clinical experience professional experience:

Always ensure that you quantify your achievements by implementing the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework;
When writing each experience bullet, make sure you're using active voice;
Stand out by including personal skills you've grown while at the job;
Be specific about your professional experience - it's not enough to say you have great communication skills, but rather explain what your communication track record led to?

Wondering how other professionals in the industry are presenting their job-winning experience? Check out how these nursing student clinical experience professionals put some of these best practices into action:

Assisted in providing direct patient care under the guidance of experienced nurses.
Administered medications and documented patients' responses, ensuring accurate medication administration.
Assessed vital signs, collected specimens, and assisted with diagnostic procedures.
Collaborated with interdisciplinary healthcare teams to develop and implement patient care plans.
Educated patients and their families on disease management, treatment options, and post-discharge care.
Provided compassionate care to patients in a fast-paced medical-surgical unit.
Managed multiple patient assignments, prioritizing tasks effectively to ensure timely delivery of care.
Assisted with wound dressings, administered intravenous medications, and monitored patient status.
Responded to emergency situations, performing CPR and coordinating with the healthcare team.
Collaborated with nursing staff to develop and update patient care plans based on assessment data.
Provided direct patient care in a high-volume emergency department setting.
Triaged patients, performed initial assessments, and communicated findings to the healthcare team.
Assisted with trauma resuscitations, including CPR, intubation, and administering life-saving medications.
Coordinated with radiology and laboratory departments to facilitate timely diagnostic testing.
Contributed to quality improvement initiatives, resulting in a 15% reduction in patient wait times.
Assisted in the care of patients with chronic illnesses in a long-term care facility.
Administered medications, monitored vital signs, and provided emotional support to residents.
Implemented infection control measures, resulting in a 20% decrease in nosocomial infections.
Collaborated with the interdisciplinary team to develop individualized care plans for each resident.
Facilitated activities and therapeutic exercises to promote physical and mental well-being.
Assisted in the delivery of maternity care services in a busy labor and delivery unit.
Monitored fetal heart rates, performed vaginal exams, and assisted with newborn assessments.
Provided emotional support during labor and ensured a safe and comfortable environment.
Educated expectant mothers on breastfeeding techniques and postpartum care.
Participated in multidisciplinary rounds and contributed to patient care discussions.
Assisted in the care of pediatric patients in an outpatient clinic setting.
Prepared examination rooms, obtained vital signs, and documented patient histories.
Administered immunizations and conducted screenings for developmental milestones.
Collaborated with healthcare providers to ensure accurate and timely delivery of care.
Educated parents on common childhood illnesses, preventive measures, and medication administration.
Provided nursing care in a cardiac step-down unit, monitoring patients' cardiac rhythms and vital signs.
Administered medications intravenously, ensuring correct dosages and observing for adverse reactions.
Assisted with post-cardiac procedure recovery and educated patients on self-care techniques.
Collaborated with the cardiac care team to develop and implement individualized care plans.
Participated in research projects exploring innovative approaches to cardiovascular disease management.
Provided compassionate care to oncology patients undergoing various treatments.
Administered chemotherapy drugs and monitored patients for potential side effects.
Assisted with pain management interventions, resulting in improved patient comfort levels.
Collaborated with the interdisciplinary team to coordinate comprehensive cancer care.
Participated in a research study evaluating the impact of supportive therapies on patient outcomes.
Assisting in the care of patients with complex medical conditions in a critical care setting.
Monitoring hemodynamic parameters, ventilator settings, and response to treatment.
Administering high-risk medications, titrating intravenous drips, and conducting advanced assessments.
Collaborating with the interdisciplinary team to optimize patient outcomes and promote recovery.
Participating in quality improvement initiatives to enhance critical care delivery and patient safety.
Provided psychiatric nursing care to individuals with mental health disorders.
Administered psychotropic medications and monitored for therapeutic effectiveness.
Conducted group therapy sessions and facilitated psychoeducation classes.
Collaborated with psychiatrists and psychologists to develop comprehensive treatment plans.
Implemented crisis intervention strategies, resulting in improved patient stabilization rates.

Quantifying impact on your resume

Include the number of patients you were responsible for on a daily basis to demonstrate your ability to handle high-pressure situations.
List any quantitative improvements you made in patient satisfaction scores to show that you prioritize patient care and can make a positive impact.
Mention the number of procedures or treatments you've assisted with or performed, confirming your hands-on experience and technical skills.
Highlight the number of hours spent on specialized rotations or units to showcase your specific areas of expertise.
Specify the number of interdepartmental collaborations or team projects you've participated in, exhibiting your teamwork abilities.
Detail the ratio of successful patient discharges under your care to reflect your proficiency at managing patient recovery effectively.
State the percentage reduction of medication errors if you implemented or contributed to a new process, indicating your problem-solving capabilities.
Report the number of continuing education credits or professional development courses completed to prove your dedication to ongoing learning.

No experience, no problem: writing your nursing student clinical experience resume

You're set on the nursing student clinical experience role of your dreams. Yet, you have little to no work experience . Here's how you can curate your resume to substitute your lack of experience:

Don't list every single role you've had so far, but focus on the ones that align with the job you're applying for
Include any valid experience in the field - whether it's a university research project, or a summer internship
Highlight the soft skills you're bringing along - those that will have an added value to your application.
Focus on your education and certifications, especially if they make sense for the role.
Resume Without Work Experience
Resume Job Description

Your experience section should be a testament to your professional growth. If your career journey isn't particularly linear or impressive, focus on detailing specific skills and the tangible outcomes of your responsibilities.

Hard skills denote your technological proficiency and expertise in specific tools or software. These skills are often validated through certifications and hands-on experience.

Soft skills , on the other hand, reflect your interpersonal abilities and how you navigate workplace dynamics. These skills are cultivated over a lifetime and can be more nuanced.

Why the emphasis on both? Hard skills demonstrate your technical competence and reduce training needs. Soft skills suggest adaptability and cultural fit.

To optimize your skills section:

Forego basic skills like "Excel" in favor of more specific proficiencies like "Excel Macros".
Highlight core values and work ethics as soft skills, indicating what you prioritize in a professional setting.
If relevant, create a distinct section for language proficiencies.
Balance hard and soft skills by crafting a strengths or achievements section, illustrating outcomes achieved through both skill sets.

To assist you, we've curated a list of skills highly sought after by recruiters. Ensure you integrate those that resonate with your expertise and the prospective employer's needs:

Top skills for your nursing student clinical experience resume

Patient Care

Clinical Skills

Medical Terminology

Basic Life Support (BLS)

Vital Signs Monitoring

Infection Control

Medication Administration

Electronic Health Records

Communication

Problem-Solving

Attention to Detail

Time Management

Stress Management

Adaptability

Critical Thinking

Double-check the spelling of all skills and tools on your resume. Remember, software like the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) scans for these details.

Pay attention to the resume education section . It can offer clues about your skills and experiences that align with the job.

List only tertiary education details, including the institution and dates.
Mention your expected graduation date if you're currently studying.
Exclude degrees unrelated to the job or field.
Describe your education if it allows you to highlight your achievements further.

Your professional qualifications: certificates and education play a crucial role in your nursing student clinical experience application.

They showcase your dedication to gaining the best expertise and know-how in the field.

Include any diplomas and certificates that are:

Listed within the job requirements or could make your application stand out
Niche to your industry and require plenty of effort to obtain
Helping you prepare for professional growth with forward-facing know-how
Relevant to the nursing student clinical experience job - make sure to include the name of the certificate, institution you've obtained it at, and dates

Both your certificates and education section need to add further value to your application.

That's why we've dedicated this next list just for you - check out some of the most popular nursing student clinical experience certificates to include on your resume:

Best certifications to list on your resume

Prioritize recent and relevant certifications, especially from recognized institutions. This is crucial for senior roles or forward-leaning companies.

Expected Graduation Date Resume
Activities Resume for College

While some argue the resume summary or objective is outdated, these sections can effectively:

Integrate pivotal nursing student clinical experience keywords.
Showcase your achievements.
Clarify your motivation for applying.

The distinction lies in their focus:

A resume objective emphasizes your career aspirations.
A resume summary spotlights your career milestones.

Opt for a summary if you have a rich experience you wish to highlight immediately. Conversely, an objective can be ideal for those wanting to underscore their aspirations and soft skills.

For inspiration, we've curated samples from industry professionals to guide your resume summary or objective crafting:

Resume summary and objective examples for a nursing student clinical experience resume

Accomplished nursing professional with a solid track record of 6 years delivering compassionate care in high-pressure hospital settings. Proficient with electronic health records, critical care procedures and patient education. Recognized for leading seamless implementation of new infection control protocol.
Dedicated nurse possessing over 8 years of expertise in busy ER environments. Demonstrated ability to perform clinical assessments, administer medications, and devise personalized patient care plans. Achieved significant reduction in patient waiting times through process optimization.
Career transitioner aiming to leverage an 11-year background in physical therapy into the field of nursing. Possessing strong interpersonal abilities, medical knowledge and a keen interest in aiding recovery. Committed to advancing personal learning in nursing techniques.
Bringing 5 years' experience as an educated Social Worker to a career in nursing. Strong foundation in public health and patient advocacy. Adept at navigating complex healthcare environments and facilitating optimal patient care.
Eager to launch a rewarding career in nursing, where my strong work ethic and commitment to excellent patient care will be utilized. Keen to gain hands-on experience to compliment nursing education, with special focus on pediatric nursing.
Recent nursing graduate seeking to apply the skills and knowledge gained from an accredited nursing program in a real-world setting. Driven by the desire to provide empathetic patient care and enhance overall health outcomes in a geriatric setting.

To further personalize your nursing student clinical experience resume, consider adding sections that reflect your unique qualities and achievements.

Popular choices include:

Projects to showcase significant work achievements.
Languages to indicate proficiency levels.
Awards to celebrate industry recognitions.
Hobbies and Interests to share personal passions.
A clear resume layout helps present your info well.
Use all main resume sections to show how you fit the job.
Detail specific skills or tasks and their impact.
Show your personality through interests or hobbies.
List certifications to back up your technical skills.

Looking to build your own Nursing Student Clinical Experience resume?

Resume Examples

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Student Nursing Resume:Free Templates, Examples & Guide

As a Student Nurse, you know how to care for patients in a kind and professional manner. Now it’s time for your resume to receive the right medicine. Our Resume templates are the perfect remedy to cure any problems you are having finding work.

Student Nursing Resume Example MSWord® Give your resume the best treatment available with our Student Nursing Resume templates, available in Word format.

Your dream of becoming a nurse is almost in reach. It’s so close that you can taste it. But hold up! You can’t turn up to a hospital for duty just yet! That will very likely confuse the doctors, other nurses and administrators if you just arrive without warning.

You’ll need a job first!

With your student nursing studies underway you’ve already covered the valuable skills needed, to save lives and get patients back to good health.

However, there’s another valuable skill that even the best nursing courses don’t teach… And that thing is how to write a nursing student resume with no experience.

Luckily for you, you’re in the right place for guidance. This page will explain everything you need to know about how to make a resume for nursing students.

Your resume will need special care. This especially matters if you’re aiming for a specialized role such as being a Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) as these will of course require their own additional touches.

To help you become a pro resume writer, this guide will show you:

How to write a nursing student resume with no experience.
Entry-level RN resume examples.
How to double the amount of interviews you’ve been getting until now.
The essential resume skills for nursing students needed to make your profile totally irresistible.
Tips, tricks and words of advice for nursing students looking for their first job.

We’ll also provide you with a nursing student resume template that you can use today. Writing a resume doesn’t have to take ages , with our resume builder we can help you prepare yours today in just a few minutes .

Nursing Student Resume Sample

To get started, check out this example of a good nursing student resume .

[Amanda Beischel]

[123 Main Street, Cleveland, Ohio, 11234 | 235-073-0006 | [email protected]]

Licensed registered nurse with more than 3 years of successful clinical experience working with Cuyahoga County Clinic. Efficient in giving day-to-day care thanks to established skills in patient nutrition, exemplary infection control, as well as vital sign monitoring. Effective when responding to emergency situations. Achieved 30% improvement in patient satisfaction.

Nursing Assistant Cuyahoga County Clinic| Cleveland, Ohio

2018 – 2021

Kept a secure, sanitary area for patients
Monitored 5 patients, creating a caring environment for all
Reacted promptly to requests from both patients and nursing staff
Took correct vital signs, such as blood pressure and respiration rate
Administered patient’s medicine

Nursing Intern

Cuyahoga County Clinic| Cleveland, Ohio

2017 – 2018

Achieved 95% positive preceptor evaluations
Assisted registered nurses with daily tasks
Entered patient’s records in Word and Excel to keep on file
Fulfilled HIPAA standards in all patient interactions

Bachelor of Science – Nursing

Ohio State University | Columbus, Ohio

2013 – 2017

Achieved a 3.5 GPA
Completed 2 semesters of internships

Soft Skills

Extroverted personality
Compassionate with patients
Excellent communication
Maintain records in an organized manner

Hard Skills

Accurate vital sign monitoring
Basic life support
Emergency and critical care
Knowledge of Telemetry

Hobbies and Interests

Listening to podcasts by Nursecasts
Cycling
Learning to make vegan dishes
Volunteering at blood drives

What’s the Best Nursing Student Resume Format?

Have you ever seen just how many nursing students resumes Hospital HR managers get a day?

Well, it’s a LOT. This isn’t good news for anyone wondering how to find a nursing job with no experience . Firstly the HR team is going to have a tough time on their hands. Secondly, it means your resume might not get the time it really needs to be read properly.

You sometimes have as little as 7 seconds to impress the reader. What’s more, when you look at nursing resume examples as a new grad one thing always stands out.

No, not the amount of experience that’s on them – although we’ll get to that later. The format and the layout.

How Do I Choose The Right Format?

All good resume formats , whether they are a nursing school resume template, newly registered nurse resume template, or a student nurse resume with clinical experience, have to be well organized to get the job done.

In most cases, you’ll need a reverse chronological resume template. This puts your experience in a prime position.

What if you’re writing an RN resume with no experience ?

You might opt to try some nursing student bio examples with combination or functional format resume layouts. These put more emphasis on your skills and work best when there’s less experience.

However, these should only be used if things get really desperate .

While nursing student examples for new graduates tend to focus more on your training and qualifications , even they will use a reverse-chronological layout

Work experience is always your most important asset in nursing. Always make sure you promote it via the layout.

Don’t also forget that the file format you save your resume is a major factor too.

While a lot of people submit their resume as a Word document – which is fine in some cases – it’s much better to use a PDF or TXT file .

This can be crucial if your resume needs to pass through any machine reading filters like ATS when it’s sent to the employer.

Do I Need Resume Summary?

This is something that people don’t think much about, but you should never underestimate the importance of a good professional summary .

It’s only a few sentences long, but in that short text , you’ll communicate a lot to the reader – it is a brief introduction to you .

It explains why a hiring manager should take you seriously as a candidate and – more importantly – gives the reader an incentive to look over your whole resume from start to finish.

What about a resume objective?

If you don’t have much experience to summarize, you should include a career objective .

What it contains, usually depends on the precise job you’re applying for.

For example, if you’re applying for an LVN job you might talk up your credentials of working with the elderly . Whereas if you’re planning to work in a cancer ward you might talk more about how good you are at monitoring vital signs and taking samples.

Let’s look at how we can make this work below.

Student Nursing Resume Summary Example

Writing a career objective for a nursing student role might sound pretty easy in principle.

It has some things in common with LinkedIn summary examples for nursing students you might have seen listed online.

However, the resume version is a little more restricted by comparison in terms of length. It also needs to communicate a lot about you succinctly without losing the reader’s interest.

Just stating the facts in your summary without making sure they link to the job at hand might also leave you at a disadvantage.

