Personal Strategic Plan and Career Path

The practice of nursing is affected by one’s core values and beliefs. Every nurse has unique core values and beliefs that affect patients’ quality of care. The fundamental core values in nursing practice include altruism, honesty, caring, and empathy. Besides, nurses have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as they practice. These affect the career goals of nurses. It is always necessary for nursing students to develop a personal strategic plan and career path before they start practicing.

As I prepare to start practicing as a nurse, I have several underlying core values and beliefs. One of my basic underlying core values is altruism. Altruism is being concerned with other people’s welfare out of the desire to help (Slettmyr et al., 2019). I am always concerned with the well-being of other people without expecting any reward or compensation. This is a value I expect to incorporate even in nursing practice despite having to do dirty jobs like handling sanitary issues. In addition, I have always valued honesty throughout my life. I do not believe that there are situations where cheating or stealing is allowed. I am expected to be honest with myself and with others. As a nurse, honesty will be an important value since I will work in an environment where mistakes are common and I do not have to lie. These values of altruism and honesty will help me provide effective patient care.

Other than having core values and beliefs, I have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that will significantly influence my nursing career. My core values of altruism and honesty are the strengths that will make me move forward in my career. Moreover, having studied nursing for several years, I believe I have the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in nursing. However, I also have weaknesses. For instance, I may be assigned tasks that I cannot perform due to a lack of enough experience. I do not have enough experience since I have never worked as a nurse. Also, I am easily affected by issues I face in life. For example, a chaotic home environment makes me lose focus, and I may not be able to perform my duties well. However, being happily married is now an opportunity for me. I will no longer have to leave my chaotic home as I go to work. This will make me concentrate on everything I do at work. I also expect to face some threats to my nursing career. For instance, my parents are now getting old, and they will require me to care for them soon. This will be difficult for me if I get employed somewhere far away from where they stay.

Regarding my career goals, I expect to be a registered nurse one year from now. I will aim to practice as a registered nurse for the next five years before considering upgrading to an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN). As a registered nurse, I expect to coordinate patient care. I will be responsible for reporting any observations to the doctor, educating patients and their families, using medical equipment, administering medication to patients, and creating nursing care plans. Although I am interested in taking care of patients, I would be comfortable with an average annual salary of $60,000 as a registered nurse.

After five years of practicing as a registered nurse, I will enroll for a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). This will enable me to become an APRN 10 years from now. This implies I will still be an APRN 20 years from now. As an APRN, I will bridge the gap between physicians and nurses by performing high-level duties. For instance, I will participate in diagnosing and treating diseases. This will enable me to become a home or school nurse at retirement. I expect my annual salary as an APRN to be at least $90,000. However, I can work for a lower salary at retirement.

My core values of altruism and honesty will guide me as I advance in my nursing career. I expect to work as a registered nurse for the first five years before I study further to become an APRN. I will be an APRN 10 to 20 years from now then I would like to work as a home care nurse or a school nurse after retirement. I expect to have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats during my career. My core values and knowledge will be strengths. Being unable to do certain tasks at the beginning of my career will be my weakness, but I will use my opportunity of being happily married to work on my weaknesses.

Reference

Slettmyr, A., Schandl, A., & Arman, M. (2019). The ambiguity of altruism in nursing: A qualitative study. Nursing Ethics, 26(2), 368–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733017709336

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