Five Year Career Plan for Emergency Nursing (NURS3006)

This report presents a comprehensive five-year career plan for an aspiring emergency nurse, focusing on achieving the goal of becoming an emergency nurse within five years. The plan outlines specific objectives, including obtaining an emergency nursing course certification, attending nursing conferences, and completing training in Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS). The report emphasizes the importance of developing essential skills such as remaining calm, being assertive, and effective time management. The plan also addresses the need for continuous professional development through lifelong learning, including staying updated with the latest research and attending seminars. The author identifies weaknesses in pediatric and adult health assessment and proposes strategies to address these gaps. The report incorporates the Registered Nurses Standards for Practice and emphasizes the importance of leadership skills and critical thinking in emergency care. The author intends to undergo training in leadership to enhance these skills. The plan includes the importance of maintaining a high level of competence and confidence through practice and a commitment to lifelong learning. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of meeting employer criteria and providing evidence of accomplishments for future employment opportunities.

FIVE YEAR CAREER PLAN
Name:
Institution:
Date:

Upon completing my bachelor degree in nursing there are several goals that I intend to achieve
within five years in order to advance in my career at an early age given I will complete my
degree at the age of twenty years. I intend to be an emergency nurse by the end of five years and
therefore there are several goals that I must achieve for me to make my dream come true. Before
the five years, there are several goals that I plan to have attained which include taking an
emergency nursing course, attending twenty nursing conferences, train in basic life support and
advanced trauma life support. To be an emergency nurse one has to develop a certain set of skills
which include the ability to remain calm, being assertive, setting aside personal feelings and
personal coping methods. All these will be attained by undertaking a graduate course in
emergency nursing that will take one to two years to be completed. Basic life support and
advanced trauma life support are essential in the management of patients in the emergency
setting and therefore for me to become an emergency nurse I will need to equip myself with the
required knowledge (Moran & Nairn, 2018).
Being focused and reflective is a tool every nurse should possess and therefore for me to achieve
my targets within the specified time I must keep myself focused and reflective upon my actions.
Reflection requires the evaluation of past events and drawing upon positives and negatives of the
experience and taking up lessons that will help in future similar cases (Carr, 2017). To grow as a
nurse I have to keep on reflecting and remain focused on my goals despite the obstacles faced.
Through reflection, I have identified several weaknesses that I have and I think they need to be
addressed before I become an emergency nurse. I have a weakness in both pediatric and adult
health assessment in an emergency setting. Patients presenting in an emergency room in a
hospital have to be triaged by an emergency nurse and for me to efficiently carry out this duty I
have to address my weakness in both pediatric and adult health assessment. An emergency nurse

has to objectively assess emergency patients and triage them according to their presenting
conditions (Parenti et al. 2014).
There are several qualities that an emergency nurse should possess such as the ability to remain
calm, being assertive, setting aside personal feelings, personal coping methods and time
management. For me to achieve my goal of being an emergency nurse in five years' time I must
develop these skills so as to be a competent emergency nurse. Remaining calm is a skill that a
good emergency nurse needs to possess as this help one be able to discharge their duties in a high
tension environment (Gopee & Galloway, 2017). The emergency part of the hospital is most of
the time noisy place as every patient seeks immediate care and therefore an emergency nurse is
required to be calm and utilize their skills to help the patients in the hospital. Being assertive is a
vital skill that I should develop in me because there is a time when the patients cannot speak up
their issues due to various problems and the emergency nurse has to become their advocate.
Time management is a skill that is very helpful in emergency nursing as there are a lot of
activities and patients who need care and therefore utilizing the available time adequately is of
the essence (Lombardo, 2018).
To maintain emergency nursing quality one is required to consistently keep engaging in life-long
learning. Life-long learning can be achieved through constant reading of newly available
literature in nursing, attending seminars and conferences. There is always ongoing research in
the nursing profession and in particular the emergency part of nursing. Attending these
conferences and seminars will help me gain the knowledge that has been developed concerning
the care of patients in emergency care. Confidence in nursing is gained through the practice of
nursing and requires that one to be competent in their work to attain this (Skår, 2010).
Committing myself to life-long learning will enable me to become a competent nurse in the

