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UConn  /  Essays  /  Prompt 2

UConn: Nursing Motivation (DeLuca School of Nursing applicants)

Set within the application; keep it focused (UConn does not publish a strict word count, so treat it like a tight 250-400 word response)

Discuss the factors that have influenced your motivation to pursue a career in Nursing. Please include any activities, academics and/or life experiences that have shaped your interest in nursing.
What it’s really asking

Only applicants to the Elisabeth DeLuca School of Nursing answer this. UConn wants the concrete origin of your interest in nursing, the specific experiences, classes, or moments that turned a general idea into a real commitment, not a statement that you 'want to help people.'

Why they ask it

Nursing is a demanding, hands-on profession, and the school wants evidence your motivation is grounded in reality rather than image. Specific shadowing, caregiving, or academic experiences show you have looked closely at what nurses actually do and still chose it.

Three ways in
Name the exact moment

Pin down when your interest became concrete: a hospital room, a sick family member, a clinic volunteer shift. Specificity proves it is real.

Connect a class to the work

Tie a specific science course or skill to nursing, showing you understand and welcome the academic demands of the field.

Choose nurses, not doctors

Show what you noticed about nurses specifically so the essay reads as a deliberate choice of this role, not healthcare in general.

✕  Weak opening

“I have always wanted to be a nurse because I love helping people and caring for others in need.”

✓  Strong opening

“My grandmother could not remember my name by the end, but she remembered the nurse who warmed her socks every morning.”

✦ Annotated example · The Night Shift Hands. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
The summer I turned sixteen, my grandmother came home from the hospital to a rented bed in our living room, and I became the person who learned to read her face before she could find the words.1A home health nurse named Diane visited three times a week, and I shadowed her without being asked. She taught me how to reposition Grandma so her hip would not ache, how to check that her medications had not doubled up, and how to keep talking in a normal voice even while doing something clinical, because dignity, she said, is most of the job.2I started writing down Grandma's blood pressure in a spiral notebook so Diane would have a record between visits. What surprised me was not the medical side. It was discovering that I was steady when other people were not. When Grandma spiked a fever at two in the morning, my mother froze, but I knew to take her temperature, write the time, and call the nurse line with the numbers ready.3I was not fearless. I was just useful, and being useful in that moment felt like the most honest thing I had ever done. That experience pushed me toward science with a new sense of purpose.4I took anatomy and physiology as an elective and finally understood why Diane checked the things she checked. I volunteered at a senior center on weekends, mostly listening, sometimes just holding a hand through a long afternoon. I learned that nursing is technical and human at the same time, and that I am drawn to careers where both are required of me in the same hour.5Grandma passed away last spring. I do not pretend the care we gave her was perfect, but I know it was attentive, and I know I want to spend my life giving that kind of attention to people on their hardest days. UConn's DeLuca School of Nursing, with its early clinical placements, is where I want to learn to do it well. I already know the work does not frighten me. Now I want to be trained to do it right.6
  1. 1Opens with a specific, personal scene that immediately roots the motivation in lived experience, which the nursing prompt explicitly asks applicants to draw on.
  2. 2Names a real mentor and concrete clinical tasks (repositioning, medication checks). This specificity shows genuine exposure to nursing work rather than an abstract wish to 'help people.'
  3. 3Shows the applicant's actual strength (calm usefulness) through a specific 2 a.m. scene rather than asserting it, which reflects the honest, single-voice tone the school rewards.
  4. 4Distinguishes the applicant from a cliche of fearlessness, demonstrating the self-awareness and growth UConn values, then pivots cleanly toward academics.
  5. 5Connects the personal experience to concrete academics and activities (the A&P course, the volunteering), directly satisfying the prompt's request to include academics and activities.
  6. 6Closes by naming the specific school and program feature (DeLuca, early clinical placements) and stating a clear, mature motivation, ending on growth rather than sentimentality.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is the first specific moment I saw nursing up close, and what did I actually notice?
  • Which class or skill makes me confident I can handle the academic side of nursing?
  • What do nurses do that doctors do not, and why does that part draw me?
Before you submit
  • Did I name concrete experiences instead of saying I 'love helping people'?
  • Is it clear I chose nursing specifically, not just healthcare in general?
  • Does the essay show I understand nursing is demanding, not idealized?

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