Let’s see an example of how NOT to write the summary for a beginner nursing student’s resume first to get a clearer idea.

Nursing graduate looking for an entry-level position in a large city hospital. People dedicated individual with a patient-focused mentality and strong skills in handling decisions under pressure.

As you can see, it’s fine . Yet it’s still kind of “meh”.

It’s got some of the right nursing graduation wording you’d normally expect.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to get much traction as it doesn’t tell us how well you can do these things you’ve listed. You need to go into a little more detail than this.

For a stand-out nursing school resume objective, you’ll need to demonstrate measurable achievements as well as the sort of skills wanted by the hiring team.

Below, you’ll see what the hiring person at the hospital will really want to see on a new graduate nurse resume summary examples.

Fully licensed LVN with over 1 year’s clinical experience working with Hudson County Clinic. Providing daily care with the help of proven skills in patient management, responding to emergencies effectively, and vital sign monitoring. Achieving 98% positive preceptor evaluations.

Now that’s a graduate nurse resume objective statement you can take to the bank! Quite literally in some cases.

As we can see here, there’s a lot more specific information about how long you’ve been working as a nurse and more insight into exactly what you did.

It shows a good combination of your nursing licensing information , relevant experience , and skills all in that short paragraph.

As you can see new graduate nurse’s resume summary doesn’t have to be a writing masterpiece. Nevertheless, it does need to hit all the right notes to get the attention you crave from recruiters.

How to Write an Entry-Level Nursing Student Resume Objective

Jobs for nursing students with no experience are trickier to target with a nursing student resume objective statement.

But they’re not impossible!

You can find clever ways to whip up a tight summary even for specific situations like LPN student jobs, putting together a nursing student internship resume, or entry-level RN resume samples.

Getting in contention for the best entry-level nursing jobs may require you to get a little more creative , but it can be done without too much effort.

Let’s look at how this can work below.

Entry-Level Nurse Resume Objectives

Even if you’re still studying there’s nothing stopping you from putting together an amazing summary for an entry-level nurse resume sample.

This might be needed for a nurse intern resume, or just a general pre-nursing resume you’re trying out before graduating.

Nursing student new to the profession. Eager to gain more professional experience via an internship.

The bad news is if you use a summary like that your chances of getting hired will be in critical condition.

We can glean plenty of what you want and need but the recruiter can’t see anything about your strengths as a student nurse.

That’s a major issue.

However, there are ways to make your pre-nursing student resume objective look a bit healthier , as you can see below.

Dedicated student nurse, with proven clinical experience over 2 semesters. Demonstrating strong skills in vital signs and ensuring patient comfort. Receiving 98% positive grading from my preceptor.

A new nurse resume objective is obviously going to have to compromise with the fact you won’t have much experience .

However, you will have had practical training with measurable results that you can use in your favor.

This will help you stabilize your situation and get you on the right track.

How Can I Describe My Nursing Student Experience?

Clinical experience on your nursing student resume is going to be your key to getting noticed .

A nursing student resume with clinical experience can provide details about your actual work in nursing via a few different sources such as:

Internships
Volunteering
Practical clinical experience with your preceptor

Of course, even if you’re fresh out of nursing school there are plenty of decent no-experience-needed nursing jobs and internships out there. You can take advantage of these to get the working practice you need.

It’s not just what you feature in your experience section, it’s how you talk about it that counts too.

Right now you’re probably wondering how to write up your clinical experience on a resume?

Let’s look at some examples of resumes for nursing student graduates and the experience they normally highlight in a bit more depth.

Examples: Experience Section

When you have a bit of clinical experience on a resume as a nursing student you’ll have a good shot at getting on a hiring manager’s radar.

But, you’ve got to be careful how you add the information on the page. This is because the recruiter wants to see something that fits their vacancy as exactly as possible.

So in a way your resume is a bit like a shape being put into a kid’s shape sorter. It has to fit the right-shaped hole figuratively speaking.

This means that generic resumes won’t do .

With that in mind, let’s see how not to do it .

Nursing Assistant Hudson Medical Center

2018 – 2019

Responsible for the care of numerous patients.
Collected test samples.
Monitored patient vitals.

While it lists relevant activities that a new nurse would do, it doesn’t go into nearly enough detail.

You don’t just want to be some other nurse in the hiring process. You want to be the top nurse that everyone wants to interview.

Let’s now look at a more accomplished new grad nursing student resume with clinical experience.

Supervised 8 patients, providing a caring environment and safely administering medication and pain relief.
Collected and reported test samples and updated patient charts promptly, receiving 96% positive feedback from my preceptor.
Monitored patient vitals and planned care based on their condition.

Now this example, by comparison, tells you a lot more about what this candidate has done AND, crucially, what they’ve achieved.

There are clear instances here of what you did and how well you did them. This will give someone reading your resume more info to go on.

Even pre-nursing jobs for students want to see clear examples .

This is a bit trickier but can still be done like a pro . Let’s look at this in more detail in the next section.

Examples: An Entry-Level Experience Section

If you’re putting together a new grad RN resume with no experience to get your first practical nursing student job you might not know where to start.

Finding a nursing job with no experience can feel like a scary thought at the beginning.

If you’re writing a nursing student resume for an externship , a nursing student preceptorship resume, or a nursing student resume for an internship you still need to be able to show some experience, while having very little.

What to do?

Luckily in nursing, you’ll already have some of the clinical modules of your nursing course to fall back on. These will fit most pre-nursing job descriptions.

Unlike getting into other professions with no experience, you shouldn’t dwell too much on pulling in evidence of any or all practical work you’ve done. Just stick to nursing.

Below is an example of what you shouldn’t do.

Student Nurse St John’s Nursing School

One semester of nursing experience.

Other experience:

Waiting tables
Babysitting

A student nurse extern resume or any resume for a new nurse should only be focused on nursing .

Instead of briefly paraphrasing your experience at nursing school, you should get in-depth and really explain what you’ve been doing there.

As you’ll find in most nursing resumes or nursing internship essay examples they tend to focus more on pinpointing your clinical training in depth.

Let’s now see how it should be done.

Nursing Intern Hudson Medical Center

Shadowed RNs to gain experience in triaging, monitoring vital signs, and taking samples.
Followed HIPAA carefully during all my duties.
Achieved 94% patient satisfaction rate during my placements.

It doesn’t matter if you’re still at college.

Any and all practical experience you get as a nurse should be the only thing you focus on when you write a nursing student resume with clinical experience.

Does Your Education Section Need Emergency Treatment? Don’t Lose the Recruiter!

So you’ve got a great experience section in your entry-level RN resume. That’s a good start.

But, oh no? There’s still something missing.

As a new grad nurse with no experience, you’re going to be relying heavily on your education section to get noticed.

Most nursing resumes will need to, at the very least, add information about your college course . This should include:

The name of the nursing course
The name of the college or institution
The number of years you studied there

But this isn’t all you should do with your resume for nursing school application. You should also add details about the coursework you did, especially if it fits the general job description.

Examples: Education Section

No-experience-needed registered nurse jobs will always be interested in your licensing and training even if they aren’t so worried about your professional on-site work.

Therefore, your education section needs to give them the info they want to see and fast.

Let’s look over an LPN student’s education section below. They’ve got it right.

Associate of Applied Science Degree in Nursing with LPN Certificate Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

2017 – 2020

Completed 3 semesters of clinical experience and nursing internships.
Achieved GPA of 3.6
Commended for patient education, vitals observation, and wound dressing

Now, you might have to check the vitals of the recruiter after this as they’re going to be pretty pumped to see an education section like this from a registered nurse with no experience.

This version works for a lot of reasons, firstly because it’s clear about the course that was studied.

You don’t need to get over-detailed with your education when writing a nursing internship resume but it should show enough of your achievements to get noticed.

There are of course lots of certifications nursing students can get, so it’s super important to be specific and to ensure you’re showing the right licenses for the job available.

Not only that, the new graduate RN resume sample gives a clear picture of what the applicant achieved when they were studying.

There are explicit examples on this nursing school resume of how well they did on their course by demonstrating their nursing student accomplishments on their resume.

Yet, while the previous example is looking healthy, what about an example of a nursing student resume sample that might be in need of some urgent medical attention?

Let’s look over one of these below.

Studied anatomy, biology, patient care.
Passed the NCLEX

As graduate nurse resume examples go this education section is in sickly shape. It only gives the most basic information that the employer wants.

It doesn’t go into the exact tasks the candidate learned.

Whether you’re preparing a sample resume for graduate nursing school application or writing a graduate nurse resume in Australia you must always remember that these little details count.

Make sure you do what you can to highlight your specific accomplishments clearly in this section. It only takes a couple of bullet points.

What Are The Best Nursing Student Skills for a Resume ?

Training as a nurse equips you with a whole toolbox of skills. But, which of those are best for your student nursing application?

Firstly, you should focus on how the student nurse job description can guide your resume.

These will almost always list desired skills that are wanted , which easy clues you can use to make your resume right for the job.

Nursing student skills can be woven into your application in lots of ways but what’s important is that they appear consistently in your finished resume. This can either be in the skills section, education section, or work experience section.

Check below for more of a guide on the nursing student skills to put on a resume, if you’re looking for some quick ideas.

Top Nursing Skills to Put on a Resume

As a new grad nurse, having skills on your resume really does pay the bills.

It’s important to include both hard and soft nursing skills when you write your resume .

This is because it’s not just enough to list your technical abilities on your resume – although you definitely should – you also need to list some intrinsic skills too.

Remember: Working with patients and other nurses involves teamwork, communication, and the ability to maintain a friendly, welcoming persona even in the most stressful situations.

You’re going to need to get that across when you apply for jobs too.

To give you some ideas for additional skills for a nursing resume, check out the lists below.

Good bedside manner
Organization
Concentration
Communication
Decision-making
Attention to detail
Problem-solving
Patient education
Sample collection
Wound dressing
Electronic Health Records (EMR)
Vitals observation
Record keeping
HIPAA Compliance
Workplace safety
Patient care planning
CPR/First Aid
Medicine administration

Do I Need Other Sections for an Effective Resume?

Good jobs for nursing students are competitive. Almost like gladiatorial combat at times.

However, fortunately, you won’t need a sword or to dress any wounds in a Colosseum anytime soon.

That said, your entry-level registered nurse resume or Nursing student CNA resume is going to need more than the old reliable trio of sections of work experience, skills, and education.

A resume for nursing school applications or graduate jobs can always benefit from extra sections which will give the employer more of a reason to give you the thumbs up.

Examples: “Other” Sections

You’ll often find that the best recently-graduated nursing student resumes go that extra step when it comes to other sections.

It’s hard to get any of those eye-catching RN or LVN student jobs out there without some extra touches.

However, you should be careful when adding additional information. There are obviously some things you shouldn’t share with an employer.

As we can see in the very sketchy example below.

I enjoy going out to bars
I like to play Xbox
I’m passionate about cigar smoking

The things listed above are all well and good to do. Just, you shouldn’t share them with a recruiter.

This information is mostly irrelevant to anything you’ll need to do in a nursing job. Consequently, it shouldn’t really appear on a new RN resume template.

In fact, the stuff about bars could even turn a recruiter off your application entirely, if they have any worries you could have an alcohol problem.

Instead, an entry nurse resume should try and use experiences and hobbies that will sell you best as a nurse. Although, don’t be afraid to add something to indicate some personality

This might include personal interests or outside work like volunteering for a medical charity or similar.

Let’s see how these can be squeezed onto your document in the example below.

Volunteer Experience

Red Cross Volunteer, First Aid
Hudson Homeless Shelter, Patient screening
Walking and hiking
Listening to Everyday Emergency podcast by MSF

Now, that’s more like it!

This fits much more with what a person hiring a nurse wants to see .

These sections can be used to explicitly show how strong a candidate you are , which will put you much higher up the priority list for interviews.

Key Points to Takeaway

You know how to be a great nursing student , now all you need to do is get that into your resume.

To make your nursing student resume PDF look absolutely spectacular to the reader, remember the following points.

If you’re preparing a resume as a nursing student who’s about to graduate remember to focus on detailing your practical clinical experience from your work placements and your licensure.
Don’t forget to check the nurse trainee job description before writing your student nurse application. This will contain juicy details that you can use to keep your finished template in good health.
Make sure your graduate nursing student resume gives examples of things you did outside of school that tie in with nursing or healthcare.

Remember, we can help you prepare a nursing student resume for someone with no experience .

We’ve got professional templates to start you off and our resume builder will help you through every step of the process. Why not give it a go-to save some time during your job search.

Happy job hunting!

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PhD Student Bios

2023 cohort.

Bridget Dobson, BSN, RN is passionate about eliminating sexual health education disparities, specifically related to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), sexual violence prevention, and promoting inclusivity regarding sexual orientation. Her goal is to research best forms of providing sexual health education that empower people of all communities, orientations, and abilities to make informed decisions about their bodies. She is also interested in taking advantage of opportunities in health policy and global health at Duke. Coming from Louisville, Kentucky, Bridget worked for over 2 years as a trauma surgical intensive care nurse, where she was able to observe the impact that social determinants of health had on patient outcomes. During this time, Bridget was involved in implementing a “Trauma Informed Care” education module on the unit to improve cultural competence amongst nursing staff. She also served as a research assistant for UL Health’s Nursing Education Department, where we she assisted in the data collection and collaborative manuscript for the study: Institution-Wide Moral Distress Among Nurses: Post-COVID-19 Pandemic. Bridget learned lessons in active communication and importance of community engagement when she volunteered with Kentucky Refugee Ministries. There she assisted residents in acclimating to the city through resource and conversational English education. Bridget is inspired to get involved in Durham’s community and discover how her research goals can impact sexual health equity on a larger scale.

Molly Fitzpatrick, BSN, RN was drawn to nursing because of the profession’s unique ability to be present for some of life’s most significant moments. She graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing Honors Program in 2020. There she researched adjuvant therapies in management of breast cancer pain and completed her honors thesis on post vicarious growth in NICU nurses. After graduation, she completed a nurse residency on a COVID/Neuro/Stroke floor at Boston Medical Center. Since then she has worked in the Emergency Department, starting at New York Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center and most recently in Connecticut. She truly loves being an ED nurse but looks forward to returning to academia, and feels privileged to have the opportunity to do so at Duke. Molly chose to pursue a PhD in nursing because she believes nursing research has the potential to reduce health inequity, improve access to care, and improve the physical and mental well-being of our communities. While at DUSON, Molly hopes to focus her research on mental health in the pediatric and adolescent population, particularly in the school setting, and as it relates to social determinants of health.

Jolie S. Jemmott MSN, RN, PMHNP-BC earned her BSN in 2019 from Hampton University in Hampton, VA and her MSN in 2022 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia, PA. She has been a nurse for the last 5 years working and has worked in the areas of colorectal and psychiatry. Over the last year, Jolie has worked as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, working specifically in community mental health adult outpatient services. Jolie is passionate about working with those in marginalized and vulnerable populations experiencing mental health challenges. She decided to pursue a career as a nurse scientist to become an expert in the psychological underpinnings of African American substance-abusing men with dual diagnoses and developing the most successful treatment approaches for them and their families. Moreover, she wants to explore strategies to reduce substance use behaviors among African American men. Jolie’s primary goal for doctorate level studies is to become a professor at a research-intensive university and develop a program of research that makes a difference in improving mental health and health equity of substance-abusing populations. Through her research, she hopes to build a research program that continues to advance nursing knowledge, contributes to the health of vulnerable, marginalized underrepresented communities around the globe, and shapes the future of nursing science and healthcare.

