Completing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program is a significant step towards a career in the nursing profession. I have taken different classes that have prepared me for the field of nursing and widened my scope and view of nursing. Some of the BSN program’s strengths include increasing my technology skills, improved interpersonal skills, working in multidisciplinary teams providing patient-centered care, focusing on continuing education, and becoming an expert in what I do. After completing the course, people set different short term, midrange, and long term goals that they intend to achieve within the nursing profession and beyond. This paper addresses my career vision plan, including plans for future career development, effective networking strategies, and mentoring strategies. In the second part of the paper, I address my professional career philosophy that describes how I plan to use my newly earned BSN to reflect the BSN-prepared RN’s necessary ethical and professional values.
Plans for Future Career Development
Completing the BSN and graduating has been my long-term goal from a young age. I am glad that I have reached the final year and now completing the course. My immediate goals are finishing school with the best grades, passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) exam on the first attempt, and finding a well-paying position at a facility. While I am open to practicing as a novice nurse in any facility, I have always wanted to start my nursing career in the emergency room of ICU departments. I plan to achieve these immediate goals as soon as I complete the class. I also plan to register for the NCLEX exam immediately after completing my BSN and graduate results. After getting accredited as an RN novice nurse, I will start applying for jobs in different facilities and hope they accept me soon. If I am unable to find a well-paying position immediately after school, I could start with volunteer work or an internship as I keep scouting for opportunities.
Having just completed school, pinning down midrange goals would be a challenging task. However, having achieved my short term goals of graduating from one of the best colleges, passing The National Council Licensure Examination, and getting the desired job in the emergency room or ICU, I would be focused on succeeding in my current position while planning for the next advancements in my career. The first mid-range goal would be to get my critical care certification. The requirement and eligibility criteria for critical care certification include having an unencumbered RN or APRN license. Additionally, the nurse is required to have practiced a minimum of 1,750 hours as an RN/APRN providing direct care for critically ill patients within two years of application, 850 hours of which are required to be within one year of the application. Alternatively, a Registered Nurse could apply for the critical care certification after five years of practice in critical care and a minimum of 2,000 hours of indirect patient care, with 144 of those hours within one year of application. Therefore, I plan to get the certification within three years of graduation.
After amassing clinical experience, elevating my professionals and marketability would be prudent. First, I would like to join the American Association Critical-Care Nurses because I believe professional organizations are essential for my professional development. Secondly, I plan to become a nurse leader because I believe I could accomplish more for my patients in this position. I would love to become a progressive nurse leader and nurture otter nurses to achieve greater mastery and nursing practice skills. Finally, I plan to enroll in a Master’s Degree program in Nursing management and organization leadership to become an effective nurse leader in the next five years.
Plans for Effective Networking Strategies
Networking is essential in nursing practice because it allows nurses to get connected, involved, and engaged with like-minded individuals with similar ambitions and struggles and gain an insight into how nursing practice is changing. Professional networking also allows nurses to explore the field and develop robust support systems within the medical community. My plans for networking include joining professional organizations that help members network with other nurses with varied years of experience. The second networking strategy would be to join LinkedIn and create a professional profile to interact with other nurses and industry players. Finally, I would try to find forums organized by different nursing organizations to expand knowledge and provide continuous medical education.
The three individuals I would like to contact to start the networking process include the leader of a professional organization, nurse leader, and mentor. Even though different professional organizations provide the eligibility criteria for joining them on their websites, making a phone call to the leader might provide more insight into the questions that might be unanswered from the information available online. My nurse leader is an essential person in helping with decision-making since she could help me get into forums or help us organize forums for continuing education. Finally, my mentor would help me choose the professional organizations to join that would help me take my career to the next level.
Plans for Mentoring
After joining the professional organization, I would get the opportunity to meet several nurses with more experience than I do. Getting a mentor from a professional organization, especially an MSN nurse, would be appropriate because I would like to have a mentor who has accomplished the things that I plan to accomplish. For instance, I would like them to mentor me on what it takes to become a nurse leader, remain focused on furthering my education, and improve patient outcomes despite the challenges that come with them. Now that I am a BSN, I can mentor a student currently pursuing the course and has similar short-term, midrange, and long-term goals that I had when I started the course. I would like to walk them through what to expect in the journey of graduating with a BSN.
