Professional Nursing Practice: Portfolio, Standards, Membership

Running head: PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
Professional nursing practice
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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1. Professional practice portfolio
1.1 Description:
A professional practice portfolio is an organized document that provides an insight into
nurse’s record of current nursing competencies, experiences gathers so far in practice and key
professional learning and development. It gives an overview of current and past working role
and responsibilities and other activities related to professional development. It can also be
defined as nurse’s documentation of skills, competencies, professional achievements and
professional experience in the nursing field. It enables nurse practitioners to provide evidence
regarding competencies and experience gained through enrolment in specific health care
institution. It is an appropriate approach to showcase ongoing professional knowledge and
education to achieve employment goals. Chamblee et al. (2015) explains that professional
portfolio is an appropriate tool to demonstrate commitment and progress towards advanced
practice. Hence, it can be defined as an individualized document that displays
accomplishments and career planning.
The key components of a professional practice portfolio include the following:
 Biographical information
 Summary of education and professional licensure
 Employment history
 Reflection statements on professional strength and weakness
 Performance review
 Professional awards
 Personal philosophy of nursing

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 Support for evidence based practice
 Case histories related to nursing related activities and skills
 Professional development plans and activities (Chamblee et al., 2015) .
1.2 Argument:
There are multiple reasons behind the use of professional practice portfolio. These includes
establishing career goals, illustrating specific area of expertise, showcasing professional practice,
developing knowledge and skills, planning future career opportunities and applying in a reputed
hospital (Chamblee et al., 2015) .
Use of a professional portfolio is associated with many benefits and advantage for nurses.
One of the prominent benefits is that this document enables them to demonstrate their capability
and progress towards professional nursing practice. Casey et al. (2017) argues that professional
practice portfolios is a mechanism to maintain continuing professional competence required in
advanced nursing practice. Registered nurses in many countries have the obligation to complete
minimum set hours of continuous professional development (CPD) to become a registered nurse.
Hence, use of professional portfolio provides nurse with the opportunity to provide details of the
CPD course undertaken and this provides them the opportunity to maintain profile for continuing
licensure. It also enables nurse to identify areas of improvement. Therefore, it acts as the
catalysts that encourage nurse to plan future activities based on critical review of past
performance.
Another advantage of using professional portfolio is that it supports nurse to engage in
critical reflection on clinical practice. The practice of developing portfolio is an approach to
enhance analytical and critical thinking among nursing students. Ticha and Fakude (2015)

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investigated about the perception of fourth-year nursing students regarding their experience of
compiling portfolios and the study revealed that this exercise was associated with increase in
self-esteem, confidence and critical thinking among student nurse. The process preparing
portfolio also developed their ability to engage in self-directed learning. Hence, by looking to
analyze the pros and cons of their action, they were able to understand the areas in which they
were lagging behind and the area in which they need further training. However, certain
challenges in the use of portfolio have also been documented in studies. For example, some of
the challenges in the use of portfolio include time constraints and lack of support from
supervisors. As nursing students find it burdensome to complete different component of the
portfolio, providing appropriate supervision to such students might help to increase motivation
level of students related to the use of professional portfolios. Haggerty and Thompson (2017)
also supports that timing of using portfolio is important as introduction of portfolio during exams
and assessments creates barriers for students as they could not find time to use the portfolio
appropriately.
1.3 Management and leadership:
Nursing is a dynamic and challenging profession that requires inspiring leaders. Currently
there is increased focus on identifying and developing nurse leaders so that complex care
situations can be handled with maturity (Scully, 2015). This requires the nurse to display both
management and leadership competencies. Leadership competencies in nursing involves the
communication and relationship building competencies, interpersonal skills, human resource
management skills, financial management skills and system thinking skills. These competencies
enable graduate nurse to advance into leadership role (Waxman et al., 2017). However, the
difference between management and leadership competencies is that it included management