Caroline Kee, BSN, RN is interested in adolescent health and improving the treatment of patients with substance use disorders. Caroline graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in 2023. In partnership with the Rollins School of Public Health and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, Caroline researched barriers to care for patients with substance use disorder at the pharmacy level and ED utilization in patients with substance use disorder. This work led her to complete an honors thesis exploring the compounding influence of race and substance use disorder on ED utilization in the acute care setting. During this time, Caroline also cultivated a passion for adolescent health at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society of Nursing and the Southern Nursing Research Society. While at Duke, Caroline plans to continue research on patients living with substance use disorder and adolescent health while exploring essential changes in the healthcare system surrounding treatment for these populations.

Osborn Owusu Ansah, BSN, RN is a registered nurse from Ghana who has keen research interests in the fields of oncology and palliative care. He graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and has since gained significant nursing experience from working across different healthcare settings in both Ghana and the United Kingdom for the past four years. His passion for oncology and palliative care research stems from the worrying statistics on the high mortality rates associated with cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and the low number of opportunities available for individuals to extensively study on the merits of incorporating palliative care into the healthcare system in Africa. Osborn’s purpose for pursuing doctorate-level studies is to acquire competencies that will help him discover and develop cost-effective interventions that can enhance symptom management and well-being of people with cancer.

Somin Sang, BSN, MSN , is dedicated to enhancing healthcare systems through systems engineering to ensure safety and efficiency. With an academic journey at the College of Nursing, Yonsei University in South Korea, Somin earned her BSN and MSN, laying a solid foundation for her pursuits. Her experience as a surgical nurse at the Seoul Asan Medical Center, coupled with her role as a nurse at the International Healthcare Center of Gangnam Severance Hospital, empowers her with a comprehensive perspective on patient care and global healthcare dynamics. Building on her clinical expertise, Somin's research focus lies at the intersection of patient safety and technology. Through her research, she aims to harness mobile monitoring data and electronic health records, to predict patient safety events and strategically intervene to mitigate patient harm.

Jill Sergison, MA, CNM, RN is a certified nurse-midwife with nearly 20 years of experience in maternal and family planning care. In addition to her clinical experience, Jill conducted novel contraceptive research at FHI360 to promote availability and sustainability of family planning services worldwide. She was the NC Director of Policy for a reproductive health organization before co-founding Points True North (PTN) Consulting in 2022 and is currently engaged in the implementation of pharmacist-initiated contraception in NC. She has many years of experience working with progressive organizations on a range of critical health, gender, racial and social justice issues and expertise in building coalitions and driving policy change. Notable recent policy achievements include work in the extension of Medicaid for Pregnant Women and 12-month dispensing of contraception through Medicaid. Jill is founder and Executive Director of North Carolina Nurses for Reproductive Rights and co-developed reprohealthnc.org, dedicated to providing reproductive health access information to NC residents. She is tri-chair of NC’s Reproductive Life Planning group, board chair of the C4 arm of Pro-Choice NC, and member of the NC Perinatal Equity Collaborative. She obtained her BS from Wake Forest University and her MA from New York University.

Olivia Short, BSN, RN joins DUSON after three years as a clinical research nurse on neurological and maternal-fetal medicine studies, two of those years with Duke School of Medicine. Her passion for research blossomed during her senior thesis, where she tested the impact of biofeedback videogaming on stress and anxiety in young adults. This experience, alongside her own journey with PTSD, highlighted the importance of considering both internal and external factors in addressing anxiety, especially in low resource environments. Healthcare systems and providers play an enormous role in determining the evolution of long-term health outcomes of anxiety, PTSD, and trauma. Olivia recognized the pressing need to establish networks of trauma-informed care environments, where individuals can safely and actively shape their healthcare experiences and avoid re-traumatization and delayed or inappropriate care. Her research interests center around understanding the healthcare experiences of survivors of interpersonal violence, particularly those dealing with chronic pain and PTSD, and addressing individual and systemic barriers to improved care coordination. With a passion for holistic sexual health, Olivia aims to incorporate education on violence prevention, power dynamics, autonomy, and pleasure within the trauma-informed framework. Outside of her professional endeavors, she enjoys spending quality time with her partner and their cat Nutmeg. She spends as much time as she can doing activities that fill her cup such as cooking, reading fiction, camping, hiking, dancing, and playing piano.

Tamia Walker-Atwater BSN, RN, CNRN , is a recipient of the Duke University Dean's Graduate Fellowship and has a passion for intimate partner violence research. She began her nursing career in 2018 at the University of Virginia Health System in acute care neurology. During her time here, she explored her passion for research through several initiatives with stroke, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury patients, developing models for safer practice across the care continuum. Born from her professional and personal experience, her research interest includes exploring the intersection of neuroscience, nursing education, and intimate partner violence—a field in which she has already co-authored published work. Through her research, she aims to develop models for the healthcare profession that help to explore and define the landscape of neuroscience nursing research.

2022 Cohort

Patricia (Patty) Alonso, MSN, FNP-BC, RN-BC, CNOR(E) is dedicated to finding health care access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for patients at high-risk of HIV transmission globally. Her learning experience at Duke in the ABSN and MSN programs plus work on multiple different specialties at Duke Health has fostered her interest in HIV and global health care. She obtained both her Bachelors of Science in Nursing degree and Masters of Science of Nursing as Family Nurse Practitioner with and HIV concentration at the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON). Patty looks forward to completing her PhD as well, becoming a triple Duke grad! During her time at Duke, she has worked in-patient, outpatient and as a telehealth triage nurse for COVID and Endocrinology. This has given her a broad view into how nursing works on many levels but has also helped to foster her desire to study HIV by seeing the health disparities in the healthcare system. In addition to her work as a staff nurse at Duke Health, she has been a Clinical Instructor at DUSON for several years. She especially enjoys teaching the beginning nursing students how to complete basic nursing skills and learn the tricks of the trade to becoming a novice nurse. In her spare time, Patty enjoys reading books that are not required by school, baking pastries and being able to spend time with her family.

Elena Bregier, MSN-Ed, BSN , is passionate about providing equitable care for pediatric congenital cardiac populations. She has volunteered for over a decade to help provide sustainable surgical access for children with congenital heart disease around the world. Elena is committed to improving equitable, comprehensive care for this vulnerable population. While obtaining her BSN, Elena achieved the Outstanding Student Award at Michigan State University. After a decade of bedside practice, international volunteerism, and travel nursing, Elena obtained her MSN for education and worked as an academic specialist for West Coast University, Los Angeles, to support the persistence and outcomes of accelerated BSN students. Elena remains actively involved as a writer and volunteer mentor in the non-profit organization Be1Support1 to promote the success of new graduate nurses.

Patricia G. Buzelli, MSN, BA, AGNP-C is a recipient of Duke University's Dean's Graduate Fellowship and has a research interest in in improving care for Latinx immigrant families living through the loss of a child to cancer, focusing on asset framing and resiliency. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Patricia has wielded her lived experiences to guide her academic and clinical pursuits over the last decade. She graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a psychology degree, where she worked as a research assistant in the Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development, was in the first cohort of the Health Equity Scholars Program, and worked on a Brazilian transnational project. Having always wanted to pursue a career in nursing, she then attended Johns Hopkins University for her BSN and MSN-NP where, as a research honors student and Fuld Fellow, she completed a capstone project analyzing racial difference in religious coping and depressive symptoms by extrapolating data from an end-of-life decision-making trial. Patricia has since been immersed in clinical practice as a Nurse Practitioner where she has developed her expertise in hematology oncology and captured the practice challenges that remain in providing equitable care for immigrant populations.

Lisa Carnago, FNP-C, MSN, BSN, RN aspires to develop health care innovations addressing chronic pain among patients and opioid prescribing behaviors among providers. Her prior clinical experience as a nurse in multiple settings, ranging from Intensive care, Emergency Department and Cardiac Care Units, and her personal experience of having a family member with a painful autoimmune condition has informed her perspectives on pain management, stigma, and health care navigational pitfalls. In 2016, she obtained her MSN with a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) concentration from James Madison University (JMU), where she was selected for the Virginia Nurse Advocate Health Policy Fellowship. She then began her FNP career as a Rheumatology Nurse Practitioner at Duke Health, which has greatly informed her perspective of the chronic autoimmune condition, chronic pain, and pain management needs, including opioid prescribing. Through her leadership, she has created team-based work flows and processes to improve the uptake of risk mitigation strategies for opioid use and increased the understanding of opioid pain management approaches needed to improve the health and well-being of individuals experiencing chronic pain. She also participates on multiple Duke Health System committees including the safe opioid prescribing and optimal management groups, which are working towards system level improvements in pain management.

Margaret Fletcher, BSN, RN graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2013 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Nursing. During her time in school, she completed an honors thesis on nursing perspectives related to parental presence during invasive procedures in pediatric patients. She has since worked in various settings, with patients of all ages and across multiple levels of acuity, but was most inspired by her patients in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. The advances in this relatively new field are remarkable, however the neurologic sequelae for these patients can be profound and have a significant ongoing impact on quality of life. Margaret chose to pursue a PhD in nursing in hopes of improving long term quality of life for children following intensive care admission, congenital heart disease, and other experiences which place them at a higher risk of neurodevelopmental ramifications.

Donghwan Lee, BSN, RN graduated in 2018 with a BSN from Gyeongsang National University and worked as a registered nurse in the PACU of the Seoul Asan Medical Center. For four years working as a PACU nurse, he had participated in more than 1000 cases of surgeries. He noticed that patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) have a higher risk of complications and poorer prognosis after surgery, and were more likely to have higher hospitalization costs. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, he also witnessed how cardiovascular disease negatively affected patients’ outcomes and quality of life. Health disparities severely affect health outcomes of CVD patients, especially those who are marginalized in other ways in society, such as limited access to education or health resources. He is passionate about developing mHealth technologies that are easy to use for the elderly and other medically high-risk individuals through health literacy measurements that are specific for CVD patients and can later be applied to a wider variety of people. Through his research, he aims to develop interventions that can resolve personal, technical, and contextual related factors to break down the barriers to the application of mHealth for these populations.

Mirlene Perry, MSN, BSN, RN has been a cardiac nurse for the last 15 years and has worked at Johns Hopkins and Duke Hospitals. She received her BSN at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA and her MSN at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore MD. Originally from Haiti, she was a surgical and community health nurse at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in rural Haiti before relocating to the US. Although she has been committed to providing direct patient care, Mirlene decided to pursue a career as a nurse scientist to address her passion for community-based primary health care in low-and middle-income countries. Mirlene’s purpose for undertaking doctorate-level studies is to acquire competencies that will help her to be an advocate for programs that can improve the health and well-being of mothers and children who are dying from readily preventable and treatable conditions-- still more than 10 million per year (including stillbirths). Her main goal is to translate her nursing knowledge and her global health experience to develop and scale interventions addressing maternal and child health disparities and chronic health conditions using a bottom-up and task-shifting approaches that empower communities to improve their own health.

Julia Slack, BSN, RN is passionate about reducing the symptom burden for those suffering from cancer. Her interest in oncology symptom science started as a young girl watching her grandmother undergo treatment for breast cancer and the negative impact a high symptom burden had on quality of life. Julia graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Emory University Nell Hodgson School of Nursing in 2022. During her time at Emory, she further cultivated her passion for oncology research through her time spent in the Bai Laboratory investigating the biopsychosocial mechanisms of cancer symptoms. This work led her to complete an honors thesis focused on the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers and fatigue in black women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Julia has presented her work at multiple scientific conferences and published in several leading journals such as Nature Communications and the Journal of Virology. She also is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society of Nursing and the Southern Nursing Research Society. While at Duke, Julia plans to continue researching the physiological and biological pathways that contribute to the symptom experience for those dealing with cancer in order to better inform interventions.

2021 Cohort

Maryam Al-Mujtaba MPH, BSN, RN, RM, PGDip, PGCert has research interests in the health of adolescents living with HIV, interventions to reduce maternal and child morbidity and mortality in resource-limited settings, cancer screening in medically underserved populations, cancer survivorship, and HIV treatment in adult populations. Since 2010, Maryam has led/significantly contributed to the coordination, administration and management of health and research programs in Nigeria and Canada. In Nigeria, she coordinated the first nurse-led 'see and treat' cervical cancer screening program (which screened over 3,000 women for cervical cancer in two years). In Canada, as a research associate at Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario), Maryam led the analysis and report writing of data from 25 interviews with Aboriginal Canadians on barriers and facilitators to cancer screening. Maryam has extensive experience working on qualitative and quantitative studies and she has presented her work at international scientific conferences, and published in several leading journals, such as PLOS One , BMC Infectious Diseases and Journal of AIDS and HIV Research and Biomed Research International .

Katie Brooks, DNP, AGPCNP-BC has clinical expertise in geriatric care and has a deep passion for providing high-quality, individualized, age-appropriate care for all patients. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with her BSN from Auburn University in 2014. Her background as a registered nurse on an Ortho/Neuro surgical floor sparked her interest in the unique care of the older adult population. She furthered her knowledge by obtaining her Adult-Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner degree at Vanderbilt University, followed by a year-long Internal Medicine fellowship in Charlotte, North Carolina. While working as a primary care provider in an internal medicine clinic, Katie sought to further improve her practice through the pursuit of her Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree from Duke University. During this time, she implemented a quality improvement project that focused on dementia screening in the primary care setting while simultaneously working with faculty on their research as part of an independent study elective. It was through these experiences that she recognized the distinctive and important role of a nurse scientist while concurrently seeing how her training and passion for the older adult population would allow her to bring a unique practice perspective to her research. Throughout her training at Duke, Katie strives to continue her pursuit of ensuring all older adults receive the highest level of age-appropriate and evidence-based care.

Sarah Janek, BSN, RN, ACRN has an interest in research focused on sexual health disparities related to race and sexuality within the LGBTQ+ community. Sarah’s past research focused on HIV prevention for black and Hispanic/Latino men who have sex with men using technological integration with at-home testing. She was introduced to this field as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan School of Nursing Honors Program. Sarah studied qualitative research methods and how cultural competence intertwines with research study recruitment. After graduating in 2020, she began clinical work as an RN at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on an orthopedic/trauma unit. On a unit that later transitioned into a COVID-19 step-down intensive care unit, Sarah witnessed first-hand how health disparities affect various populations depending on backgrounds and experiences. To seek leadership opportunities, Sarah became a HIV/AIDS Certified Registered Nurse (ACRN), and she trained to be a Skin Champion for her unit, performing audits, educating staff, and caring for patients to prevent pressure injuries. While caring for LGBTQ+ patients at Northwestern, she gained additional clinical experiences with the community and volunteered at Howard Brown Health in downtown Chicago during this time. Sarah’s academic, professional, and philanthropic experiences led her to pursuing a career in research full-time to mitigate health disparities.

Shewit Jaynes, MSPH, BSN, RN is passionate about improving health outcomes for all birthing people by eliminating health disparities. Her work experience as a postpartum nurse sparked her interest in critically evaluating health policies that impact her patients' lives. She obtained her MSPH from UNC Chapel Hill in the department of Health Policy & Management. During her time at UNC, she worked on various maternal health projects including conducting a policy analysis for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) on how to reduce maternal mortality among Black women. In addition, Shewit served as a research assistant for the UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health where she conducted qualitative video coding. Shewit has been actively involved in various diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. She helped form the Health Policy & Management Student Equity Collective, a student-led organization dedicated to creating, promoting, and sustaining equity within the department. In addition, she co-chaired the largest and longest running student-led health conference, the Minority Health Conference.

Youran Lee, MSN, BSN, RN is passionate about research on caring for vulnerable cancer survivors in the community using innovative technology. She dreamed of becoming a nurse when she watched her mother who loved nursing and was very proud to be a nurse. Youran broadened her understanding of humanity and diversity through various volunteer activities. During a volunteering experience in Ethiopia, she witnessed the need for nursing care in a challenging environment. To decrease health disparities, she volunteered in developing countries such as Malaysia, Cambodia, and Tanzania, sensing a global need for nursing care. After graduating with her BSN, she worked as a cancer ward nurse at Asan Medical Center in Korea. While working as a nurse in the gastric cancer ward, academic curiosity to provide high-quality care to patients through evidence-based nursing led her to study for her master’s degree in nursing. During her master’s studies she participated in a study funded by the Korean government to establish intensive care unit in nursing homes. Her role on this project was to educate nursing staff, develop nursing manuals, draft web-based questionnaires, collect and analyze the data, and write reports. Through this project, she contributed to the change of health policies in nursing home facilities. This research experience led her to desire more advanced training in research. In addition, an unexpected life event further motivated Youran when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. As a cancer survivor, having direct experience in dealing with a challenging and unexpected diagnosis allowed her to connect with patients with a deeper understanding. Through her doctoral program at Duke, she hopes to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors, and to contribute to better health outcomes by bringing together knowledge, science, professional compassion, and personal empathy.

Christian “Ian” Noval, MCR, BSN, RN, CCRN is from the Cordilleras in the Philippines. He completed his bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Far Eastern University (Cum Laude) in 2006 and has since practiced as a registered nurse. His nursing experience extends from working across different healthcare settings to include: the Philippines, the United Arab of Emirates, the United Kingdom, and most recently in the United States. This experience across different healthcare systems has helped him to better understand how belief and culture affects patient care. As a registered nurse, he has worked as an infection prevention nurse, a case manager, a mentor and preceptor for nursing students and entry-level nurses, and recently as the Lead Research Nurse for a COVID-19 drug trial at the University of Texas Health-Houston. Christian’s research interest started when he was working in the NHS (United Kingdom) and contributed to clinical trials from the University of Edinburgh and the Ohio State University where he completed his master’s in clinical research (MCR). Christian is a certified critical care nurse (CCRN) and a member of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (STTI), and the Texas Emergency Medicine Research Center (TEMRC). As he joins Duke University School of Nursing PhD in Nursing program, his research focus is on palliative care in a critical care environment. He believes that patients in a high acuity environment should be able to decide the path of their care and should receive competent and compassionate care from their healthcare providers, wherever they fall within the health-illness continuum.

Paige Randall MS, BSN, RN, CNE has been a Registered Nurse since 2013. She received her MS in Nursing Education and BSN from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. Paige’s clinical background is in cardiac and emergency nursing. She started working as a nurse educator in 2016 in upstate NY, and moved to Raleigh, NC in December 2019 where she continued to work as a nurse educator at a community college. Paige has a certification in nursing education and received the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Faculty in 2018. Her research interests during her master’s program were focused on the topic of self-directed learning (SDL) in nursing students and educators. During her doctoral studies, she is interested in exploring how resilience impacts the transition to practice experience among newly graduated nurses. She is also interested in using innovative qualitative data collection techniques such as online photovoice and virtual focus groups. Paige is a board member of the North Carolina Nurse’s Association, the National League for Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

Dingyue (Demy) Wang, BSN, RN is originally from Kunming, China. She moved to Atlanta in 2017 and completed her BSN at Emory University. Demy loves bedside nursing, but as she explored various research opportunities, she found her passion in nursing research, a field that delves into the science of human health and health-related behaviors. Demy’s experience working with gerontological patients has provided her with invaluable insight and guided the decision to concentrate on caregivers, who have a pivotal role in patient care but are increasingly susceptible to experiencing caregiver stress, often resulting in becoming the “second patient.” Her current research is centered around understanding how caregivers perceive and cope with stress (caregiving stress appraisal) and how the stress appraisal process impacts their cognitive well-being. Looking ahead, Demy’s research objectives include the development of interventions aimed at fostering effective stress management, promoting healthy cognitive function, and enhancing the quality of life for caregivers. The overarching goal is to improve patient and family outcomes while advancing health equity through the creation of innovative educational models, training programs, and support systems designed to equip caregivers with both technical and adaptive skills essential for effective home care.

2020 Cohort

Suzanne M. Frisbee is a Raleigh, North Carolina native. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Neuroscience from East Carolina University in 2012. She completed her senior thesis on the brain wave activity of a mindfulness meditation stress reduction intervention in college students. She also participated in the National Science Foundation's Mechanisms of Behavior Neuroscience summer program where she researched the impact of stress and addiction on specific brain regions. Suzanne returned to school at Duke University's School of Nursing as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation scholar. Supporting herself through nursing school, she worked in a behavioral neuroscience lab in the Bowels Center for Alcohol Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. There, she worked on research regarding the interceptive effects of alcohol and nicotine on drug seeking behaviors and relapse after a stressful event. She graduated with honors with her BSN in 2016. She began her nursing career as an Operating Room registered nurse and has since become a certified perioperative nurse (CNOR). Her involvement in post-operative pain assessment surveys has influenced her current research interests. Her aim is to combine her neuroscience background in stress and addiction with her nursing knowledge. Particularly, how stressful environments and/or events in one's past impacts their susceptibility to addiction, the health outcomes of addictive behaviors and preventive measures that can be taken in order to ensure that addictive behavior does not develop in adolescence and carry on into adulthood.

Kimberlee Grier, BSN, RN, CHPN, PhD Candidate graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin where she received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. She has worked with both chronically ill adults and children, finding her passion in pediatric hospice and palliative care, specifically community-based care. She was dually nationally certified as a Certified Hospice and Palliative Pediatric Nurse and a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse . Through her experience at work, she became highly motivated to contribute to the research of priority populations, including pediatric patients and families. She has published in the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing as well as presented at both US and international conferences. In line with her desire to help vulnerable populations, Kim has been a foster parent in Durham since 2017. She is a co-founder and co-chair of Fostering Families, a non-profit organization that advocates for meaningful system change and strives to empower foster parents and their families. Kim is also on the family council for North Carolina Integrated Care for Kids. In her work as a foster parent, she became cognizant of the significant policy and practice gaps that exist regarding mental health access and equity for children in foster care. Her interest in health policy and passion for advocating for vulnerable pediatric populations led her to the Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy where she was chosen as a Margolis Honors Scholar. She was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau Honors Society. Kim is an avid equestrian and enjoys being in nature with her spouse and four children. During her time at Duke, she plans to integrate her foster care and mental health aspirations with health policy so vulnerable and underserved families can benefit.

HyunBin You earned her BSN (2015, Cum Laude) and MSN (2019) from Seoul National University, South Korea. She worked as a nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Seoul National University Hospital, South Korea (2015-2019). While practicing as a nurse, she provided the best possible patient-centered care to improve ICU patients' health outcomes during their critical point in life and got interested in patient and family experience. During her time at SNU, she investigated the influencing factors of the satisfaction of ICU families elaborating their anxiety and critical care needs of ICU families on her masters' thesis. She then transitioned herself as a research assistant of Chronic Care Research Lab at SNU (2019-2020) where she found great enthusiasm in research. More recently, her research interests focus on resilience and transitional care of the adult ICU patients. She plans to continue supporting patients and their families to have a better experience maximizing resilience at their critical point of life through her research here at Duke University School of Nursing.

2019 Cohort

2018 Cohort

Research article
Open access
Published: 28 April 2015

I am only a nurse: a biographical narrative study of a nurse’s self-understanding and its implication for practice

Ellen Ramvi 1

BMC Nursing volume 14 , Article number: 23 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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The personal is a vital part of professional nursing practice. From a psycho-social perspective, nurses produce and reproduce conceptions of the Self through experience. A literature search on nurses’ self-understanding in a psycho-social perspective yields no results. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate personal and professional experiences that may have formed the self-understanding of a nurse, and how this self-understanding may have influenced her professional practice.

Using a single case approach, I conducted a Biographical Narrative Interview with a 50-year-old experienced Norwegian nurse. I asked the nurse to tell me the story of her life and how her work has affected her and possibly changed the way she saw herself. The overall aim of the interpretation was to understand the historically situated subjectivity in terms of the nurse’s personal, social and professional constraints and chosen options.

The nurse’s narrative of her life story made it possible to trace a common theme throughout her experiences, the experience of being “only a nurse”. The nurse experienced a low status, as well as a downgrade in the competence needed to deliver quality care in professional relationships. She felt it difficult to identify with the experience of being on the bottom of the social ladder and to identify with the female, mothering ideal connected to nursing. She desired a better position, and wanted to identify with strong women. In contrast to reality, her self-understanding influenced her relationship with her patients, her professional pride and her further professional development.

Conclusions

This study shows that the professional practice of a nurse was informed by her self-understanding. This study suggests that the individual nurse must be given the opportunity to explore her professional vulnerability based on the assumption that it is both personally and socially constituted. This study indicates that the exploration of a nurse’s self-understanding is one way to contribute to professional development.

Peer Review reports

In an exploration of the nature of nursing and the function of the nurse within a 21 st century health-care system, researchers conclude that an understanding of nursing practice places demands not only on the technical competence of the nurse, but also on “the personhood” of the nurse [ 1 ]. The nurse has to be personally involved and “use herself” [ 2 - 4 ], and it is difficult to say where the personal ends and the professional begins. The assumption that the personal informs the professional and vice versa is supported by several studies e.g. [ 2 , 5 - 8 ]. Iranmanesh et al . [ 8 ] address this by saying “a particular nurse’s understanding of care and the content of that care depend on his or her life story ” (p. 208). Moreover, the assumption is that nurses’ professional identities develop throughout their lifetimes [ 9 ]. As Henderson [ 5 ] puts it: “… the self which is private person and the self which is nurse are constantly interacting and changing one another ” (p. 135). A number of studies on nurses’ self-concept e.g. [ 9 , 10 ] have been published, as they are closely linked to-, yet separate from professional identity. Arbon [ 11 ] echoes the understanding of nursing practice as something one “is”. He says: “ The uniqueness apparent in the ways that individual nurses relate to others and enact their practice is interesting, and seems to be associated with personal understandings about who they are and what is important to them. These features of the individual appear, often, to be related to their life experience(s) and not just experience in clinical situations as a nurse; and this is reflected consistently in nurses’ stories about practice ” (p. 150).

The relationship between nurse and patient has historically evolved from a subject-object- to a subject-subject relationship, thereby leading to an intensified need for self-reflection and introspection by nurses and other relationship workers [ 12 ]. Thus, the importance of self-awareness [ 13 ] in the nurse-patient relationship is underscored.

As its point of departure, the present study makes an underlying assumption that nurses produce and reproduce conceptions of the self through experience. A psycho-social perspective was adopted which assumes that the psyche and one’s social life are mutually constitutive [ 14 ]. In light of this perspective, the experience of the self is a substantial dimension in our inner, subjective world that affects our attitudes and our choices, through which our relationships to other people are also affected. However, the experience of the self is only partially consciously available to the individual, as we often avoid engaging with painful matters through all sorts of means [ 14 ]. In this perspective, it is a great challenge to perceive a clear mental boundary set between not-I and I. It can be difficult to distinguish the thoughts I attach to another, but that are really my own, and the thoughts and emotions that belong to the other person. Using the “self” is thus to be able to possess self-knowledge, which is made difficult by projective processes. Hence, we are “defending subjects” [ 15 ].

As it appears here, the psycho-social perspective is closely related to psychoanalytic thinking. However, in a psycho-social perspective, the subject and the inner world cannot be understood without knowledge of the subjective experience in the world, and vice versa. The characteristic of the psycho-social perspective is therefore that attention is paid to the dialectic between inner experience and the social conditions of the experience [ 16 ]. A psycho-social approach is of value in the investigation of nurses’ life experiences, social relationships and beliefs, while also responding to individual needs, strengths and vulnerabilities that may be developmental or constitutional in origin. It is in this perspective that I use the word self-understanding in this study. It is not because it necessarily differs from other concepts mentioned above, but because what I am after is a self-understanding that also considered unconscious processes. A literature search on nurses and self-understanding in this psycho-social perspective yielded no results. Hence, the aim of this present study was to investigate personal and professional experiences that may have formed the self-understanding of a nurse, and how this self-understanding may have influenced her professional practice. Whereas standards seek to define and prescribe the professional role that nurses play, nurses’ self-understanding is complex and socially situated within lived experiences.

The psycho-social perspective in this study demands a methodology that avoids psychological reductionism on the one hand and an over-social view of the subject on the other. To help capture the nurse’s way of making sense of her personal, social and professional world as it evolved over time [ 17 ], the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) [ 18 , 19 ] was chosen.

In this article, I present a single individual. In accordance with Creswell [ 20 ], the central purpose or focus of a narrative approach is on the life of an individual. Within psycho-social research, a priority is also given to a holistic analysis of an individual case [ 21 , 15 ]. The single case approach chosen in this article gives an opportunity to explore in detail one nurse’s situated subjectivity. This in-depth inquiry can lead to a basic understanding of how self-understanding (affected by conscious and unconscious experiences from personal and professional life) impacts on a nurse’s professional practice. I agree with Chamberlayne and King [ 17 ], who sum up the advantages of single case approach in this way: (i) It avoids the invocation of grand narratives; (ii) It retains the individuality of the case while highlighting its key dynamic; and (iii) It elucidates the process of analysis and interpretation. For this study, it is important how the method helps the informant to relate the personal to the social, and to probe unconscious, latent meanings. The study will therefore not be able to simply present the nurse’s account of her situation, but to also make an interpretation of underlying personal meaning. Chamberlayne and King [ 17 ] refer to a “double significance”; for while the meanings are highly specific to the individual self-understanding and professional identity of the nurse, they are also “cultural artefacts” (p. 98) that arise from a particular social and cultural context. It is not assumed the nurse will “tell it like it is” [ 15 ], but through analysis the story is seen to offer a means to understand the nurse as a situated subject [ 18 ]. Within a psychosocial approach, the task of theory moves from codifying abstract regularities and generalizing across cases, to making thick descriptions and generalizing within them [ 22 ].

The study was approved by the Norwegian Social Science Data Service in Bergen, Norway (project no. 19246) and by the research unit at a university hospital in Norway. A purposive sample [ 23 ] of one registered nurse took part in the study. Head nurse from a surgical unit at a university hospital recruited an experienced nurse, and both written and oral information was provided. The nurse gave her written consent to the interview, and was informed about her right to full confidentiality and to be able to withdraw from the study at any time with no negative consequences [ 24 ]. In order to protect the identity of the nurse in the case presented, some sensitive details were omitted and some were also changed in the published story.

Data collection

The BNIM is a structured and staged method of interviewing and case-based analysis. The narrative interview primarily involves two sub-sessions [ 18 , 19 ], with the first sub-session starting with a “single question aimed at inducing narrative” (SQUIN). The interviewer facilitates open responses, but never directs or comments. The interviewee then decides on the shape of her response, which ends the first sub-session. The SQUIN presented to the nurse was: Can you tell me the story of your life and how your work has affected you and maybe changed the way you see yourself? Include those events and experiences that were personally important to you. Begin wherever you like and take as much time as you need.

In the second sub-session, the interviewee was asked to only tell “more stories” and give more narration. She was pushed towards particular incident narratives (PINs) and away from theories, arguments or justifications. Moreover, she was asked about the items she raised, in the order she raised them and using her own phrases.

Maria is a 50-year-old nurse, whose interview was conducted at the hospital in a quiet room connected to the unit where she worked. At first, she told her life story (sub-session one) in 10 minutes (upbringing, schooling, travels, higher education, family activities). However, when I (the interviewer) was quiet, she continued her story with some breaks until she stopped the interview after 27 minutes. Following a short, 10-minute break, we began sub-session two, pushing for PINs. This part of the interview lasted 1.5 hours, with the interview lasting two hours. The presentation of her story includes stories from both sub-sessions and follows the order of events as she relayed them.

The BNIM analysis implies a thorough process leading towards an understanding of the individual case, with the process interpretation procedures explained in Wengraf [ 18 , 19 ].

