Personal Statement

My name is Adwoa Blankson, I am currently in my second career as a critical care nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to becoming a nurse, I worked as a case manager and a child and family advocate in social services in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, for more than ten years. I worked with children, youth and adults with social, emotional and behavioral problems. My first bachelor’s degree was a BSc in Psychology and Sociology. Throughout my professional experiences, I have demonstrated intellectual and personal attributes that have made me successful in my career. I have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, which enables me to provide individualized and holistic care to patients and their families.
After twelve years in social work, I pursued and successfully completed an accelerated 15-month bachelor’s degree in Nursing at New York University in May 2011. I made this decision because I wanted to continue caring for people in the medical field. An experience with a family member who had cancer, brought me frequently to the hospital and clinical setting, and this solidified my decision to become a nurse. In the past couple of years as a bedside nurse, I have developed strong interpersonal and psychosocial skills especially in taking care of cancer patients and their families. In this patient population, active listening is crucial and I can strongly boast of being an active listener to my patients. This is evident because families who had loved ones passed on within the past two years continue to share with me the positive impact I had on their lives while they were in my care.
I am pursuing this graduate degree to obtain the knowledge and skills required to provide nursing care at an advanced level. Thus, my goal is to become a family nurse practitioner, to care for patients across the life span. With this