management of my patients and gain confidence along the way. Confident emergency nurses
have been shown by several studies to be those who are more competent than others and possess
quality nursing skills.
Primary and secondary survey principles of emergency nursing are very critical and should be
performed wholly for better management of patients under emergency care (Felton, 2012). The
primary survey is the first assessment and management a patient in an emergency situation is
given. It is conducted to stabilize the patient and identify any life-threatening injury that the
patient may have experienced. The systematic way of reviewing such a patient is conducting the
systematic airway, breathing, circulation, disability, and exposure commonly known as ABCDE.
After conducting the primary survey the emergency nurse can proceed to perform the secondary
survey. The secondary survey is done by systematically reviewing the patient after they have
been stabilized in order to identify the extent of the injury to the patient under nursing care
(Lang, 2017). Under secondary survey injuries that are not life-threatening to the patient can be
identified and plan of management discussed thereafter. Primary and secondary survey are
acquired through undertaking training in both basic life support (BLS) and advanced trauma life
support (ATLS). In my five-year goal plan, I intend to undergo both pieces of training so as to
improve my skills as an emergency nurse (Felton, 2012).
Registered nurses standards of care outline seven standards that registered nurses should abide
by so that they can offer quality care to their patients while managing them in the hospital
(AACN, 2017). The seven standards include critical thinking and analyzing nursing practice,
engagement in therapeutic and professional relationships, maintaining the capability to practice,
conducting assessments comprehensively, developing a plan for nursing practice, providing a
safe, responsive quality and appropriate nursing practice, evaluating outcomes to inform nursing

practice. These standards have to be maintained at all times by an emergency nurse because they
serve patients who vulnerable and need the immediate care of the nurse or they could be dead in
no time. Most of the trauma patients cannot speak up their problems and it is the mandate of the
emergency nurse to communicate the patients' assessment effectively to other health professions
(Okuyama, Wagner & Bijnen, 2014). Patients trust the emergency nurses to handle their
problems efficiently and therefore a good therapeutic relationship is vital between the nurses and
their patients in the hospital. Critical thinking requires that the emergency nurse make the best
decision according to the emergency the patients with after conducting a comprehensive
assessment. To provide safe and quality as an emergency nurse I will have to undertake a course
in emergency nursing that equip me with the required emergency nursing skills.
Evaluation of emergency interventions is a skill that emergency nurses should possess and it is
addressed under the standard of nursing principles critically thinking and analyzing nursing
practice. An emergency nurse should be able to quickly and comprehensively conduct an
assessment and critically evaluate the best plan of action to manage the patient under their care
(Papathanasiou et al. 2014). Immediate and ongoing clinical management have to be addressed
by the emergency nurse while managing their patient because this has a great impact on the
patients' care. Leadership skills such as communication skills and critical thinking are very vital
in the emergency treatment of a patient. Emergency patients require urgent attention and if an
emergency nurse does not possess these leadership skills they will not offer quality care to their
patients in emergency care. In my five-year goal plan, I have to attend several seminars on
leadership in nursing so that I can acquire these leadership skills (Santos et al. 2013).
To attain all these skills I have talked about concerning an emergency nurse I have to undergo
different training that will enable become a good emergency nurse. Attend training in basic life

support and advanced trauma life support to help me conduct primary and secondary surveys in
my future emergency patients in the hospital. The certificates gained from these training and
courses will be kept in soft copy and hard copy forms for future usage. Employers set criteria
that must be achieved by emergency nurses and for me to be employed I have attained my goals
so that I meet the set criteria.
References.
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Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017). Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
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66.

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