The interview was taped and transcribed verbatim, and as I was transcribing I was engaging in a free associative process – a first reading to identify my initial response as a researcher [ 19 ]. I made use of a three-column form as I transcribed, in which the centre column was the transcription while the right column was continuously filled with my initial free associative responses to what I heard. In the left column, I recorded both the time and marks about text sorts (a manner of speaking such as report, argumentation, evaluation, PIN, etc.).

The BNIM has two basic interpretive tracks, which I first interpreted separately and then together: (i) the living of the lived life, and (ii) the telling of the told story. In addition to the analyses conducted by the researcher, the BNIM relied on the involvement of an interpretation panel in the beginning of the analysis process to help me (the researcher) expand my imaginative capacity and avoid being left alone with my inevitable sub-cultural spontaneous presuppositions, prejudices and blind spots. I arranged two panels, with each lasting three hours. I started the two tracks’ interpretation by creating the chronology of “objective” biographical data (the “living of the lived life”). The first panel session was interpreted on this chronological biographical data track, whereas the second panel session was interpreted on the track of “the telling of the told story”, i.e. the sequence of segments in which the telling of the told story was put forth. In these panels, we developed future-blind hypotheses and counter-hypotheses, using a chunk-by-chunk interpretation. In other words, the interpretive panel tries to simulate the interviewee’s own subjective living of life and telling of life as it is revealed to them text segment by text segment. By multiplying the different ways this particular life could have been lived (first panel) and this narrative told (second panel), I was attempting to get a grasp on the double experience of the nurse, both the “then” subjectivity and the “now” subjectivity (during the interview).

Through the use of panels, the BNIM takes seriously not only that experiences in life are personal, but also that the meaning of these experiences is socially and discursively appropriated, informed by cultural discourses and relative to the situation. The panel is supposed to be heterogeneous. However, the panel I used in this particular case had some key features in common with each other and with the informant, namely that they were women, and were within the same age group as the inclusion criteria for the nurses in the study. The reason for this choice was that this panel would be able to recognize and identify with the nurse’s story, the time she was brought up and the political and societal environment she grew up in. Two of the three panels’ members were also nurses in different positions – one as a research nurse in a competence centre and one as the head of an institute of health at a university. The third member of the panel had an education as a preschool teacher and worked as a lecturer at the preschool teacher education at a university. Nonetheless, despite the similarities between the panel members and the nurse, the three women also represented differences, as experiences are always subjective and every individual hold different outlooks and attitudes. The panel expanded the range of considered interpretations to the case material because they were able to identify and distance themselves, while feeling both familiar and strange in relation to the story of the nurse.

After this valuable input to my interpretation, I continued the twin-track interpretation work on my own, attempting to reconstruct (imagine) how the interviewee experienced the successive experiences and actions of her life, and, at different moments, how she made sense (or failed to make sense) of that evolving life. In particular, how did she make sense of that entire evolving life being studied by telling it in the specific way that she did? I summarized both “the living of the lived life” and “the telling of the told story” as according to my current understanding of the pattern of each track.

In addition, I conducted a microanalysis at the annual conference of the International Group for Psychosocietal Research, which is held in Dubrovnik, Croatia every year, and where I am a member. Here, an interpretation from the in-depth hermeneutic European critical theory tradition, known as “the interpretation group method” [ 25 , 26 ], was conducted. The method involved an in-depth reading of part (two pages) of the transcript in a group of six researchers, which included an interpretation of also being aware of our (the interpreters) own responses and other associations.

The last step in the interpretation process was to bring the two interpretive tracks and the microanalyses together in a “case history” that integrated everything. The overall task for the interpretation was to understand the historically situated subjectivity in terms of the nurse’s personal, social and professional constraints and chosen options, the understanding of which goes beyond the self-understanding of the biographer [ 27 ].

First, I present the case history (“The life story of Maria”), and then I subsequently present a psycho-social interpretation of her life story in the Discussion section of the article.

Study limitations

This in-depth case study sought to understand the lived experience of one specific nurse.

Therefore, the quest was not for objectivity and explanation, but for subjective meanings and deeper understandings [ 18 ]. The BNIM helps to facilitate an understanding of both the “inner” and “outer” worlds of “historically-evolving persons-in-historically-evolving situations”, and particularly the interactivity of inner and outer world dynamics. Thus, an analysis of narratives provided by other nurses would necessarily bring different experiences and a variety of self-understandings, influencing professional practice differently, however, these are not within the scope of this particular study. Moreover, one of the principles in the BNIM is to elicit narratives in an uninterrupted way (sub-session one). The story told by the nurse sets a framework for what I come to know (in sub-session two), as I am restricted to asking questions within this framework put up by the nurse in her first story. Finally, I stated earlier in this article that I encountered the “defended subject” (the nurse) in my theoretical perspective. A consequence of this stand is the assumption that I am the “defended researcher”. Thus, any interpretation of the nurse’s story is incomplete, unfinished and a rendering from my own perspective as a female nurse and researcher, born within the same period of time as the nurse. The use of panels and peer groups in data analyses is a way to meet this challenge.

T he life story of Maria

Maria’s background.

Maria grew up as the eldest of five siblings in a town on the western coast of Norway. Her mother was a homemaker. Her father had a university degree and a good job. Both of her parents came from a working-class background. Maria gave few specifics about her childhood, except to say “ Through all the years my parents always stressed that we had to get an education. That’s what I was weaned on.” She had no clear or specific memory of why she felt that her parents gave such high priority to education. She began a programme to become an auxiliary nurse because her parents strongly suggested it. The way she describes it, Maria passively accepted what her parents had proposed. However, Maria did not enjoy the role of an auxiliary nurse “ because auxiliary nurses are at the lowest rung of the ladder ”. To explain what she meant, she described an experience in which she was in the on-call room together with a younger nurse who referred to her as “ a ‘witty’ auxiliary nurse. She actually meant it in a good way, but I felt a huge difference in rank since I was only mentioned as the auxiliary nurse who was witty .” Maria said it was “ degrading ” and “ humiliating ”. She also recalled how the doctors and nurses discussed matters in the on-call room, “…and I thought that I could have contributed some valuable information and such, but there was really no room for me to participate, and I also felt a little…uh…it was a feeling of being pushed aside…I didn’t feel at home in that role, on the bottom rung without anything to say ”.

As a 30-year-old, Maria began her nursing studies. By then she was married and had a daughter. She described her decision to begin studying nursing as a coincidence, steered by others. She had applied for admission to an art school, but she had some friends who started nursing studies and so she thought, “ Why not ?” Maria said, “ At least I was happier as a full-fledged nurse than as an auxiliary nurse. But I don’t think of being a nurse as a job with high status. (…) Uh…of course such things are also important in our lives. How we see ourselves. It would be fun to introduce myself as a doctor once in a while. ”

Maria’s experiences as a nurse

After completing her nursing degree, Maria had another daughter and worked in part-time positions for periods of one to two years in various hospital units. In the past 10 years she has worked in the cancer unit in an 80 percent position, and she still works there. Maria clearly remembers her first patients there, including: “ The elderly artist – yes, I remember him very well. He talked and told me about his life, and I sat and listened, and it was very, very, very, it was sort of like I was high when I left his room because it was so fantastic. Uh, but it’s a little strange sometimes. The first time I meet people, it’s so wonderful, you know, but it doesn’t always stay that way (…) I’m not so good at following up (…) Maybe I gave the impression, maybe he had a higher opinion of me as a starting point – that I understood more, was more capable, was smarter, that I gave that impression, but then there wasn’t so much to me after all (…) that I wasn’t so exciting after all.”

Maria gave several examples of this: “ I remember another patient. She was a lovely woman with a high level of education and a great job and such here in the city. Very pleasant and very poised and polite, (…) and she talked about all kinds of things, (…), but after a while it became, uh, embarrassing. (…) I don’t know if I end up in a sort of a servile role after some time, where I’m so incredibly nice, uh, ‘Do you want something to eat?’, ‘Do you want something to read?’, ‘What can I do for you?’, ‘How are you feeling?’, ‘What is wrong?’ and such. Something about that is not right! Maybe ( she laughs a little ), it’s like I’m glad to be finished with them, in a way. ”

Maria said that even though she experienced many sad situations in the cancer unit, she enjoyed her work very much. “ I’m often glad when I leave work ,” she said. She told about an incident in which she had been praised by a patient and had told the story at the dinner table at home: “…so my daughter says ‘I also want to be a nurse!’ ( she shouts ). No…uh…it’s not that I need so much praise, but the gratitude you encounter – that feels wonderful! Uh..that is…the feeling that you can help, that it was important in a small way that I was there at that precise time and had time to talk with him or her. That feels good .”

In spite of this, Maria said she would not advise her daughters to become nurses. This is not because of what the job entails, but it is related to “ the experience of inferiority. I as a nurse feel small – that I don’t have a position .” She also said: “ It has to do with status and salary and the like. That is also significant in our lives .” Maria reflected over the fact that it was perhaps the satisfaction of working in the cancer unit that made her feel she enjoyed her work.

How the experience has changed Maria

Maria told about the individuals she met and how “ incredibly well the patients handle news about death and suffering and sorrow”. Then she reflected : “…but whether you become so much wiser, you wish that you could sometimes pour out your experience ( she laughs a little while she talks ) and really be supportive and helpful. I often feel small when I encounter those people. You don’t exactly know what to say .” Then she said: “ I don’t know if I do my job any better today than I did 10 years ago .” She mentions practical things she has become more confident about, but she does not know if she has gotten any better at being a “ conversation partner ”. Both privately (as a woman) and on the job (as a nurse), it seems that Maria experienced “ the conversation ” as a demand to listen without getting anything in return. “ Sometimes in social situations you can get the feeling that it’s the nurse sitting there and I’m present for the sake of others. ”

Towards the end of the interview, Maria said that she had given some thought to what she believed I wanted to ask her based on the information material for the interview: how my choice of profession has affected me as a person . Maria hesitated and said that “ Personally I think genetics and such are stronger. I don’t think people change very much. Uh…I think I resemble my father, and I think he’s similar to me too ( she laughs when she talks ), and he has not even been close to this profession .” She said that he is a good listener. Maria did not talk about her mother at all in the interview.

Maria also said that she does not feel proud of her identity as a nurse. “ I don’t feel proud at all really ” and she thought maybe this is because “ nursing is so diffuse. Anyone could do it. Being a fellow human being, or being supportive and helpful, is not something that requires…so much ”. She laughed softly and said “ I shouldn’t have said that ”.

Although Maria said that she was not proud of her identity as a nurse, she did say that she thinks the nurses in the unit where she currently works “ have the best attitudes I have ever encountered. If I or any or my loved ones were to get sick, I would feel safe and secure with each and every nurse here. ” However, Maria criticized the fact that the nursing profession is “ dominated by women ” and said “ working with so many women can get a little boring ”. But then she elaborated: “ I think women are fantastic .” She said she liked “…strong, tough, admirable women who dare to speak their minds, who stand up for what they believe and take up space .” But she thinks it was difficult to be around women who only were “ good and kind and mostly caregiving types. ” After pausing, she said: “ It happens a lot that people sit in the on-call room and groan and complain about the sorrow and misery we encounter on a daily basis and dream about what it would be like to work in a flower shop or have a totally different job.... ”.

Maria concluded her story by saying that she “ has thought many times that other things would have been exciting ”. Although she found her daily encounter with people with problems to be challenging, she did not think that there were any changes in the job itself. “ The things that change are the different people and new forms of treatment, but there are not big, new things to learn otherwise, or challenges otherwise, in any way .” And if she could start over, she thinks she would have taken more education – if she had “ had the energy ”.

When she finished her story, she said that she felt she had revealed too much about her private life. And then she said, “ I sit here and think, did I seem a little stupid, did I seem trite and simple ?”

To denigrate a competence that she at the same time wants to achieve

Maria's concrete experiences on becoming an adult, and encountering colleagues, patients, family and friends, reveal her concern of how little status she has as a nurse. All of us carry our own needs and inner conflicts into the workplace with us, which makes us especially vulnerable to external factors that impact our work [ 28 ]. It seems that Maria is particularly vulnerable to the external factor that status plays in her life. Through the analyses of her story, a dilemma connected to her perception of her role and herself comes to the surface. We learn that Maria denigrates the content in the nurse’s work by saying that it is something that “anyone” can do, and that care and conversation with the patients is not a proper “competence”, since it does not require any specific knowledge and is nothing to be proud of. At the same time, she says it is care and conversation that are the most difficult to be able to provide to patients over time. In other words, she put herself in an impossible situation. She can attempt to be good at something that anyone can do (and therefore nothing to be proud of), or she could give up and try to be better at it and thus get the feeling that she is not capable of something that “anyone can do”. The concern about her dilemma is that it prohibits her in her professional development.

In the following, I will discuss Maria’s self-understanding configured by the dilemma. First, I try to understand her self-understanding in a social historical context. Second, I interpret what might be at stake in a psychoanalytic perspective (a psychic interpretation). I next turn from the inner experience of Maria to the outer (a social interpretation). Here, I relate to relevant nursing literature, confirming and discussing Maria’s experience of the nursing role as being repressive. In the last section in the discussion (a psycho-social approach to professional development), I discuss possible ways for Maria to escape her dilemma, which implies that her self-understanding must be targeted psycho-socially, both by looking inside (for anxieties and defences) and outside in trying to formulate definitions of professional care.

Maria’s social historical context: experiences she carries into her professional life

In her interview, Maria told very little about her background and childhood. However, some clues were available to the panel, to the research group and to me, thereby enabling us to create a hypothesis about her childhood and how it might have influenced her life. The structure in Maria’s biography resonates with the historical context of many girls who grew up in Norway in the 1960-1970s. During the time of Maria’s childhood, the father was an important authority figure in most families. Maria’s father had broken out of the working class background he came from, and with his education lifted both himself and his family into another category, namely that of the middle class. A hypothesis from this is that Maria acquired a “responsibility” from home (without a direct expression) to represent the new generation in their family, and of those who abandoned the working class and acquired a new capital of positions, money and intellectual capacity.

In Maria’s youth during the 1970s, the women’s movement grew tremendously and gender roles were an important theme in the societal debate. As a daughter in a family, Maria may have possibly felt ambivalence towards her mother, who was only a housewife. Could this have had consequences for Maria’s relationship to caring and what she perceived as being feminine? Another feature with the 1970s in Norway was the “education explosion” [ 29 ] (p. 318), which was a sign of an upward swing in social mobility. The 1970s were also characterized by political engagement, as it was usual to demonstrate, with people taking part in protests in the streets and proclaiming their rights. Even so, the trend turned towards the end of the 1970s. A lot of money circulated in Norway because of the oil industry, and in the 1980s when Maria was a young adult struggling to decide what to do with her life, we could see big cabin cruisers, expensive cars and luxury cabins, all of which demonstrated to the entire world that to succeed economically also meant to succeed socially.

As a result, Maria grew up with ideals from several worlds, including ideals about education, self-realization, money and success. These ideals stood in contrast to the role she experienced in reality: a servile “servant” role and the “kind and nice” listening nurse, both at work and in her private life. These contrasts helped to shed light on Maria’s statements about her not identifying in a positive way with the role of a nurse, even after a long working life.

A psychic interpretation

In a psychoanalytic perspective, an infant is exposed to both conscious and unconscious adult expectations. The infant absorbs and incorporates aspects of the parental unconscious, including their wishes, expectations and hopes for this child [ 30 ] (p. 544). The child develops a sense of agency – a belief in having the capacity to bring about the desired state. An interpretation of Maria’s strong feelings of denigration and hope for an improved status and acknowledgement can be that she is unconsciously haunted by her parents, haunted by “ghostly” emotions [ 31 ]. On a conscious level, Maria has a strong feeling that education is important, as she was “ weaned on it ”. On an unconscious level, the mental states from parents are ascribed. Nevertheless, Maria can get the uncomfortable feeling of not being a representative for the new generation in her family.

