Assignment: Professional Development Plan

Assignment: Professional Development Plan

Assignment: Professional Development Plan

A personal development plan (PDP) is essential for all advanced practice nurses (APN) (Halcomb et al., 2016). A PDP is a strategic plan that helps one establish goals, strategies, milestones, and timelines to achieve the set goals. It is a motivator and a roadmap to success and thus requires ongoing evaluation and assessment. Its preparation allows one to concretely visualize the possibilities of a bright future based on personal and social resources. Further, its use ensures that APNs positively impact the quality and flow of professional and personal advancements. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the APN scope of practice in the state of Florida, outline a personal assessment following the Benner’s self-assessment as well as a networking and marketing strategies followed.

APN Scope of Practice

To operate as a Nurse Practitioner in the state of Florida, one has to hold an active Florida RN license or an active multistate RN license from another jurisdiction (Kumar & Williams, 2018). Additionally, one must have a master’s degree or a post-master certificate in a nursing specialty area as well as a national advanced practice certification from an approved nursing specialty board. Generally, a nurse practitioner operates in three levels as dictated by various states. These levels include a full practice where one can evaluate patients, diagnose, order and interpret diagnostic tests as well as initiate and manage treatment (Halcomb et al., 2016). The second level entail a reduced practice where one can engage in at least one element of NP practice and a collaborative agreement with an outside health discipline. Lastly, there is a restricted practice where a nurse practitioner cannot operate even a single element of NP practice and has to be supervised, delegated or team –managed by an outside health discipline.

Florida falls under the restricted practice and thus a nurse practitioner has to be supervised by physicians. Under the supervision law, an arrangement between the NP and the physician has to be outlined (Kumar & Williams, 2018). The law also dictates that a physician should not oversee a nurse practitioner at more than four offices including the primary practice location. The supervising physician may not be present in person but the NP has to be available by phone for consultations. The patients also have to be notified of the instances when the physician is in and out of the clinic. The hours that the physician is present in the clinic have to be conspicuously posted in each office to alert the patient on the presence of the MD on the site. In terms of prescribing laws, Florida does not allow NP to prescribe controlled substance even when they are under supervision (Kumar & Williams, 2018). The limitation is set to prevent NPs from using prescriptions forms that have been pre-signed by a physician or operate using a Physician DEA number on a prescription. Lastly, the NPs are only allowed to sign for handicap parking permits but they cannot sign death certificates.

Personal Assessment

According to Berner’s theory, for nurses to acquire and develop skills, they have to pass through five levels of proficiency namely: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert (Oshvandi et al., 2016). Personal analysis reveals that I am an advanced beginner since I can demonstrate marginally acceptable performance owing to the prior experience I have in actual situations. I am efficient and skillful in some parts of nursing although there is a need for occasional supportive cues. My knowledge of nursing is also developing. The analysis has created the need to undertake a personal assessment since it helps in exploring interests, discovering passion and establishing the suitable areas of practice.

From the assessment, my personal strengths entail good communication skills, patience, determination, and excellent listening skills. Effective communication and listening skills are essential in healthcare because they enhance patient assessment, diagnosis, and treatment (Pazar, Demiralp, & Erer, 2017). The skills also ensure that medical errors are reduced as well as unintentional harm to patients. They assist in offering individualized care and ensures that patients can disclose the true extent of their feelings and systems. The skills also satisfy the innate need of the patients and boost morals and job satisfaction among nurses.

In terms of weakness, the analysis reveals perfectionism and poor time management skills. Although perfectionism has a positive impact like ensuring patients are safe and offering the best clinical care, it is a weakness because I set unattainable expectations and I have to ensure that my nursing tasks are perfect, which consumes time. It also means taking time before completing shifts since one has to ensure that patient assignments are in great shape for the incoming nurse. The weakness in time management can be linked to perfectionism since I have the desire to complete all tasks. However, as an NP, there is a need to learn task delegation to ensure that care is optimized.

The analysis also led to the development of career goals with the short term goals being an inspiration to work in a long-term care facility to get knowledge and confidence to offer palliative care (Elliott, Begley, Sheaf & Higgins, 2016).  I also aspire to become a mentor to new NPs as a way of helping patients and giving back to the profession. The objective that will guide the practice is getting a clinical site that covers areas of interest.  The site will help in networking since one has to find a unique approach to handle the overwhelming numbers of NPs going into the workforce. The site will also ensure that the clinical hours offered add value to the future career since it will be exactly what employers expect once one secures a job.

