Reflective Practice and SWOT Analysis for Nursing Career Development

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SWOT ANALYSIS
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Strengths:................................................................................................................................................2
Weaknesses:............................................................................................................................................2
Opportunities:.........................................................................................................................................2
Threats:...................................................................................................................................................3
Strategy 1: Turning strengths into opportunities.....................................................................................3
Strategy 2: Removing or minimizing the weaknesses can improve the resilience...................................3
Strategy 3: Eliminating the existing threats.............................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
The following assignment reflects my learning plan with the reflective practice that helps me to
identify, realize and understand self-skills, abilities, threats, and weaknesses in academic
practice. I have tried to be honest about the strengths and weaknesses identified in me with the
help of SWOT analysis. This practice will help to identify the major opportunities that will
require a strategic approach for building my career (Byeon, 2015).
Strengths:
The SWOT analysis theory helps me to identify my strength as being highly organized in terms
of the work I undertake along with a strongly determined motivational force for succeeding in
future aspects. I find these as my key skills with the academic progress I have earned so far that
helps me to turn out as an independent learner holding skillful organizational skills. Along with
this, I feel that while practicing, I am kind and thoughtful with my patients and often bring their
choices into consideration.
Weaknesses:
I can also identify my weaknesses while pursuing my nursing career using the SWOT analysis. I
feel that I should be more mature while handling patients from different backgrounds and
cultural values as it is often a challenge while convincing a patient toward a treatment plan. Also,
I feel that I should be able to handle my emotions well while having a conversation with the
carers of the patients as this would directly affect their emotional status. One more identified
weakness is that I often find difficulty in separating my personal life with my professional life
and this affects the time I spend with my family.
Opportunities:
I strongly believe that I hold some valued opportunities in my life which will positively impact
my nursing career. I realize that my current mentor has been guiding me throughout this journey
that helped me to inculcate the values I hold for my work and he also helped me this far in
shaping up my work. Further, I feel that my healthy connections with senior colleagues who are
now working in reputable hospitals will also help me to shape my future very well.
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Threats:
Although I hold a strong passion for my job, at the same time, I feel that the remuneration
provided to the nurses is not satisfactory as per the tasks allocated. Also, the pressure of the job
and the risk involved is quite high which certainly demands extreme attention all the time with
recorded observations. Job responsibilities of this nature should have sound remuneration
benefits associated with keeping their employees motivated (Uhrenfeldt, et al., 2014).
My philosophy of nursing values would be ‘Taking care of the patient as a whole along with the
utilization of my knowledge by being caring, compassionate, honest and respectful that involves
taking care of their spiritual, emotional and physical aspects along with their family and
environment’ (Manzano‐García and Ayala‐Calvo, 2014).
Utilizing the identified SWOT analysis, I have developed the following actionable strategies
which can help me to develop my professional career as a nurse and improve the resilience
towards my professional goals (Vikström, et al., 2015):
Strategy 1: Turning strengths into opportunities
I feel that since I have strong determination towards my career, I should start investing time in
learning new and additional things from my senior colleagues who are gaining valuable
experience at different hospitals. This can give value to my portfolio and I can gain an advantage
during placements. I will also utilize my extra time to learn and practice more during the clinical
sessions so that I can evolve myself as a graduate nurse and this will open better opportunities
for my clinical practice.
Strategy 2: Removing or minimizing the weaknesses can improve the
resilience
I feel that all the identified weaknesses which are probably going to affect my future growth
should be removed and as an action plan, I should start reading about the different cultural
practices and values that exist and are preached in different countries. I should also have a
stronger understanding of the patient-oriented treatment choices that are driven by their cultural
beliefs. Further, I want to develop better emotional presentation amongst the caretakers for
which I should have multiple discussions (and demo-sessions) that can help to improve my
presence amongst them. For dividing my time equally, I need to plan my work according to the
working hours so that it does not affect my personal life.
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Strategy 3: Eliminating the existing threats
In order to eliminate the possible outcome of poor remuneration observed in my professional
career, I want to develop my portfolio to such an extent that I can start applying in the best
hospitals across the globe that have better pay and facilities for the hired nurses. For this, I
should not only have excellent academic grades but should also be able to demonstrate healthy
clinical practice which is entirely patient-oriented involving their active choices.
Conclusion
The above discussion is reflective learning utilizing SWOT analysis to identify the effective and
less effective systems, traits and habits that may have a possible impact on my professional
development (Ginger and Ritchie, 2017). Along with this, there is also strategic planning of the
ideas that can help to eliminate the challenges on the professional aspect.
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References
Byeon, D.H., 2015. Plan for Invigoration of Visiting Nursing Center in Long-Term Care
Insurance for the Elderly-Through SWOT Analysis. Journal of Korean Public Health
Nursing, 29(2), pp.203-218.
Ginger, T. and Ritchie, G., 2017. Supporting students undertaking the Specialist Practitioner
Qualification in District Nursing. British journal of community nursing, 22(11), pp.542-546.
Manzano‐García, G. and Ayala‐Calvo, J.C., 2014. An overview of nursing in E urope: a SWOT
analysis. Nursing inquiry, 21(4), pp.358-367.
Uhrenfeldt, L., Lakanmaa, R.L., Flinkman, M., Basto, M.L. and Attree, M., 2014. Collaboration:
a SWOT analysis of the process of conducting a review of nursing workforce policies in five E
uropean countries. Journal of nursing management, 22(4), pp.485-498.
Vikström, S., Sandman, P.O., Stenwall, E., Boström, A.M., Saarnio, L., Kindblom, K.,
Edvardsson, D. and Borell, L., 2015. A model for implementing guidelines for person-centered
care in a nursing home setting. International psychogeriatrics, 27(1), pp.49-59.
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