People unconsciously use defences in order to keep from having to deal with their own uncomfortable feelings. Maria thinks she is good at the beginning of the relationship with her patients and the conversation between the two. She is a good listener (a trait she ascribes to her father), and she feels capable when it comes to informing patients about the procedures and routines in their treatment, but she explains that she thinks it is difficult to continue a good relationship with her patients. She says that she is afraid that the patient will discover that she is not that clever after all, and that “ there wasn’t so much to me after all ”. If we understand this as a projection, it may be Maria herself who is afraid to discover that she “ isn’t so exciting after all ”.

At the same time, it can be interpreted as a defence against the experience of falling short when she says that care and conversation are not about proper competence, but something that “ anybody can do ”. Maria has grown up with a sort of need to achieve a certain status, and feels that her identity is threatened by the experience that care has none. She does not fight for it, but instead denigrates caring competence. In a psychoanalytical frame, this could be identified as identification with an aggressor. A simple explanation for this is that if you cannot beat them, join them. These defences of projection and identification with an aggressor that I have pointed to in this section helped Maria distance herself from a feeling of failure in some professional relationships. On the other hand, these defences also prohibit her from further development in professional relationships.

A social interpretation

Let us turn from Maria’s inner to outer experience to better understand her dilemma. Maria is not alone in experiencing the nursing role as being repressive. Nursing literature confirms that nurses feel a lack of recognition [ 6 ], and that nurses themselves also find it difficult to present a meaningfully distinct role [ 32 ]. McCrae et al . [ 32 ] argue that nursing contributes to its undervalued status by creating job titles such as “advanced nurse practitioner” (p. 771). Sturegon [ 33 ] suggests a possible reason for nurses’ low status in that there is an “over-emphasizing” of the role of the nurse in terms of interpersonal relationships and emotional engagement. However, this is a statement much nursing research will argue against [ 5 , 13 , 34 - 38 ]. According to Reverby (1987) [ 5 ], nursing’s central dilemma is “being ordered to care in a society that refuses to value caring” (p. 131). Does this societal refusal of the value of caring have something to do with nursing being a woman’s work? Henderson [ 5 ] says that nursing is invisible from being a woman. Even if women today claim the right and need to seek autonomy and personal gratification beyond caring commitments, a feminine maternal ideal underpins women’s practice of their work relationships [ 39 , 40 ]. The expectations remain influenced by a stereotypical understanding of nursing (as kind, empathetic and caring), an image that remains prevalent in society [ 40 ]. Some will argue that this expectation is positive for women in their professional work relationships, something that makes the identification with their work easier because the role is close to their gender identity [ 41 ]. In a previous article [ 39 ] we argued against the latter, suggesting instead that female relationship workers have a constrained portrait of themselves, leaving little opportunity and permission to explore the difficult emotional and situational complexities that they experience in their professional practice. In the case of Maria, we receive support for this argument. Maria wants to divorce herself from the gendered constraints, as she does not want to identify with the feminine ideal. Instead of nurses who are “ kind and nice ”, she wants to identify with “ strong, tough admirable women” . In other words, the societal disparagement of caring work, together with the female mothering ideal connected to nursing, contributes to Maria’s struggle to identify with the caring part of the nursing role. At the same time, this is an obstacle for her development in professional relationships.

A psycho-social approach to professional development

We have now seen how Maria’s self-understanding is formed by her inner and outer past, as well as by present experiences and expectations. Maria’s experience of falling short over time in her relationships with patients, that she is not good enough, is not a result of feedback from patients or colleagues, but rather from her own self-understanding. This self-understanding prohibits Maria from further development in her professional relationships as she is locked in the dilemma described earlier: She can try to be good at something everybody can do (and therefore nothing to be proud of) or she can give up on trying to be better at it, and thus get the feeling that she is not capable of something “ anyone can do ”.

Still, there are ways to escape this dilemma, which implies that Maria’s self-understanding must be targeted. Let us have another look at Maria’s experience using a different set of glasses – different from her own self-understanding.

According to Arbon [ 11 ], the way Maria is able to focus on the caring, interpersonal and connecting side of practice in her story is a sign that she is an experienced professional nurse. Being troubled by aspects of the care situation is related to several other features that develop with experience, he claims. In accordance with this, Zolnierek [ 42 ] found there was a connection between “knowing the patient” and expert practice, while Henderson [ 5 ] calls the use of emotions in nursing a “high-level skill” (p. 135). Establishing relationships is to encounter vulnerability, both within oneself and within others, which calls forth every aspect of the professional’s self. Maria should be able to accept herself as vulnerable and “good enough”, and not perfect. However, Maria’s view of herself is in line with other nurses who are critical of their own performance, feeling that it falls short of accepted professional standards when they show their own vulnerability in patient care [ 43 ]. Yet, Maria does not always denigrate the caring role, sometimes describing how happy she is when she has the experience of being able to give good care, and how her daughter shouts: “ I also want to be a nurse!” Her ambivalence is obvious (she is proud, but also shameful of being proud).

Vulnerability and ambivalence connected to relationships make the experiences in the relationships difficult to access for learning [ 14 ]. Hence, stagnation can be the result.

Maybe it is the experience of stagnation that makes Maria say that she feels a need for challenges, even if she encounters new patients who fight for their lives every day. Maria imagines that the possibility for change and development means starting with something else in another place. Maria is not alone with her feelings of wanting to go away and receive the opportunity to do something completely different, as we also hear how many in the on-call room have dreams of going away.

Nonetheless, the possibilities for change and development can be found in the nurses’ own practices. In that case, the relationship with the patient, striving to “knowing the patient” [ 42 ] has to be considered as a “high-level skill” [ 5 ], as well as something that the nurses feel challenged by and are challenged to develop. This will need a reflective practice through an open dialog and supervision that can help enhance a self-awareness of the inner conflicts related to ongoing distressing professional vulnerabilities. The individual nurse and the group of colleagues can understand and be aware of their own and collective anxieties and defences, in addition to being capable of formulating realistic definitions of professional care [ 28 , 37 , 39 , 43 - 45 ]. The challenge for Maria, and for other nurses and policymakers, is to facilitate and value the development of the intangible emotional and empathic qualities of nursing practice [ 11 ]. In my own study of experiences from a Norwegian hospital [ 3 ], it appears to be a problem that the nurses and the hospital play down or turn a blind eye to the experience of anxiety and vulnerability in their relationships. This seems increasingly more problematic, since nursing is progressively more determined as an economically driven management model of service delivery [ 4 ].

Professional identity is likely to be a major factor in the satisfaction and retention of nurses [ 32 , 46 ], which helps to support the significance of nurses becoming conscious about their self-understanding, and how this influences their professional work.

The biographical interpretive method used in this project makes accessible the inner, somewhat hidden dynamics in the self-understanding of a middle-aged female nurse, which has the capacity to explore the interaction between personal and social factors in shaping her professional practice. The telling of her life story makes it possible to trace a governing idea through her experiences, the experience of being “only a nurse”. The interview process and analysis of her narrative structure reveals hidden depths – Maria’s underlying distress and fears of not being good enough, the suppression of which must consume a considerable amount of energy, and her reserves of reflexivity that largely remain untapped in the context of her work. It suggests that while there may well be biographical reasons for such low self-esteem and self-denigration, the nurse experienced that society at large also actively disparaged the competence of nurses, and in particular the needed relational competence.

Through a careful consideration of this one case, my aim was to provide insight that health professionals can relate to in their own subjective way. This insight may lead to a desire to understand oneself as a part of a professional development. However, if I should attempt to suggest implications for practice and nurse education from this study, I would highlight the importance of exploring vulnerability in relationships, based on the assumption that their vulnerability is both personally and socially constituted. The link between the professional and the personal implies that there cannot be any real professional development without personal development.

Abbreviations

Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method

Single Question aimed at Inducing Narrative

Particular Incident Narrative

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Acknowledgements

I want to thank the registered nurse who participated in the study, and those contributing to the interpretation of the data. I would also like to thank reviewers Marilyn Cash and Angela Poat for their constructive comments to improving the article.

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Ramvi, E. I am only a nurse: a biographical narrative study of a nurse’s self-understanding and its implication for practice. BMC Nurs 14 , 23 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-015-0073-y

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Jacklyn Patiño

October 16, 2020

Janice Ivers

Jacklyn Patiño graduated from College of the Ouachita’s (now Arkansas State University Three Rivers) with her License in Practical Nursing in 2009, Associates Degree in Nursing from ASU in 2014. Has experience in several specialty areas such as urgent Care, Endocrinology, Emergency Medicine and Quality. Obtained Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Chamberlain University in 2021. Chose the nursing profession and education to shape new nurses and have an impact on in the lives of students and patients.

Jessyca Maddox

Jessyca Maddox joined National Park College in 2019 as full-time faculty in the practical nursing program. Jessyca started her nursing career as an RN graduate from National Park College in 2012. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Arkansas Tech University in 2014 and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Nursing Education/Administration (MSN) from The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Her nursing career began on a medical-surgical unit, but the majority of her experience has been spent as an oncology nurse. Over the last 7 years, she worked diligently to care for vulnerable patient populations and found a love for mentoring and teaching new nurses. Jessyca believes that delivering nursing care to a person is an honor and teaching future nurses of tomorrow is a blessing. She is excited to apply this principle to her teaching role to help shape the next generation of National Park College nurses. Outside of work, Jessyca enjoys spending time with her husband, Dustin, and two children, Hayden and Olivia. When not on campus or in clinical, you may find Jessyca exploring the beauty of Hot Springs’ lakes, bingeing Netflix, or adding items to her amazon cart!

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August 20, 2019

I have lived in Hot Springs most of my life. I graduated from UAMS in 1995 with a BSN degree. I have worked Oncology, Mother/baby, Med/Surg, Home Health, Rehab, and most recently, Clinical Adjunct for NPC. I am now Full-time Clinical Instructor in the ADN program. I love working as a nurse with patients at the bedside, but my real passion is working with student nurses. Nursing has been life changing for me, and I hope to impart my appreciation for this vocation to those who are entering the profession.

Janet Smith

June 25, 2019

Janet Smith graduated from National Park Community College in 2008. She has worked in the acute care and intensive care settings. She has also worked as House Supervisor and in the home hospice environment. She received her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Arkansas Tech University in 2011. She started as adjunct clinical instructor for National Park Community College in Spring 2012, and became a fulltime faculty member Fall of 2012. She received her Master’s of Science in Nursing from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in December 2014. She currently continues to work in the intensive care setting and is working on her Doctorate of Education. Middle Content 1 Right Content

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Megan Parks BSN, RN. I graduated from NPCC in 2006 with my LPN and again in 2009 with my RN degree.

Katina Ennis

As an adult I became a dislocated worker and was given the opportunity to return to school to learn a new trade. I was a wife and the mother of 2 young children, I was the epitome of a nontraditional student! When I started back to college I was not sure what kind of nursing degree that I would be able to obtain because the amount of school paid for was limited, but I knew I wanted to become a RN. I searched and found other programs that would assist me in obtaining my Associate Degree in Nursing. While taking my prerequisites my husband was informed that we were being transferred to Hot Springs in June of 2000, I had just been accepted to another nursing program close to our home. I was fortunate enough to be able to transfer all my credits and start the RN program at Garland County Community College (now National Park College) the following August. I graduated with my Associates Degree in Nursing in May of 2002. During my time as a RN have I worked in the Intensive Care Unit at a local hospital, in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and with a local hospice company. From the time I was a small child I knew I wanted to teach, I just never knew what, that was until I found nursing! I completed my Master’s Degree in Nursing (MSN) from Walden University in the fall of 2013, I completed my MSN while my kids were in high school, and I did not let it interfere with any of their activities or my family life, I worked on papers on band buses, a cruise ship, and in Disney World on another band trip! I finally made it back “home” and started teaching at National Park College in the Registered Nurse program in the fall of 2014.

Janice Ivers Dean of Nursing and Health Sciences

I am the Dean of Nursing and Health Sciences at National Park College—I graduated a long time ago—let’s just say I have been a nurse for over 36 years and I have loved every minute of it! I received my Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and my Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) from the University of Central Arkansas and I hold a national certification as a Nurse Educator known as the CNE. Nursing is a blend of science and technology with the art of caring and compassion. There are so many different things you can do as a nurse—the list is really endless! Nursing is an honorable profession and is a career filled with endless personal and professional rewards. If you choose nursing, you are choosing to spend your life helping others, using skills that blend scientific knowledge with compassion and caring. Come visit with me if you are interested in pursuing a career in nursing!

Pamela Branch

April 11, 2016

Born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Arkansas at age of 6. Graduated from Garland County Community College (now National Park College) with an Associate Degree in Nursing in 1986. Obtained Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Arkansas Tech University in 2006 and Masters of Science in Nursing from Walden University in 2010.

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Nursing student linkedin summary examples.

Approved by LinkedIn experts and recruiters, these Nursing Student LinkedIn summary examples will increase your profile's engagement and ensure you give people a strong first impression. Optimized for 2024's LinkedIn algorithms.

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Nursing Student LinkedIn Summary Example

Personal narrative to connect with skills

The narrative of being drawn to making a difference in people's lives and finding a passion in nursing establishes a personal connection to the profession. This personal narrative, coupled with professional skills, can influence connections or recruiters who value passion and dedication in the field of healthcare.

Demonstrate hands-on experience

Sharing specific experiences, such as the privilege of working with medical professionals at St. Mary’s Hospital, not only shows hands-on experience but also gives a sense of professionalism and dedication. The mention of decreasing patient wait times by 15% through effective communication and teamwork shows the ability to contribute directly to improving the efficiency of healthcare services, which can be a strong draw for potential employers.

Show interest and expertise in a niche area

By mentioning involvement in research projects focusing on mental health, the summary highlights a specific area of interest and expertise. This specificity can increase visibility in LinkedIn search results for roles or opportunities related to mental health care in nursing.

Highlight life outside work

Sharing personal interests and volunteering experiences can make your profile more relatable. It also subtly underlines your commitment to compassion and empathy, essential virtues in nursing. This can foster potential connections with like-minded professionals or recruiters looking for these traits.

Open invitation for connection

Ending the summary with an invitation for contact to discuss nursing, healthcare policy, or opportunities in the healthcare sector is a strategic move. It signals openness to networking, learning, and potential opportunities, which can help generate more connections and conversations on LinkedIn.

Entry Level Nurse LinkedIn Summary Example

Incorporate Personal Stories

Pulling in personal moments, like your realization during a summer internship, can make your summary more engaging and relatable. It gives a glimpse into your journey, motivations, and how you came to be where you are now. It's especially powerful when you can connect the dots back to your profession - like your internship leading you to nursing.

Showcase Real-World Experience

Sharing your clinical rotations experience displays real-world application of your skills. It's not just about the theories you've learned, but how you used them in a practical setting. On LinkedIn, this can make you more attractive to potential employers looking for practical experience.

Highlight Relevant Participation

Mention of a research study, particularly one that yielded significant results, showcases your commitment and contribution to the field outside of basic job responsibilities. This could attract employers seeking someone with a proclivity for research and development, enhancing patient care further.

Draw Connection from Hobbies

Bringing in your outside interests may seem trivial, but it humanizes your professional profile. Moreover, connecting this hobby to a key skill in your profession (patience and attention to detail in nursing) is a clever way to stress these skills. It shows how you live these values even outside of work, making you a more compelling potential employee.

Graduate Nurse LinkedIn Summary Example

Leverage Fresh Graduate Energy

Bouncing off the graduation stage brings a unique energy that shouldn't be underestimated. This energy and excitement can be a sign of readiness to learn and adapt quickly in a new setting. This fresh outlook and vibrancy can be highly appealing to employers who value enthusiasm and adaptability.

