Nursing : Career Development Essay examples

As Finkelman (2006) stated, “Mentoring, and important career development to that can be used by nurses any type of set or specialty, can be used to develop the critical leadership skills needed by nurses. All successful leaders have had mentors are our mentors” (Finkelman,2006, p. 390).

I am pleased to state that I have been a registered nurse for forty years. At this moment, I continue working in nursing while pursuing my Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. My intended month of completion is October 2012. My experience in nursing education has motivated me to continue my education and pursue a Masters degree in a nursing related field commencing in 2013. Thus, in terms of my career planning, my education is a crucial part to my professional development. Extending and deepening one's education, especially within the career field of one's choice, can only bring upon additional professional opportunities as well as opportunities for personal growth. My career planning includes building upon my decades of experience in obstetrics, my particular area of specialty, expertise, and passion, with the assistance and addition of higher education. I believe in terms of career planning, my strengths include foresight, preparation, internal motivation, and focus.

The purpose of this paper is to create a concept analysis and identify a nursing concept that is within a nursing theory. A concept analysis is a process where concepts and their characteristics are researched and clarified. The eight steps on conducting a concept analysis include selection of a concept used in a nursing theory, identification of the aims or purposes of the analysis, identification of possible use of the selected concept, determination of defining attributes, identification of model cases, identification of antecedents and consequences, and lastly definition of empirical referents (Walker & Avant, 2011). The nursing concept selected for this paper is “empowerment” within the nursing profession. The nursing theory from which the empowerment concept was obtained is Kanter’s Theory on Structural Empowerment. In order to empower someone, an individual needs the tools and resources to feel powered. According to Laschinger, Gilbert, Smith, & Leslie (2010), Kanter defines power as the ability to mobilize information, resources and support to get things done in an organization. The role of management is to provide employees with power tools that empower them to maximize their ability to accomplish their work in a meaningful way. Kanter goes on to describe two primary empowerment structures in organizations, first being the structure of opportunity and second the structure of power. The structure of opportunity relates to job conditions that provide

A career trajectory is a formalized plan for a successful transition into a career path that an individual has chosen. Likewise, the goal of nursing is to improve health through the advancement of knowledge therefore, improving the safety, effectiveness, and the access for healthcare. In combining these two definitions, a career trajectory in nursing advancement is to allow for clarity of direction and expected outcomes in a career by meeting the goals to advance in the healthcare field. In order to build a successful career as an advanced practitioner an individual must consider the requirements of the position and make strategic decisions in order to facilitate progression towards this goal (Feetham & Doering, 2015).

A Registered Nurse is a person who enjoys helping other people. They practically have the responsibility for many peoples lives. What’s interesting about a Registered Nurse is that they get to learn about all the parts of the human body. A Registered Nurse works in the medical field and needs to be ready with anything that comes their way. There could be a sudden death, some kind of medical issue that pops up, and even a patient just falls over and hurt themselves. As a Registered Nurse they need to be able to deal with blood, snot, vomit etc. The main thing a Registered Nurse has to be good at is being able, and wanting to help people in need.

Empowering the nursing team allows them to feel important and become vested in the change process. Transformational leaders value employee contributions, promote quality work performance and job satisfaction (Utley, Anderson & Atwell, 2011). Empowering employees allows them to take responsibility and feel that they play an important role in accomplishing the set goal. This increases job enrichment and therefore affects job satisfaction. Another way to empower the nursing staff is to assist them in developing their own leadership skills. “Nurse managers should also consider developing junior staff’s leadership skills, particularly in situations where there are nursing shortages or where nurses are reluctant to undertake leadership roles. Leadership in nursing is critical to ensuring consistent standards across all aspects of care and building an environment for

My personal definition of nursing is taking care of my patient as a whole; using my knowledge, being compassionate and caring, respectful and honest. Taking care of the; spiritual, physical and emotional aspect of the patient, and taking into consideration their family and environment. Learning about the different theorists I associate myself the most with Hildegard Peplau. Peplau believed that the relationship between the patient and the nurse was focus of attention, rather than the patient only as the unit of attention. (Chitty & Black p.314-315). Using Peplau’s theory my relationship begins with my patients as strangers and I try to

