Career Action Plan - Essay Example

Career Action Plan College Career Action Plan The success of a person depends on their ability to set professional goals and strategize on how to meet them. One of my short term professional goals is to switch to a patient care position within Kroger. Currently I work as a certified Pharmacy technician in Kroger where I am endowed with the responsibilities of data entry, account management, product dispensing and customer service. While this position provides me with experience in handling people, I feel that a patient care position will help me to build a grounded foundation in my career in the health field. My intermediate goal is to obtain certification in health management and law within the next three years after I have completed my college education. With this certification, I will be able to venture into a management career in the health care sector. My ultimate goal is to obtain a case management position within the best health care agencies. In the recent past, there is a great emphasis on case management owing to the many legal cases that are coming up in the health environment (Cohen & Cesta, 2005). As such, the demand for case managers has increased and the salary for this position is attractive. By gaining the relevant experience and certification for this position will prepare me to be a competent case manager. In my career design, I plan to obtain a job in the case management agencies within the health environment. Case management entails the provision of specialized healthcare for certain patients. A large number of case management bodies have been formed to ensure in the aim of improving the standards of healthcare and injecting efficiency in this field. This position requires progressive skill development. Since I intend to hold a management position, I require having leadership qualities to help me fit in this position efficiently. Since the demand for specialized healthcare is increasing, the society is demanding more case management agencies, which implies that job positions in this market are opening (Cohen & Cesta, 2005). One compulsory requirement of this position is that one holds a licence in case management. Only a certified case manager is allowed to practice provision of specialized healthcare. For this reason, I plan to have this certification within the next three years after completing my college education. Will skills in patient care, Certification will not only ensure am eligible for this position but will give me an opportunity to contribute to the wellbeing of the society. Through my career experience, my central focus has been to prepare for the position of a case manager in future. As at now, I have developed a wide range of skills that relate to this position. One of the skills that are demanded for this position is competence in management. In Kroger, I have had a good experience in accounts and people management which I feel will give an upper hand in this field. In where accounting has become the vehicle for business evaluation, experience in Kroger will help in fulfilling the demands of a case manager position. Secondly, I have developed problem solving skills especially while handling customers with different problems in Kroger. In Shweggman’s grocery store, I have learned to negotiated customer problems towards customer satisfaction. I feel confident to handle the difficult challenges that arise in case management position. In personality, I am leader who can work within groups, motivate them, train them, and promote ethical behaviour in the highly regulated field. As a case manager, one is expected to be a leader who can form cohesive organization groups for optimum performance. These skills couple with the experiences that I have garnered in previous jobs will help me sustain my career when in the position of a case manager. However, I feel that my preparation for this position is still underway and I need to develop new skills and change some of the ones that I have gained. In my working experience, I have gained a lot of experience that is related to financial aspects of organizations. I have worked under the financial department attending to accountings and customer service. While this important in any business organization, I feel that I need to obtain patient care experience so that I can form a good foundation to work in case management. As long as I have to work in the healthcare field, I need to acquire patient care skills to be able to understand the problems of the people in a better manner. This will allow me to develop problem solving skills focussed not on business only but on the patient care challenges. Therefore, I consider switching to a patient care position in Kroger to help me gain skills in patient handling. Secondly, I need to improve my management and law skills to be able to handle the various legal claims that arise in the nursing field. Acquiring these extra skills will help me to achieve my professional goal of acquiring the position of a case manager in a health agency. To achieve my professional goals, I have set a career plan to see me through these goals. My first plan is to apply for the patient care position in Kroger to ensure that I have a rich experience in patient handling. Within the next one year, I plan to graduate with a distinction in nursing field. Since the position of a case manager demands that one has completed undergraduate education, finishing my school is a priority. After school, I plan to obtain a law certification within the next one year of completion of my secondary education. This will prepare me to handle legal claims in this field. As I continue to work in Kroger, I have plans to enrol for a part time master program in business administration and specialize in healthcare administration. This will help to improve my management skills and prepare for an intensive work environment where I will require maintaining health standards and implementing work policies. Coupled with the leadership skills that I have developed over time, I believe that I will sustain the job demands and remain competent in the evolving healthcare field (Gilbert, Rutland & Brockopp, 2013). My final leg will be to obtain a certification in case management, which is necessary for case manager practitioners in the health field. This will give me the license to work in this field and to acquire management position within the case management agencies. In the nursing field, there exist numerous professional organizations that can assist one in climbing the ladder of becoming a case manager in the relevant agencies. America Case Management Association is one of the professional organizations that provide education and training on case management. I plan to enrol in this association to learn and participate in capacity building. The American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC) is responsible for providing certification for case managers in the whole of America (American Nursing Credentialing Center, 2013). The body test the candidates who intend to be certified and provides them with the licence to practice. I intend to pursue the test from this board and acquire a Registered Nurse-Board certified credential as the final leg of career preparation. As at now, I have passed a test with the pharmacy technician certification board which gives me the licence to operate as certified technician. Obtaining the right credentials and enrolling with case managers’ association will prepare me for my career. My career action plans has numerous benefits to my professional goals. First, goal setting helps one to work within limits and to direct efforts and resources towards a specific objective. Having set clear, time-limited attainable goals motivates me to direct my energy and resources towards these plans. My career plan helps me to take advantage of my personal strengths to achieve the best from me. In acquiring post graduate education, I intend to strengthen my leadership in preparation for professional career (Kelly, 2012). On the same note, my experience in management will be enhanced which is crucial in preparation for a management position. Secondly, my career has the benefit of allowing improving on my weakness. As I seek to switch to patient care position in Kroger, I intend to improve my patient handling skills that is a threat to my professional career. On this note, my career action plan helps me to develop my strengths, improve on my weakness in the path of becoming a competent case manager in the field of medical care. My career action plan will assist me in not only becoming a competent case manager but also contributing to the improvement of the health needs of the community. References Cohen, E. L., & Cesta, T. G. (2005). Nursing case management: From essentials to advanced practice. St. Louis: Mosby. American Nursing Credentialing Center (2013). "Advantages of American Nurses Credentialing Center approval of your CNE activities.(continuing nursing education)." NewMexico Nurse, 2013. 9. Academic OneFile, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2014). Gilbert, P., Rutland, M. D., & Brockopp, D. (2013). Redesigning the Work of Case Management: Testing a Predictive Model for Readmission. American Journal Of Managed Care, 19eSP1-eSP6. Kelly, P. (2012). Nursing leadership & management. Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning. Read More