Creating a brand is essential in my career because it would build my marketability. First, I would determine my unique value from my peers, including my strengths, goals, and passions. Next, I would ask my colleagues, friends, and peers to describe me according to their views. I would then identify my goals and target audience and incorporate them into my practice as a nurse. Recognizing my priorities and paying attention to details, including my image and language, are essential to developing a solid brand. Finally, I would regularly update my resume and become a social networker with personal and professional life limits. I would use LinkedIn to reach recruiters ad make inroads into organizations’ interests. I would also ask my colleague and peers to endorse me and also endorse my colleagues. I would also use other social media networks to look for jobs. Finally, the attributes that I could highlight about myself in my branding include good communication skills, hard work, team player, problem-solving skills.
Part 2: Professional Career Philosophy
From a young age, I have always wanted to become a nurse. During my visits to different clinics, I always loved the nurses’ approach and how they handled their patients, especially children. My experience with nurses inspired my desire to become one. Later in life, I was intrigued by the idea of serving the sick through nursing. I witnessed nurses provide bedside care, participate in community health programs, and conduct follow up of their patients to their homes. Nursing is important to me as a practitioner and a connection between the sick and their families. Nurses provide hope to patients and their family members and strive to give them hope as promised. My beliefs in nursing and the theories that I prescribe have driven my will to pursue the BSN course, and I am thrilled to graduate from the program and ready to begin a career in nursing. My philosophy is that nurses are educators, advocates, and providers of patient-centered care.
Nurses spend far more time with patients than physicians. Therefore, I believe that nurses have the best opportunity to educate the patients. Patient education entails influencing the patients’ behavior and producing the changes in attitude, knowledge, and skills required to improve or maintain health (Glantz et al., 2019). As a teacher and a nurse, I always empathize and care for my patients to allow me to build a trusting relationship and connection with the patients. Empathy allows me to focus on the patient’s point of view and strengthen communication because I tend to perceive the patient as the expert. One of my strongest attributes is proper communication skills. I am a constructive listener who pays attention to details. In addition, I believe that professionalism is essential when providing high-quality care and upholding the values of respect, accountability, and integrity.
I also prescribe to the four ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Ethical dilemmas arise in nursing practice, which might conflict with the code of ethics or the ethical values of the nurses providing care. While patients have the autonomy to make decisions based on their values and beliefs, including refusing medication, surgery, treatment, or other medical interventions, patient education can be used to eliminate this barrier to treatment (Rainer et al., 2018). Providing patient-centered care requires nurses to provide care that aligns with the patient’s informed choices. I always treat my patients equally to conform to the ethical value of beneficence (Haddad & Geiger, 2018). I give my patients equal treatment irrespective of their gender, race, age, or other sociodemographic factors. This also speaks to justice. My moral obligation to the patients and nursing practice might face challenges, but I usually make the best decision to provide patient-centered care.
Working with multidisciplinary teams requires teamwork and collaboration. My work ethics and values while working with other people always entail truthfulness and confidentiality. While truthfulness is essential when presenting facts to my peers, the confidentiality of client information is critical to the provision of care (Rainer et al., 2018). I always strive to complete my tasks within the stipulated deadline to increase my dependability and responsibility. For instance, I have to check vitals and send the patient to the physician for examination. If one process is not completed promptly, the next stage cannot be executed. Finally, I am an honest person and always hold human dignity and integrity very high. I prefer following protocols and organizational channels.
References:
Glantz, A., Örmon, K., & Sandström, B. (2019). “how do we use the time?” – An observational study measuring the task time distribution of nurses in psychiatric care. BMC Nursing, 18(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0386-3
Haddad, L. M., & Geiger, R. A. (2018). Nursing Ethical Considerations. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30252310
Rainer, J., Schneider, J. K., & Lorenz, R. A. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in nursing: An integrative review. In Journal of Clinical Nursing (Vol. 27, Issues 19–20, pp. 3446–3461). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14542
