What Makes a Good Bio?
Prescriber Bios
What makes a good bio?
- Narrative voice: this should be written in third-person narrative (He/She/They), not first-person (“I”). You should be talking about yourself as if you are someone else.
- Length – 5-sentence minimum, 7-sentence maximum.
- Professional yet personable – this should be your selling point, a chance to create buy-in for a client. Why should a client choose you over any other Prescriber available in their state?
- Focus on Mental Health – all details should center around or relate to mental health (not other specialties).
- Avoid redundancy – each sentence should add a new idea or piece of information.
- This is not a resume – you don’t need to list every single degree or name every school you attended. This can make the bio dry and cause the reader to lose interest. However, emphasize impressive degrees and licenses (typically, the highest achieved degree/license from your top school).
- Passion for the mission – this creates continuity within the organization and makes the client feel like you have their best interest at heart.
- Personal element – this humanizes you as part of their care team and brings you down to the level of the client. Sometimes it can be intimidating to seek mental health, so being able to feel comfortable with a Prescriber can really make a difference. Clients are more likely to choose you if they can connect with something from your bio.
- Spelling, punctuation, and grammar – make sure to proofread your bio to ensure the writing is polished. Utilize Google Search if you are unsure of the correct forms.
- QUOTES: this is ideally a mantra you live by which is also relevant to the Prescriber role.
- Example: Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson
- Please do not include quotation marks.
- Add a period to the end of the quote.
- Provide only one dash between the quote and the speaker.
Introduction with license, specifying Psychiatric if certified (1-2 sentences):
If certified PMHNP, “Jane Doe is a board-certified Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.”
If not psychiatric certified, “Jane Doe is a board-certified nurse practitioner” (don’t specify family or geriatric, etc).
Origin/Background (1-2 sentences):
She started her career working as a psychiatric assistant in a mental hospital at the age of 18. Jane went on to complete her Registered Nursing Degree and worked in intensive care in several hospitals across the country.
Experience/Education/Specialties/Skills (1-2 sentences):
She then went on to receive a Master of Science in Nursing in Education and served as Assistant Professor at Texas A&M. She has worked in many diverse areas including Cardiology, Urgent Care, Preventative Medicine, Women’s Health, and Psychiatry.
Passion for the mission (1 sentence):
Her training experiences in both large metropolitan areas and very rural areas with limited access to health care have ignited a passion to provide access to affordable, quality mental health care no matter where a patient may be located.
Personal element (1 sentence):
In her free time, you can find her in the gym perfecting her Muay Thai technique, tickling the ivories, or relishing one too many donuts.
Quote (1 sentence):
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson
Prescriber Bios
What makes a good bio?
· Narrative voice: this should be written in third-person narrative (He/She/They), not first-person (“I”). You should be talking about yourself as if you are someone else.
· Length – 5-sentence minimum, 7-sentence maximum.
· Professional yet personable – this should be your selling point, a chance to create buy-in for a client. Why should a client choose you over any other Prescriber available in their state?
· Focus on Mental Health – all details should center around or relate to mental health (not other specialties).
· Avoid redundancy – each sentence should add a new idea or piece of information.
· This is not a resume – you don’t need to list every single degree or name every school you attended. This can make the bio dry and cause the reader to lose interest. However, emphasize impressive degrees and licenses (typically, the highest achieved degree/license from your top school).
· Passion for the mission – this creates continuity within the organization and makes the client feel like you have their best interest at heart.
· Personal element – this humanizes you as part of their care team and brings you down to the level of the client. Sometimes it can be intimidating to seek mental health, so being able to feel comfortable with a Prescriber can really make a difference. Clients are more likely to choose you if they can connect with something from your bio.
· Spelling, punctuation, and grammar – make sure to proofread your bio to ensure the writing is polished. Utilize Google Search if you are unsure of the correct forms.
· QUOTES: this is ideally a mantra you live by which is also relevant to the Prescriber role.
· Example: Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson
· Please do not include quotation marks.
· Add a period to the end of the quote.
· Provide only one dash between the quote and the speaker.
Introduction with license, specifying Psychiatric if certified (1-2 sentences):
If certified PMHNP, “Jane Doe is a board-certified Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.”
If not psychiatric certified, “Jane Doe is a board-certified nurse practitioner” (don’t specify family or geriatric, etc).
Origin/Background (1-2 sentences):
She started her career working as a psychiatric assistant in a mental hospital at the age of 18. Jane went on to complete her Registered Nursing Degree and worked in intensive care in several hospitals across the country.
Experience/Education/Specialties/Skills (1-2 sentences):
She then went on to receive a Master of Science in Nursing in Education and served as Assistant Professor at Texas A&M. She has worked in many diverse areas including Cardiology, Urgent Care, Preventative Medicine, Women’s Health, and Psychiatry.
Passion for the mission (1 sentence):
Her training experiences in both large metropolitan areas and very rural areas with limited access to health care have ignited a passion to provide access to affordable, quality mental health care no matter where a patient may be located.
Personal element (1 sentence):
In her free time, you can find her in the gym perfecting her Muay Thai technique, tickling the ivories, or relishing one too many donuts.
Quote (1 sentence):
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson