Reflection: Professional Development - Essay Example

Reflection Over the period of time, each one of us goes through professional experiences which help us to evolve as better and more experienced professionals. Sometimes our roles and responsibilities do not change while at the other times, our roles and responsibilities critically change to suit the different requirements and circumstances. (Berry, 2002). Professional development therefore takes place throughout a person’s career and also can take a professional on an entirely new path. Nursing educators are relatively at richer level of their experience because they are able to combine their clinical experience with that of teaching and therefore experience a much richer career. Combining teaching with the experience however, also comes with different rules and responsibilities which a nurse educator has to perform in order to become an effective educator. During this course I have learnt many things and developed my skills to a level where I feel that I must make an effective transition from my clinical experience to the role of a teacher. What I have learned during this course was also how to actually combine practical experience with theoretical knowledge. By blending practical experience with that of theoretical knowledge, I believe this course has provided me enough resources to actually plan my next career move easily and effortlessly. I believe that overall course contents and the way this course has been delivered by instructors have offered me an insight into how as a nurse educator I can make proper adjustments before I can actually take on this job. I feel that now I have a larger responsibility to actually design and develop programs for continuing education for nurses. In a sense, I will be actually contributing towards making nurse more professional and skilled in their jobs. This fact alone can offer me satisfaction in terms of understanding my role and making a transition towards this new role as a Nurse educator. I have also learned as to how to ensure compliance with the quality education experience for nurses. This will help nurses to actually become responsive towards their roles and become more active in their profession to add more value. This course has also made me more equipped to actually advice and council with the students to help them offer right kind of suggestions and career advice. I believe that my experience combined with my new role can put me in a better position to advice students. This course, above all, will also offer me an opportunity to actually gain more satisfaction from my overall work. Since I will be making a transition towards achieving higher level of education therefore it will not only offer me an intrinsic satisfaction that through this course I will be able to make a progressive towards achieving a higher level of degree but will also be adding more value to my personality. This course therefore has definitely prepared me for a more challenging role in the future to properly train and educate nurses of the future to make them more skilled and equipped with new tools and techniques. 2.Professional Goals In order to professionally evolve and become a better educator, it is important that I must be able to set goals for myself and achieve them. The achievement of these professional goals will actually will help me to evolve as a better educator and become more effective for the nurses. I will set following goals for myself: 1. Pursuing a doctoral degree 2. Take professional certifications 3. Develop as a better teacher 4. Producing research writings 5. Effectively liasioning with others Pursuing a PhD degree Pursuing a PhD degree will prepare me for a true academic career as I will be achieving highest qualification in my subject. I believe that by achieving a doctoral degree I will be able to broaden my overall knowledge base and will also achieve the highest level of qualification. I plan to achieve this qualification over the period of next few years and within next 1-2 years, I actually plan to complete my coursework for the PhD. Though I do not expect that I will be able to complete my coursework during next 2 years however, I expect that I will be able to cover my basics and will be advancing towards completing my dissertation and thesis. (Bastable, 2008) During this period I also plan to develop professional working relationships with my supervisor in order to further improve my research writing skills and learn to overcome my weaknesses as a researcher so that I can be able to deliver better teaching experience. Professional Qualifications During initial years of my education as a nurse educator, I also plan to undertake certain professional qualifications of nursing. I believe that these qualifications will help to fully understand the practical aspects of nursing also. I specifically would like to go for certifications from National League for Nurses because their certifications for nursing educators seem to be comprehensive and offer almost all the aspects of nursing education. This nursing certification is also important in the sense that it will help me to demonstrate my experience during early period of my career. (National League for Nurses, 2012) Developing as a better teacher I believe that in order to be an effective teacher, I need to learn how to control the class and learn other dynamics of class. Learning about the attitude and behavior of students, how to handle them as well as how I as a teacher should conduct my sessions require little bit of effort and dedication. I must learn how to prepare my lectures and slides and how to actually engage with the students during the class. Controlling the behavior of the students and actually facilitating them to become responsive to the teacher is what I believe could help me to develop as a better teacher. It is also important to understand that my training till now has been based upon working in an environment of superiors and subordinates. However, I believe my relationship with the students would be a different one and in order to actually develop as a better teacher I need to become responsive to the needs of students. Research Writing Being a nurse educator I believe that one of my key strengths would be in developing me as a stronger researcher. I need to develop my research and research writing skills in order to prove myself as a better educator. I believe that in a current environment where teachers are expected to have better research skills. In order to be par with others and contribute towards the field of nursing, I must therefore consistently contribute towards the research writing. It is my goal that I must continue to contribute towards the latest research in the field of nursing. (Utley, 2010) Coordination with others To effectively coordinate all my activities, it is important to keep effective liaison with the administration department. To be an effective teacher, one requires administrative help to properly plan coordinate and execute certain administrative functions related with my teaching activity. Apparently, coordinating with administration department may not look like a bigger goal but it can improve my efficiency as a teacher. Bibliography Bastable, S. (2008). Nurse as Educator. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Berry, L. (2002). From Nurse to Educator: Creating Effective Learning Experiences for Adults. New York: Hartman Publishing Inc. National League for Nurses. (2012, October 07). Certification for Nurse Educators. Retrieved from National League for Nurses: http://www.nln.org/certification/index.htm Utley, R. (2010). Theory and Research for Academic Nurse Educators: Application to Practice. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Read More