NURS 4516: Advanced Professional Issues Career Plan Assignment

This document presents a comprehensive career plan assignment for a nursing course (NURS 4516), focusing on advanced professional issues. The assignment is divided into two parts. Part one involves scanning the environment to identify global health and nursing issues, trends in the student's country, and issues affecting nurses locally. It also requires a self-assessment of values, priorities, strengths, and limitations, followed by an exploration of interests and a reality check through feedback from colleagues and family. The career vision section outlines desired career goals, and the assignment concludes with short-term and long-term goals. Part two details action steps, resources, timelines, indicators of success, and next steps, which include marketing strategies. The student references relevant literature to support their analysis and planning.

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NURS 4516: Advanced Professional Issues
Career Plan Template
Winter 2019
Name:
CAREER PLAN ASSIGNMENT: PART ONE
a. Scanning Your Environment:
What health/social issues seem to be worldwide
phenomena?
• What are the nursing issues that seem to be global in their
scope?
Nursing shortage is one of the main issues in Canada now. The prevalence
of chronic disorders are increasing in the nation and affecting huge
number of older citizens of the nation (Vandyk et al., 2017). To meet the
care demands of huge cohorts of old people affected by co-morbid
disorders, the present number of nurses are not sufficient.
• What are the health and social trends in your
country?
Nursing professionals are now expected to follow the bio-psycho-social
model of healthcare approaches. They are expected to consider and
manage the biological, social as well as psychological determinants of
health to help patients overcome their disorders.
• What are the issues affecting nurses in your

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country?
Huge amount of work burden faced by nurses due to caring and managing
for huge number of patients make them feel burned-out. This has
negative psychological, physical and emotional impact on their lives
making them to sacrifice work-life balance or withdraw themselves from
the profession (Chachula et al., 2015). Nurse bullying is another issue as
well.
• What are some of the important social and
health issues in your local area?
Obesity is one of the health issues in the area but successful health
campaigns and education sessions had not been carried out. Inability to
access primary healthcare centers due to huge distance from the locality
and long waiting times in the centers are other issues.
• What are the important nursing issues in your
local area?
The local area comprises of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Therefore, nursing professionals face issues while providing care to such
patients due to their low cultural competence level. Another nursing issue
is getting burned out from tackling more patients than they could do.
• Where are the gaps between patient/consumer
needs and services provided?

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Gaps between cultural knowledge and expectations between nurses and
patients, and nurses failing to ensure dignity and autonomy to patients
through therapeutic relationship development are noted.
Self-Assessment
Values:
• What is important to me in my work and in my
personal life?
Ensuring accountability in my personal as well as professional life is
important for me. I need to be accountable for my actions and decisions I
take not only regarding my onw career but also about the health of
patients.
• Who or what do I need to consider in my life at
this time?
I need to gain more knowledge and skills to develop, as an expert nurse
and therefore, I need to conduct more evidence-based study at this time.
Moreover, ethical and legal obligations affect nurses and their career to
great extent. I also need to develop skills that would prevent me to get
engaged in such obligations in future.
• What are my priorities—self, family, community
or other?
My priorities are self and community at this particular time.

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• What knowledge and skills have I developed,personally and
professionally?
I have understood the importance of empathy and compassion both in my
personal relationships and while developing bonds with patients.
Development of mutual trust, respect, and focusing on maintaining
autonomy and dignity not only with patients but also with every human is
important.
• What are my strengths?
My strengths are my communication skills and multi-tasking abilities.
• What are my limitations?
Lack of resilience, lack of self-regulation and low cultural competence are
some of the limitations.
• What knowledge and skills require further development?
I need to work more on developing my evidence based practice skills to
search for articles that meet my requirements. Moreover, I also need to
work with my team-working capabilities.
Interests:
• What have you liked about your past and current
job(s)?
My present and past jobs have helped me to provide acre services to
human that gives me an internal pleasure and satisfaction
• What haven’t you liked?