Highlight Practical Experience

Highlighting practical experience - especially one that has a real impact - can give you an edge over other candidates. In this case, the candidate mentions working at a hospital during university and reducing medication errors. This shows that they didn't just learn theory, but applied it in a real-world context, making them more valuable to potential employers.

Showcase Research Involvement

Being involved in research isn't just about reading and writing papers. It reflects curiosity, critical thinking, and active engagement in seeking improvements in the field. By mentioning a specific research project - and its impact - you're signaling to potential employers that you're committed to staying at the forefront of your field and continuously improving patient care.

Highlight Personal Values

Sharing a bit about your personal life and how it aligns with your professional values can humanize your profile. This nurse mentions hiking and volunteering at a food bank, activities that reflect personal values of empathy and service. This paints a fuller picture of who you are as an individual, beyond your professional capabilities.

Skills to add to your Nursing Student LinkedIn summary

If you're unsure what skills to add into your LinkedIn summary, here are top skills we see across top Nursing Student LinkedIn profiles.

Healthcare Management
Patient Advocacy
Social Media
Basic Life Support (BLS)
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
Patient Safety
Medical-Surgical
Personal Development
Adult Nursing

Nursing Student Skills and Keywords to Add to Your LinkedIn Summary

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How to Write a Short Professional Bio (With Examples and Templates)

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What a short professional bio is and where to use one
How to write your professional bio (plus short professional bio examples and templates)
How to use the Teal AI Resume Builder to write a short, professional bio

Your professional bio is one of the most important things you'll write about yourself.

In a world where just about everyone is represented online in some capacity, your professional bio will often serve as your first introduction to your intended audience. It can help influence whether someone invites you to connect, interview you, or simply move on.

But how does your professional bio work in tandem with your resume to tell your unique story? And what are some short professional bio examples you can reference to craft your own—helping you strike the perfect balance between informative and engaging?

What is a short professional bio?

A short professional bio is exactly what it sounds like — a short professional biography that introduces yourself and gives a brief overview of your career and accomplishment examples . A short professional bio gives future employees, colleagues, and anyone else you're networking with a more well-rounded picture of who you are.

We recognize that “short” is a vague term and can mean many different things. But the good news is, unless you're dealing with a certain character or space limit, there is no magic length that your bio has to be. Most short bios tend to run anywhere from one to four paragraphs, but feel free to make yours whatever length you think would work best for you.

Your short professional bio can be displayed many different places, including but not limited to: your website, LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, in press features, and your resume.

What should I include in a short professional bio?

Before you sit down to write your bio, it might be helpful for you to think of it as not only a bio, but also an elevator pitch for your target audience. You want to produce a compelling professional bio. Your bio should answer the question: what would you want someone who doesn't know you at all to know about your career so far?

Below are some thought-starters to set you up for success.

As a working professional

Whether you've been working for six months or 15 years, consider including these in your bio:

Where you're based
Where you're from
What university, trade school, or bootcamp you attended (if any)
Your current or former career titles
Your career goals
Relevant awards, accolades, or press features you've garnered
Your professional experience, skills, and area(s) of expertise
What you like to do in your spare time (personal interests, hobbies, side hustles, etc.)

To make sure you're providing the most relevant skills to a potential employer, use Teal's Skills Database in the free Skills Workbook to identify your current skills and potential skills that you want to acquire. Once you've identified those, enter them into Teal's Skills Identifier.

As a student

Even if you're still in school, there's plenty of information you can include in your bio, like:

What university, trade school, or bootcamp you're attending
Your area of study or intended major
Any clubs, teams, volunteering, or other extracurriculars you're a part of
Any internships you've completed
Your career goals
Your availability

How to write a short professional bio

If you're ready to begin writing your professional bio, we commend you. We've listed a few things here that you might find helpful to consider, but again, there is no steadfast formula. You can feel free to follow or ignore these suggestions however you see fit.

‍ Choose your voice

You have the option to write your bio using either first or third person. When using first person, you will be utilizing the pronouns "I, me, and my". When using third person, you would refer to yourself using your name and preferred pronouns.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. However, as a general rule, using third person is typically considered more formal, while using first person is more casual.

First person example: "I am a bestselling author. My work has been published in XYZ publication."

Third person example: "Zane Smith is a bestselling author. His work has been published in XYZ publication."

If you want to have multiple versions of the same bio on hand, like a first person version and a third person version, our tools are designed to make this easy for you. Write as many versions of your bio as you need and rotate which one you use in which situation as your career evolves.

Generate your professional bio with AI

You can also use our AI Resume Builder to generate multiple versions of your short professional bio. Your bio will be tailored based on the details and achievements you've included about your recent work experiences.

Try it yourself for free.

Choose your tone

Written words, like spoken speech, can embody many different moods and tones. Depending on the context and your personal brand , you might decide your bio should sound more buttoned-up, or more relaxed, or even a little bit silly.

These two sentences describe the same person but showcase very different tones and writing style:

“A recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Sally is currently a consultant at XYZ Consulting based out of their New York office.”

“A recent UPenn grad, Sally swore off econ after years of hard classes only to end up as a consultant at a major firm — but don't worry, she loves it.”

Start with your name and your current or most recent role

This is not a hard and fast rule, but to get your bio started, it's usually easiest to start with your name and current professional title or role.

Example: “Zane Smith is currently the Demand Generation Manager at ABC Tech Company.”

If you're transitioning between roles or switching industries , you can list your most recent role and use your first sentence to say what you're looking to become.

Example 1: “Previously the Demand Generation Manager at ABC Tech Company, Zane Smith is actively pursuing new opportunities in marketing management.”

Example 2 : “Previously the Demand Generation Manager at ABC Tech Company, Zane Smith is now an aspiring 2nd grade teacher.”

Add any former titles and list relevant achievements

Once you've introduced yourself and your current title or aspirations, you can flow into your professional background, former job titles, and what you did previously. Together, the first two sentences of your bio could read something like this:

“Zane Smith is currently the Demand Generation Manager at ABC Tech Company. Previously, he was a Marketing Specialist at FGH Tech Company where he grew paid traffic to their website by 500% year over year.”

How can you ensure your bullet point achievements reflect your qualifications? In addition to using Teal's free Achievement Assistant tool within the AI Resume Builder , try leveraging ChatGPT for this part of the process. Just remember to copy and paste ChatGPT-generated resume achievements back into your AI Resume Builder.

Remember to personalize your bullet point achievements by proofreading and editing them, tweaking as needed using the Achievement Assistant tool.

Consider adding the “why” behind your story

Self-promotion can feel incredibly uncomfortable, but it's important to really make sure you don't undermine your own value. Your “why,” the reason that you do what you do everyday , can be powerful and meaningful. Adding what gives you the spark to start each workday can set your own professional bio apart from others.

Example: “Claire was inspired to pursue a career in elder law after volunteering in a nursing home throughout high school and college.”

Close with some personal details, if appropriate

Even though your bio will be used in a professional capacity, it's okay to list a few personal details. We're more than just our jobs, and adding a few personal facts can help illustrate who you are outside of the office.

Example: “When he's not working, Martin can be found tending to his spice garden and going on nature walks with his golden retriever.”

Short professional bio do's and don'ts

Even though there are no official rules for writing a bio, there are still some things you should try to strive for as well as steer clear of if you want to make the best possible impression.

Be real: Your bio is not the place to fudge the truth about who you are. Be honest about what you've done and where you're heading. Not telling the truth could bar you from achieving your goals and land you in hot water.

Be concise: We really hate to be the one to tell you this, but unfortunately, most people do not have the time or patience to read a five-paragraph essay about your life story. Sorry to break it to you!

Try to keep things brief and avoid run-on sentences. We recommend running your bio through a free clarity reader grammar-checking tool to make sure your bio isn't too wordy or hard to understand.

Be relatable: No matter how lofty your accomplishments are, staying grounded may help you establish stronger connections with others. This is where adding personal details and highlighting your personal brand can serve you well. Whether that's with a hobby, interest , or other role outside of work, being relatable can let others understand and get to know you better and determine if you would be a good fit for a company.

Don't:

Be arrogant: It's both appropriate and expected for you to talk about your professional skills and accomplishments in your short bio. That being said, there's a fine line between talking about your achievements and sounding too braggy. These two examples talk about the same accomplishment but come across very differently:

“An accomplished pianist, Ryan was selected out of nearly 7,000 applicants to perform at the annual New York State School Music Association festival last spring.”

“An accomplished pianist, Ryan was the obvious choice to perform at the annual New York State School Music Association festival last spring (because he's the best).”

Be spiteful: This is especially relevant if you're revising your bio after a lay-off or termination. As tempting as it might be, avoid making any negative statements or accusations in your bio. Positivity and a good attitude will get you much further.

Short professional bio examples

Seeing real professional bios in the wild might help you craft your bio more so than a set of guidelines will. For that reason, we rounded up four real-life short bio examples on different platforms that you can draw further inspiration from.

Personal website bio: Audree Kate Lopez

"AUDREE KATE LOPEZ IS A FASHION STYLIST, EDITOR, INDUSTRY EXPERT AND INFLUENCER BASED IN NEW YORK. Audree began her professional career in the fashion departments at Glamour, O, the Oprah Magazine, Editorialist and Redbook magazines. She launched Audree Kate Studios in 2017 and worked on freelance projects at Marc Jacobs, Alice + Olivia, J.Crew and Club Monaco, joined the styling team at Alice + Olivia and became a contributing fashion editor for StyleCaster.com. Over the past few years Audree has styled for various publications, celebrities and retail brands. In 2016, Audree founded a digital course and community for fashion students called Fashion Fundamentals and has hosted workshops and classes around the country, and wrote an ebook titled Fashion Fundamentals."

Why we picked it: Audree's professional bio does a great job at telling and humbling her story. Taking her career from her dorm room all the way to major magazines is impressive and gives readers the right impression that she's ambitious and driven. It also gives a strong overview of all of the different yet relevant accomplishments she's checked off, ranging from styling, to editing, to creating her own course.

short professional bio example for resume

LinkedIn bio: Christen Nino De Guzman

"Latina creator. Speaker. Tech Mentor. Christen is the Founder of the newly launched app Clara, a community that empowers creators through transparency, brand reviews, and discoverability. An industry vet, Christen has almost a decade of experience working with top content creators at social networking companies such as Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. She is a motivational speaker and mentor in the tech space who is passionate about helping people break into the industry through career advice and actionable content."

Why we picked it: Christen's professional bio is punchy, concise, and gives her credibility. The short few sentences at the very beginning are a creative and clever way to describe who she is right off the bat. She also mentions how many years of experience she has, which at this stage in her career, is a wise move and shows that she brings a high level of expertise to her pursuits. The decision to put her social media profiles makes sense and feels true to her, given her engaged following.

example of a short professional bio that has a punchy tone

Twitter bio: Dulma

"Founder of Makelane, a private community for female DTC founders. 70K followers on TikTok where I analyze consumer brands"

Why we picked it: Twitter only gives you 160 characters for your bio, truly keeping it a short bio, but Dulma does an excellent job maximizing what little space is given. Dulma's professional bio clearly and succinctly states her two main pursuits: being a founder of an online community and creating content for a large audience on TikTok.

Company website bios: Teachable

"Meet our wonderful team We're a tight-knit group of curious creatures, always learning, and constantly seeking out new perspectives and ideas. Get to know our team—they're what makes Teachable, well, Teachable."

Why we picked it : Having a short professional bio on a company website can be beneficial for many reasons. Each of the four bios featured on Teachable's company site show individuality and make the company more relatable to customers or clients. It provides an opportunity for the individual to showcase their experience, skills, and achievements, which can help build trust and confidence in potential clients or customers. These bios, with full names and pictures, allow the reader to learn more about the individual's expertise and background and can encourage networking opportunities.

Short professional bio templates

If you prefer to plug and play or need a professional bio in a pinch, don't worry, we've still got you. Here are three short bio templates to get you started:

Short professional bio template for working professionals

[First name last name] is [currently/formerly] a [insert most recent job title] at [most recent company name] . A proud graduate of [school or university] , they were inspired to pursue a career in [field] after [explain what led to your decision to work in your industry] . Prior to working at [most recent job title], they were the [previous title] at [previous company] where they were responsible for [insert professional accomplishments here] . In their free time, they can be found [insert your favorite hobbies] .

Short professional bio template for students

[First name last name] is a current [year] at [institution] majoring in [area(s) of study] . On campus, [First name] is actively involved in [activity name] , for which they [insert details about what you do for the activity you're involved in] . They most recently [interned/worked] at [organization name] , where they had the opportunity to [insert details about what you did on the job] . They intend to work in the [insert field name or industry] after graduation to follow their passion of [insert what you are passionate about] . In their spare time, they can be found [insert your favorite hobbies] .

Short professional bio template for someone with a gap in employment

[First name last name] is a [position/job title] with [number] years of experience in [specific skills or industry] . Following [briefly mention the reason for the employment gap] , [he/she/they] took some time off to focus on [briefly mention what they did during the gap, e.g., personal development, family obligations, health reasons] . During this time, [he/she/they] also [briefly mention any relevant skills or achievements acquired during the gap] . [Name] is now eager to return to the workforce and is excited to bring [specific skills/accomplishments] to [his/her/their] next role. With a proven track record of [list specific achievements or skills] , [Name] is confident in [his/her/their] ability to contribute to [specific industry/profession] and make an impact in [his/her/their] next position.

If you decide to use any of these templates, we strongly recommend you tweak it ever-so-slightly. We don't mean diving into creative writing and rewriting it entirely; just add a little bit of personal flair once you've finished plugging your details in. Add some adjectives, remove anything that doesn't quite fit with your vibe or experiences, or append some more personal details as you see fit. Feel free to work off of any one of the bios from our resume examples to get feel for how different styles can be used across roles.

Remember, as cheesy as it sounds, there's only one you. Even if you use a template, your bio should still have a small sprinkle of personal flair, if possible.

Create your professional bio with Teal

Crafting a professional bio that effectively showcases your unique skills and accomplishments can be a challenging task. It's important to keep in mind that your bio should be concise and focused on the most relevant details of your career. If you're struggling with what to include, consider starting with the basics and keeping it simple and factual.

Remember, your bio can evolve over time along with your career, so don't be afraid to make updates as you gain more experience and achieve new accomplishments. By taking these steps, you can create a friendly and professional bio that effectively represents your personal brand.

Ready to create a full set of professional bios to get to your next career goal faster? Sign up to start using the AI Resume Builder to generate professional your professional bios directly within the platform.

Once you have your professional bio, don't forget to use Teal's free AI Resume Builder to update your resume with your skills, latest experience, and work achievements! The job of your resume is to get you in the door. Optimizing it will help you land interviews for the next opportunities that excite you.

Use the AI integration feature within Teal's AI Resume Builder to generate achievements. To get quality, metric-driven achievements, make sure to attach a job description to incorporate relevant keywords.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an example of a short professional bio.

An example of a short professional bio is: "Katie is a seasoned marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in digital advertising strategies. She has helped numerous brands achieve their online marketing goals, leading to increased visibility and 3x revenue YoY."

How do you write an impressive short bio?

To write an impressive short bio, focus on your most significant achievements, relevant skills, and experiences that set you apart. Keep it concise and tailored to your audience to engage and leave a memorable impression. You can also use the Teal AI Resume Builder Generative AI to craft a bio that highlights your unique professional journey and skills in an engaging way.

What is a short biography about yourself?

A short biography about yourself should concisely summarize your professional background, major accomplishments, and skills. For example, "I'm an innovative software developer with 5 years of experience in creating scalable applications, known for my ability to troubleshoot complex issues and my commitment to delivering high-quality software solutions."

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How to Write a Student Bio About Yourself?