Networking and Marketing Strategies

Marketing and networking ensure that one grows their professional connections and increases their chances of securing a job. One can either use operational networking within their area of practice as well as personal networking outside the place of employment such as professional organizations and social media. As a new NP, one can use events like convention center nursing meetings, continuing education seminars and conferences where one meets with peers and other professionals (Goolsby & DuBois, 2017). Once in the event, an NP should connect and establish rapport with new people, hand out business cards, LinkedIn page, and email as a way of keeping in touch. Further, they should also send thank you emails to new connections to create a lasting impression and turn acquaintance into future references. As a marketing tool, an NP should also create an elevator pitch that outlines skills, areas of interest and clinical strengths. Additionally, one can join a national organization like the National Association of Nurse Practitioners to gain access to insurance and free continuing education courses. There is also a need to participate regionally by joining organizations like Florida Nurse Practitioner Network (FNPN) and the Florida Association of Nurse Practitioners (FLANP) to get information like employment opportunities, connect and network with other NPS in the area, get opportunities to volunteer as a preceptor and access the preceptor list (Goolsby & DuBois, 2017). Lastly, an NP can use online networking via online groups of nurse practitioners.

Conclusion

A nurse practitioner has to come up with a personal development plan. As outlined above,in Florida State,  an NP, has to get an RN license, possess a master’s degree or post-master certificate as well as a national advanced practice certification. Additionally, one operates in restricted practice and cannot prescribe controlled substances or sign a death certificate. A personal analysis reveals that the author is an advanced beginner with strengths like excellent communication and listening skills. The author also is perfectionist and poor time manager. They plan to work in long term care and hours worked will concentrate in this filed to build the necessary skills and knowledge. Additionally, the author will network in local, national and regional organizations as well as use online platforms to ensure that they develop connections and increase chances of securing a job.

References

Elliott, N., Begley, C., Sheaf, G., & Higgins, A. (2016). Barriers and enablers to advanced practitioners’ ability to enact their leadership role: A scoping review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 60, 24-45.

Goolsby, M. J., & DuBois, J. C. (2017). Professional organization membership: Advancing the nurse practitioner role. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 29(8), 434-440.

Halcomb, E., Stephens, M., Bryce, J., Foley, E., & Ashley, C. (2016). Nursing competency standards in primary health care: an integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing, 25(9-10), 1193-1205.

Kumar, C. D., & Williams, D. A. (2018). Florida One Step Closer. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 44(6), 645-646.

Oshvandi, K., Moghadam, A. S., Khatiban, M., Cheraghi, F., Borzu, R., & Moradi, Y. (2016). On the application of novice to expert theory in nursing; a systematic review. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 9(4), 3014-3020.

Pazar, B., Demiralp, M., & Erer, İ. (2017). The communication skills and the empathic tendency levels of nursing students: A cross-sectional study. Contemporary Nurse, 53(3), 368-377.

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Question Description
I don’t understand this Nursing question and need help to study.

2-3 Paragraph Analysis

3 References

APA Format

NURS 6003
Assignment: Academic Success and Professional Development Plan
Part 3: Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity and Professional Ethics
Nurse-scholars have a significant obligation to their community as well. Their work must have academic and professional integrity. Their efforts are designed to add to the body of knowledge, advance the profession, and ultimately help in the care of patients. Work that lacks integrity is subject to erode quickly or worse.

Fortunately, there are strategies and tools that can help ensure integrity in academic and professional work. This Assignment asks you to consider these tools and how you might apply them to your own work.

In this Assignment you will continue developing your Academic Success and Professional Development Plan by appending the original document you began in the previous assignment.

To Prepare:

Reflect on the strategies presented in the Resources for this Module in support of academic style, integrity, and scholarly ethics.
Reflect on the connection between academic and professional integrity.
The Assignment:

Part 3, Section 1: Writing Sample: The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity

Using the Academic and Professional Success Development Template you began in Module 1 and expanded in Module 2, write a 2- to 3-paragraph analysis that includes the following:

Explanation for the relationship between academic integrity and writing
Explanation for the relationship between professional practices and scholarly ethics
Cite at least two resources that support your arguments, being sure to use proper APA formatting.
Use Grammarly and SafeAssign to improve the product.
Explain how Grammarly, Safe Assign, and paraphrasing contributes to academic integrity.
Part 3, Section 2: Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work
Expand on your thoughts from Section 1 by:

identifying and describing strategies you intend to pursue to maintain integrity and ethics of your: (1) academic work as a student of the MSN program and (2) professional work as a nurse throughout your career. Include a review of resources and approaches you propose to use as a student and a professional.
Note: Add your work for this Assignment to the original document you began in the Module 1 Assignment, which was built from the Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Template.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.