As people’s life expectancy increases, the nursing field needs to keep pace with the rapid changes. There’s increased needs for nurses in many different field as well such as nursing home, hospitals, ambulatory cares, palliative care, and hospices. Therefore, an expectation of a role as a nurse has been rise. Nursing skills and knowledge cannot remain limited, but need to utilize in more various setting. In order to provide better care in various nursing field, continuing education is essential. For example, as population and their lifespan increases there’s also new diseases and new treatment has been developed. A competence nurse must embrace old and new skills and thorough knowledge to achieve best quality of care and optimum patient’s overall outcome. The quality of patient care heavily depends on nurses’ level of education. One research proves that nurses who received higher level of education showed lower mortality rate, less medical errors, and higher patient satisfaction. This outcome is related to higher education which prepared nurses to handle various circumstances with appropriate answers. Nurses are people who spend most of time with ill individuals at the bed side. Nursing education will provide new demanding roles of nurses’ requirement such as seeing the patient as a whole, providing appropriate response to patient’s condition, and integrating knowledge and skills accordingly.

As of 2008, there were about 753,600 Licensed Practical Nurses and 2,618,700 Registered Nurses in the United States (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010-11). In the year 2018, the LPN employment percentage is expected to rise 21% while the RN rate should be approximately 22% (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010-11). This may not seem that high, but it is, when one considers that the expected employment rate for a Dentist is only expected to be 16% (U.S Department of Labor, 2010-11). Nursing is a highly respected and sought after career because every person that enters this profession is able to make a difference and is needed by the general population for his/her skills and contributions to the medical field. When a person is contemplating entering

I would like to introduce you to Mary B. It is a fictitious name. She is 39 years old and has been a registered nurse for the last 15 years. Mary is married and has got two children aged 7 and 10 years old. She is a New Zealand European and was born in New Zealand. As a registered nurse Mary has been working in the hospital setting and the rest home. All her working life so far was connected to the elderly care. Her current role is a hospital nurse in the geriatric recovery ward. Most of Mary’s work is basic nursing care for elderly people (65 years old and over) after surgeries, rehabilitation. Also they provide palliative care for people in the end of their lives. Mary and her colleagues are involved in doing blood transfusions, wound

When one thinks of leaders, they think of those who hold a high profile position or someone who is highly visible in the public eye. A leader, regardless of prestige is someone who can easily influence and inspire the actions and goals of others. The definition of a leader in Nursing Leadership and Management in Nursing states, “leadership is commonly defined as a process of influence in which the leader influences others towards goal achievement (Kelly, 2012 p.2). Leaders are needed at all levels and nurses take a leadership role by being advocates for their patients. There are many leadership theories and styles in nursing but this paper will focus on transformational leadership and its application to nursing. Transformational leadership is important in nursing, due to its ever changing and ever evolving healthcare methods and technology.

Leadership may mean different things to different people, the consensus opinion of experts in this field is that leadership is using power to direct and influence activities of people to achieve set goals or targets. Nursing leadership is all about every nurse providing, facilitating and promoting the best healthcare services to client and to the public. Leadership is a shared responsibility. (CNO 2012). The nursing profession need leaders that can build the capacity of nurses through mentoring, coaching, supporting, developing the expertise and management skills of nurses to make a difference to the quality of patient care at all levels of the profession ( McIntyre & McDonald, 2014 ). At the core of every leadership either political or managerial is power and how the leader uses it. While it is practically impossible to lead without power, how the nurse leader uses this power not only determine the leadership style but also the results or outcomes of what is achieved through the process.

Nursing is defined as “as an application of scientific knowledge enhanced by artful practice in a socially responsible manner.” (Gregory 5). Nurses provide leadership as members of interdisciplinary teams, provide client centered care to promote health, prevent disease, and restore and maintain client integrity throughout the life span. (Krannich 71). This makes it one of the most interesting professions, in my opinion.

Nursing leadership is also one of the very important messages of the 2010 IOM report on nursing. The IOM calls to expand opportunities for nurses to lead. It advises that nurses need to be prepared and enabled as leaders in order to advance healthcare. One of the recommendations states that “expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts” (IOM Report, 2010). In that regards, a research article (Sherman, 2011) points out that charge nurses on frontline of acute care setting are the

Ive always wanted a rewarding career that revolved around helping people. I want to pursue a career as a nurse practitioner. I am not sure on what specialty I want. So given a assignment in my Introduction Health Sciences class where I have to shadow a nurse practitioner, it gives me the opportunity to explore a specialty and see what it really is like in their typical work day. An advanced practice registered nurse, by the name of Mary Carlson at Parkland Medical Center was willing to let me shadow her for a day. Carlson graduated with her BSN from Boston College. She then pursued a graduate degree from Boston University. Her official title is, Nurse Practitioner, Emergency Medicine.