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A student bio is a short introduction about yourself that is commonly used in academic settings. It is a way for students to showcase their achievements, goals, and personal qualities. Writing an effective student bio can be a daunting task, but with the right approach, you can create a compelling bio that will leave a lasting impression. In this article, we will discuss why a student bio is important, what to include in a student bio, provide some student bio examples, and share tips for writing an effective student bio.

1. Why is a Student Bio Important?

A student bio is important for several reasons. First, it provides others with a quick snapshot of who you are as a student and what you have accomplished. It allows others to get to know you on a more personal level and can help to establish connections and build relationships.

Second, a student bio can be used as a tool for self-promotion. It gives you the opportunity to highlight your strengths, skills, and experiences. This can be particularly helpful when applying for scholarships, internships, or jobs.

Finally, a student bio can be a useful networking tool. By sharing your bio with others, you can increase your visibility and attract opportunities that may not have otherwise been available to you.

2. What to Include in a Student Bio?

When writing a student bio, it’s important to include relevant information that showcases your accomplishments, goals, and personal qualities. Here are some key elements to consider including:

2.1. Introduction

Start your student bio with a brief introduction about yourself. This should include your name, your current educational institution, and your field of study or major.

2.2. Academic Achievements

Highlight any academic achievements or honors you have received. This can include things like being on the honor roll, receiving scholarships, or being recognized for your academic performance.

2.3. Extracurricular Activities

Include any extracurricular activities or organizations you are involved in. This can include clubs, sports teams, volunteer work, or leadership roles.

2.4. Work Experience

If you have any relevant work experience, include this in your student bio. This can be internships, part-time jobs, or any other work experience that is relevant to your field of study or career goals.

2.5. Goals and Aspirations

Share your goals and aspirations for the future. This can include your career goals, plans for further education, or any other goals you have set for yourself.

2.6. Personal Qualities

Highlight any personal qualities or characteristics that set you apart. This can include things like being a team player, having strong leadership skills, or being detail-oriented.

3. Student Bio Examples

Here are some biography examples for students that showcase different formats and styles:

3.1. College Student Bio

If you don’t know how to start a biography, the examples below may help.

3.1.1. College Student Bio example about yourself in formal style

Follow these examples to write a professional biography for students.

“Greetings, I am Sarah Chang, a junior enrolled in the Computer Science program at ABC University. My academic pursuits are centered around the intricate field of computer science, where I dedicate my time to unraveling complex problems and advancing technological solutions. Beyond the classroom, I actively participate in the Women in Tech club, advocating for gender diversity and inclusivity within the technology sector. Additionally, I am an enthusiast of gastronomy, indulging in culinary explorations to broaden my palate and cultural awareness. My professional aspirations entail securing a position within a leading tech corporation, where I aspire to contribute innovative ideas and foster positive change within the industry.”

For short student biography, you can write:

“Hello, I’m Sarah Chang, a junior in the Computer Science program at ABC University. I’m passionate about unraveling complex problems and advancing technological solutions. Outside of class, I’m active in the Women in Tech club, promoting gender diversity in the industry. I also love exploring different cuisines to broaden my cultural awareness. My goal? To make a positive impact in a leading tech corporation.”

“Greetings esteemed colleagues, I am Marcus Thompson, a senior scholar majoring in Journalism and Media Studies at XYZ College. My academic journey is deeply rooted in the principles of journalistic integrity and storytelling excellence. As an avid pursuer of truth, I diligently undertake investigative endeavors and endeavor to amplify marginalized voices through my written works. Concurrently, I hold the esteemed position of editor-in-chief at our college newspaper, where I orchestrate a team of proficient writers in delivering informative and thought-provoking content to our campus community. Outside of academia, I harbor a fervent passion for athletics, finding solace and inspiration in the camaraderie of sporting events. My ultimate professional ambition is to ascend to the echelons of investigative journalism, wielding my pen as a catalyst for societal change and progress.”

“Hello, I’m Marcus Thompson, a senior scholar majoring in Journalism and Media Studies at XYZ College. My academic journey is rooted in journalistic integrity and storytelling excellence. As editor-in-chief of our college newspaper, I lead a team in delivering informative content to our campus community. Outside of academia, I’m passionate about athletics and find inspiration in sporting events. My ultimate goal is to become an investigative journalist, driving societal change through my writing.”

“Greetings esteemed peers, I am Taylor Nguyen, a sophomore scholar pursuing dual degrees in Psychology and Sociology at LMN University. My academic endeavors are imbued with a profound fascination for the intricacies of the human psyche and societal structures, propelling me towards a quest for knowledge and understanding. In parallel with my studies, I lend my voice and efforts to the mental health awareness club on campus, advocating for destigmatization and promoting holistic wellness practices among fellow students. During moments of respite, I embrace the meditative arts of yoga and mindfulness, recognizing their transformative potential in fostering personal well-being. Professionally, I aspire to integrate my expertise in psychology and sociology into a career in counseling, where I aim to empower individuals in their journey towards self-actualization and fulfillment.”

“Hello, I’m Taylor Nguyen, a sophomore scholar at LMN University studying Psychology and Sociology. I’m passionate about understanding the human mind and societal structures. Beyond classes, I advocate for mental health awareness and practice yoga for personal well-being. My goal? To become a counselor and empower others on their journey to fulfillment.”

3.1.2. College Student Bio example about yourself in an informal style

If you want to write about yourself in an informal style, refer to these examples.

“Hey, I’m Sarah Chang, and I’m a junior at ABC University majoring in Computer Science. You’ll often find me coding away in the campus coffee shop, fueled by caffeine and a passion for problem-solving. Beyond classes, I’m heavily involved in our Women in Tech club, where I’m all about breaking stereotypes and empowering more girls to join the tech world. Outside of my tech bubble, I’m a total foodie—I love exploring new restaurants and attempting (emphasis on attempting) to cook exotic dishes at home. My dream gig? Landing a job at a cutting-edge tech company where I can innovate and make a real impact on the world.”

“Hey, I’m Sarah Chang, a junior at ABC University majoring in Computer Science. I’m passionate about coding and breaking stereotypes in tech through the Women in Tech club. Outside of class, I love exploring new restaurants and cooking. My dream? To innovate at a top tech company and make a real impact.”

“Hey hey, I’m Marcus Thompson, a senior studying Journalism and Media Studies at XYZ College. Journalism runs in my veins—I live for the thrill of chasing down stories and crafting compelling narratives. When I’m not hitting the keyboard, I’m probably out on campus with my camera, capturing moments that tell powerful stories visually. I’m also the editor-in-chief of our college newspaper, where I lead a team of passionate writers to inform and inspire our campus community. Beyond journalism, I’m a die-hard sports fan—I bleed my team’s colors and never miss a game. My ultimate goal? Becoming a renowned investigative journalist, shining a light on important issues and sparking meaningful change through my reporting.”

“Hey, I’m Marcus Thompson, a senior studying Journalism at XYZ College. Journalism is my passion—I love uncovering stories and leading our college newspaper. When not reporting, I’m capturing moments on campus with my camera or cheering for my team. My goal? To become a respected investigative journalist, driving change through my reporting.”

“Hey everyone, I’m Taylor Nguyen, a sophomore double majoring in Psychology and Sociology at LMN University. I’m endlessly fascinated by the human mind and society’s complexities, so you’ll often catch me buried in research papers or engaged in lively class discussions. Outside of academics, I’m a proud member of our campus’ mental health awareness club, where I’m passionate about breaking down stigmas and promoting self-care practices among students. When I need to unwind, I’m all about yoga and meditation—I firmly believe in the power of mindfulness to maintain a healthy balance in life. My big dream? Combining my love for psychology and sociology to pursue a career in counseling, where I can support individuals in navigating life’s challenges and finding their inner strength.”

“Hey everyone, I’m Taylor Nguyen, a sophomore double majoring in Psychology and Sociology at LMN University. I’m fascinated by the human mind and society’s complexities. Outside class, I’m involved in our mental health awareness club, advocating for self-care. I unwind with yoga and meditation, believing in their power for balance. My dream? To blend psychology and sociology in counseling, supporting individuals in overcoming challenges.”

3.2. High School Student Bio

Use the examples as a student biography template to create yours.

3.2.1. High School Student Bio example about yourself in formal style

Examples include long and short versions.

“Greetings, I am Jonathan Lee, an eleventh-grade student at XYZ High School. My academic endeavors are centered around a fervent passion for the sciences and the art of debate. Within the realm of scientific inquiry, I am committed to unraveling the mysteries of the natural world through rigorous experimentation and analysis. Simultaneously, I am an active participant in our school’s debate team, where I hone my rhetorical skills and engage in spirited discourse on a variety of socio-political topics. Beyond academia, I am deeply engaged in community service initiatives, volunteering my time at the local food bank to alleviate the plight of the underprivileged. Moreover, I am a staunch advocate for environmental conservation, actively participating in eco-friendly initiatives within our school community. My aspirations lie in the field of biomedical research, where I endeavor to merge my passion for science with a commitment to advancing human welfare and scientific knowledge.”

“Hey there, I’m Jonathan Lee, an eleventh-grader at XYZ High School. I’m passionate about science and debate. In science, I’m dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the natural world through experimentation. On the debate team, I hone my skills in spirited discussions. Outside school, I volunteer at the local food bank and advocate for environmental conservation. My goal? To pursue biomedical research, merging my love for science with a commitment to improving human welfare.”

“Greetings esteemed educators and peers, I am Rachel Patel, an eleventh-grade scholar at ABC High School. My academic pursuits are characterized by a dual passion for scientific inquiry and the art of rhetoric. Within the scientific realm, I am dedicated to unraveling the complexities of biological phenomena through meticulous experimentation and theoretical analysis. Concurrently, I am an active member of our school’s debate society, where I engage in intellectually stimulating discussions on matters of societal importance. Beyond the confines of academia, I am deeply committed to community service, volunteering my time at the local nursing home to provide companionship and support to the elderly residents. Additionally, I am an ardent proponent of environmental sustainability, spearheading recycling initiatives within our school campus. Professionally, I aspire to pursue a career in biomedical engineering, leveraging my interdisciplinary skills to innovate solutions that enhance human health and well-being.”

“Greetings esteemed educators and peers, I’m Rachel Patel, an eleventh-grade scholar at ABC High School. I’m passionate about both scientific inquiry and rhetoric. In science, I delve into biological phenomena through meticulous experimentation. In debate, I engage in stimulating discussions on societal matters. Beyond academics, I volunteer at a local nursing home and champion environmental sustainability initiatives at school. My dream? To pursue biomedical engineering, leveraging my skills to innovate solutions for human health and well-being.”

“Greetings esteemed peers and faculty members, I am Maria Hernandez, an eleventh-grade student enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at LMN High School. My academic journey is characterized by a fervent pursuit of knowledge in the realms of science and societal discourse. Immersed in the study of the natural sciences, I am captivated by the intricate mechanisms governing the physical world and am driven to uncover its mysteries through empirical inquiry. Concurrently, I am an avid participant in our school’s Model United Nations club, where I engage in diplomatic simulations and foster cross-cultural understanding on global issues. Beyond academics, I am deeply committed to community engagement, volunteering my time at the local animal shelter to advocate for the welfare of our furry companions. Moreover, I am a passionate environmentalist, leading initiatives to promote sustainability within our school community. My aspirations are rooted in the pursuit of a career in environmental science, where I endeavor to apply my interdisciplinary expertise to address pressing ecological challenges and foster a more sustainable future for generations to come.”

“Hello everyone, I’m Maria Hernandez, an eleventh-grade student in the International Baccalaureate program at LMN High School. I’m passionate about science and global issues. In science, I delve into the mysteries of the natural world, while in Model United Nations, I engage in diplomatic simulations to foster cross-cultural understanding. Beyond academics, I volunteer at the local animal shelter and lead sustainability initiatives at school. My goal is a career in environmental science, where I can address ecological challenges and promote a sustainable future.”

3.2.2. High School Student Bio example about yourself in informal style

“Hey, I’m Jonathan Lee, an eleventh-grader at XYZ High School. I’m all about science and debate. In science class, I’m the one digging deep into experiments and trying to unlock nature’s secrets. And on the debate team, I’m honing my skills and diving into big discussions about the world around us. When I’m not in school, you can catch me at the local food bank, lending a hand to those in need. Oh, and I’m big on eco-friendly stuff too—I’m always pushing for green initiatives at school. My dream? To dive into biomedical research and use science to make a real difference in people’s lives.”

“Hey, I’m Jonathan Lee, an eleventh-grader at XYZ High School. Science and debate are my passions. I love experimenting in science class and engaging in big discussions on the debate team. Outside school, I volunteer at the local food bank and advocate for eco-friendly initiatives. My dream? Biomedical research to make a real difference in people’s lives.”

“Hey everyone, I’m Rachel Patel, an eleventh-grader at ABC High School. I’m all about science and debate. In science class, I’m diving into experiments and theories, trying to understand how the world works. And on the debate team, I’m in the thick of it, discussing important stuff and learning how to argue my point. Outside of school, I’m at the nursing home, spending time with the elderly and making sure they feel supported. Oh, and I’m big on recycling—I’m always trying to get my classmates to pitch in and make our school greener. My dream job? Biomedical engineering. I want to use my skills to create solutions that make people healthier and happier.”

“Hey everyone, I’m Rachel Patel, an eleventh-grader at ABC High School. I’m passionate about science and debate. In science class, I’m experimenting and exploring theories. On the debate team, I’m honing my argumentative skills. Outside school, I spend time at the nursing home and promote recycling. My dream job? Biomedical engineering, creating solutions for better health and happiness.”

“Hey everyone, I’m Maria Hernandez, an eleventh-grader in the IB program at LMN High School. Science and global issues are my thing. In science class, I’m all about diving into experiments and understanding how things work in the world. And when it comes to global affairs, I’m in the thick of it—I love participating in Model UN and exploring different cultures and viewpoints. Outside of school, you’ll find me at the local animal shelter, speaking up for our furry friends, or leading sustainability projects to make our school greener. My big dream? To jump into environmental science and use my knowledge to tackle big problems and create a better world for everyone.”

“Hey everyone, I’m Maria Hernandez, an eleventh-grader in the IB program at LMN High School. I’m passionate about science and global issues. In science class, I love experimenting and understanding how things work. In Model UN, I explore different cultures and viewpoints. Outside school, I advocate for animal welfare and lead sustainability projects. My dream? Environmental science, tackling big problems for a better world.”

4. Tips for Writing an Effective Student Bio

Crafting an impactful student bio requires attention to detail and clarity. Below are some essential tips to help you write a compelling bio that captures your unique personality and achievements effectively.

4.1. Be Concise and Specific

When writing your student bio, it’s important to be concise and specific. Focus on including relevant information that highlights your achievements and goals. Avoid including unnecessary details or information that is not directly related to your academic or career aspirations.

4.2. Showcase Your Unique Qualities

Use your student bio as an opportunity to showcase your unique qualities and characteristics. Highlight what sets you apart from others and what makes you a valuable asset to any academic or professional setting.

4.3. Tailor Your Bio to the Audience

When writing your student bio, consider who your audience is and tailor your bio accordingly. If you are applying for a scholarship, for example, focus on highlighting your academic achievements and goals. If you are applying for an internship, on the other hand, focus on highlighting your relevant work experience and skills.

Writing a student bio about yourself can be challenging, but with the right approach, you can create an effective bio that showcases your accomplishments, goals, and personal qualities. Remember to be concise and specific, showcase your unique qualities, and tailor your bio to the audience. By following these tips, you will be well on your way to writing an impactful student bio that leaves a lasting impression.

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How to Write a Student Bio About Yourself?
4.1. Be Concise and Specific. 4.2. Showcase Your Unique Qualities. 4.3. Tailor Your Bio to the Audience. Conclusion. A student bio is a short introduction about yourself that is commonly used in academic settings. It is a way for students to showcase their achievements, goals, and personal qualities.