Nursing Reflection Assignment: SWOT Analysis and PDP

This nursing reflection assignment presents a comprehensive analysis of a student's personal and professional development within the nursing field. The report begins with an introduction to the importance of personal development plans (PDPs) and SWOT analysis in nursing, emphasizing their role in managing learning, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and achieving career growth. The student then details their initial SWOT analysis, identifying strengths such as communication and organizational skills, and weaknesses including lack of confidence and stress management issues. Opportunities for professional growth are highlighted, along with threats such as uncertainty in professional skills and a lack of emotional quotient. The report outlines a PDP designed to address these weaknesses and threats, including strategies for improved communication and skill development. The student's self-assessment, based on their learning and clinical placement, is also provided. The report concludes with a reflection on the insights gained and their implications for future career endeavors, referencing key academic sources to support the analysis. The report is a valuable resource for students seeking to improve their self-awareness and career planning within the nursing profession.

Running head: NURSING REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
NURSING REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
Personal development plan is an importance strategy that helps the nursing professionals
to manage their own leanings and make them aware of the strength and weaknesses of their
acquired skills (Schober, 2016). In this age of globalization, nursing professionals are required to
develop personal developmental plan with the utilization of their strength and weaknesses,
opportunities and threats so that they could achieve growth and development in their professional
career. As per Štěrbová et al. (2016), if nursing professionals are aware of their strengths and
opportunities, they could develop strategies for their weaknesses and threats effectively. In this
reflective report, I would be discussing about my SWOT analysis that I developed at the
beginning of the year and after all the learning and completion of stipulated placement hour in
the year, I would reflect upon my recent personal development depending upon the new SWOT
and personal development plan.
My previous SWOT analysis and personal development plan
While commencement of the year and course, we were asked to develop a SWOT
analysis and personal development plan depending upon the provided weakness and threats so
that we could achieve them with our abilities and determination power (Abay et al. 2016). My
past experiences while working or studying and withstanding critical situations, I was able to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of my personality.
Strengths
My personal strength that I was able to identify while going through critical healthcare
conditions was associated to my ability to communicate in crucial healthcare conditions. I was
able to identify my listening and communicating skills due to which I was able to develop

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communication with a range of individuals. Further, this communication ability made me
motivated and organized. Therefore, with these abilities I was able to learn in an organized and
with patience so that with learning, I could develop personal skills for the growth and
development of my nursing skills. Therefore, these were the strengths of my personality that
helped me throughout my learning and I was able to develop abilities that made me help people
with my skills.
Weaknesses
As per Hwang (2015), nursing professionals need to understand the weaknesses of their
personality and their professional abilities so that they could make developments in their
personality and could develop their profession. The weaknesses that were associated with my
experiences were associated with my lack of confidence, and inability work under stress. These
were the most crucial situations that were associated to the nursing professionals and their ability
to work with a diverse and critical condition. Further these, there are several critical conditions in
which I was not able to communicate in public and was nervous while presenting any
information to patients as well as professionals in the healthcare facility. Therefore, these are the
critical aspect related to weakness of my personality due to which I used to struggle in healthcare
facility and was unable to perform in stressful and pressure situations. Hence, this was the
weakness of my personality that needs to be overcome so that I could develop my personality to
achieve my future endeavors related to working with children with special needs.
Opportunities
Opportunities are the future scope of development and growth and help to achieve the
future and existing goals. While going through the learning and placement in the healthcare

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facility, I had to face several critical and complicated situations and I was able to manage the
situation with my professional and personal skills. Therefore, it helped me to develop my
professional career and provided me opportunities for working with new organisation, new role
and position. Further, my weaknesses related to less confidence and nervousness provided me
with the opportunity so that ii could learn new theories and aspects of my profession and invest
time in effective means. Hence, while working with children with special needs I would be
requiring these skills so that I could understand their needs and requirements prior to implement
interventions for their health and wellbeing improvement. Therefore, these were the
opportunities that helped me to develop effective professional skills.
Threats
Despite of the opportunities and strengths of my personal and professional nursing
abilities, there were several threats associated to the by learning and skills that affected my future
career growth related scopes. After a year of learning and placement, I was able to understand
that I was not sure about my professional skills and due to which I lacked self trust about any of
my nursing interventions applied on the patients. Further, I also lacked the emotional quotient
which is the most crucial and important aspect of my growth and development as a nursing
professional. As per Buyuk et al. (2015), with empathy, nursing professionals are able to
understand the sufferings of the patient and then provide them with cure so that growth and
development could be ensured. Further as per Peck, Maude and Brotherson (2015), while
working with children with special needs empathy and emotion is the critical aspect of care that
helps the nursing professionals to develop bonding with the patients. Hence, this was one of the
critical situations of my personality due to which my personal and professionals abilities
affected. Hence, to achieve my future goals, these threats needs to be mitigate so that while

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working with the children with special needs in my future professional goals, I could grow as an
effective nursing professional.
The PDP to overcome weaknesses and threats’
To overcome the threats and weaknesses associated to my abilities, I developed a
development plan and implemented that for 3, 6 and 12 months term so that I could overcome
the weaknesses and threats of my personality. I would try to communicate more with people and
while communicating with people, I would be utilizing my professional skills. Further, as a long
term care, I would be developing or seeking a qualification for working with disability affected
children so that while achieving my career goals, I could be more skilled and effective as a
nursing professional.
Conclusion
While working in my placement and a year- long learning, I was able to understand the
positive and negative aspect of my abilities. The SWOT and PDP helped me to understand the
strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats so that I could achieve my future career related
endeavors.

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References
Abay, H., Kaplan, S., Sahin, S. and Pinar, G., 2016. How nurses views themselves in Turkey: A
qualitative SWOT analysis. International Archives of Nursing and Health Care, 2(1), pp.2-7.
Buyuk, E.T., Rizalar, S., Güdek, E. and Güney, Z., 2015. Evaluation of empathetic skills of
nurses working in oncology units in Samsun, Turkey. International Journal of Caring
Sciences, 8(1), pp.131-139.
Hwang, J.I., 2015. What are hospital nurses’ strengths and weaknesses in patient safety
competence? Findings from three Korean hospitals. International Journal for Quality in Health
Care, 27(3), pp.232-238.
Peck, N.F., Maude, S.P. and Brotherson, M.J., 2015. Understanding preschool teachers’
perspectives on empathy: A qualitative inquiry. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(3),
pp.169-179.
Schober, M., 2016. Role and practice development. In Introduction to Advanced Nursing
Practice (pp. 95-109). Springer, Cham.
Štěrbová, M., Loučanová, E., Paluš, H., Ivan, Ľ. and Šálka, J., 2016. Innovation strategy in
Slovak forest contractor firms—A SWOT analysis. Forests, 7(6), p.118.