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The previous job harboured very poor organisational culture with
restricted opportunities of growth and poor leadership styles. I did not like
such attributes.
What kind of environment brings out the best in
you?
A collaborative environment that influences feedback exchange sessions
help to exhibit my best talents. Acknowledgements of my achievements
encourage me to work beyond my potential helping the team to reach the
vision.
• What do you like to do outside of the workplace?
I like playing soccer, going to gymnasiums, swimming and even hanging
out with friends.
• What energises or motivates you?
Constructive feedbacks and acknowledgements motivate me to great
extent.
b. Reality Check
• What feedback have I received about my achievements from
colleagues, friends, and family?
They have stated that they are impressed with my communication skills.
They also like my empathetic and compassionate approach towards them.
However, they asked me on my self-regulation skills as I often lose my
patience and become angry or become too emotional in certain
situations. This is important for my nursing profession.

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• What did they identify as my strengths and limitations?
Strengths: communication skills, empathetic and compassionate
approach, helping behaviour
Limitations: lack of self-regulation, lack of team-working ability, becoming
nervous in crisis
• What three adjectives would they use to describe me, both in and
outside my workplace and why?
 Nervous and restless as often during strenuous situations and crisis,
I lose my critical thinking ability and get anxious
 Multi-tasker and punctual because of my time management ability
and multitasking ability
 Culturally biased as I tend to avoid interaction with people from
different backgrounds
• How did my assessment of accomplishments compare with others’
assessments?
It matches with that of the others.
c. Career Vision
• What do I want? What am I seeking?
I want to develop both clinical and non-pharmacological skills that would
make me an expert nurse in the future
• What does my ideal day look like? What am I doing, where am I doing
it, and who is there with me?

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My idea day consists of starting that day with yoga, having breakfast and
rushing to work. Serving patients, meeting their requirements ensuring
their satisfaction are some of my duties. I come back and visit gym to
unwind myself. I have dinner with my family where we talk about the
happenings of entire day. This is followed by a good night sleep.
• Is someone currently doing the kind of work I’d like to do? Describe the
characteristics of that work.
My mother is a social worker and working with not-for profit organisations
to develop the condition of living of aboriginals
• What are the self-limiting beliefs that could prevent me from doing what
I really want to do?
My inability to be acceptable to negative feedbacks can affect my zeal
• What are the environmental constraints that I must consider before I
can do what I really want to do
The fear of handling more patients in busy shifts can be one
environmental constraint along with bullying.
d. Career Goals
i. Short Term
 Develop cultural competency
 Develop self-regulation and resilience
ii. Long Term

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 See myself in the position of advances nurse practitioner
in future.
e. References
Chachula, K. M., Myrick, F., & Yonge, O. (2015). Letting go: how newly
graduated registered nurses in Western Canada decide to exit the
nursing profession. Nurse education today, vol: 35 no: (7), pp: 912-918.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2015.02.024
Vandyk, A., Chartrand, J., Beké, É., Burlock, L., & Baker, C. (2017). Perspectives from
academic leaders of the nursing faculty shortage in Canada. International journal of
nursing education scholarship, vol:14 no:(1). Pp: 45-58 https://doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-
2017-0049
CAREER PLAN ASSIGNMENT: PART TWO
a. Action Steps
 Join workshops to develop cultural competency
 Undertake more evidence based researches to develop cultural
competences
 Undertake reflective practices
 Meditation and yoga with mindfulness based therapies for self-
regulation
 Interview experienced nurses to learn from their experiences.

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b. Resources
 Internet services
 Access to digital library
 Websites on cultural traditions
 workshops
c. Timeline (be specific to when it will be accomplished)
Short-term goals within 5 months
Long-term goals within 3 to 6 years
d. Indicators of Success (how will I know I have succeeded?)
Feedback from colleagues and mentors
Performance certificate from employers
e. Next Steps (how will I market myself?)
I will open accounts in socially linked job portals to exhibit my skills and
promote myself.