Nursing Professional Goals Essay

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Nursing Professional Goals Essay

If you’re a current or aspiring nurse, you may want to create career goals for your future. Setting professional nursing goals can help you plan your career, improve your skills and advance into higher positions. In this article, we discuss why nursing professional goals matter, suggest 15 potential nursing objectives you can set and offer advice about designing and achieving your professional goals.

Why are nursing professional goals important?

Setting professional goals for yourself can provide a variety of benefits, such as:

Plan ahead for your career. Knowing what you want to achieve as a nurse allows you to figure out in advance how to reach your goals. For example, if you know you want to become a nurse practitioner, you might set a goal of taking on more leadership roles at your current nursing job to help prepare you for the additional responsibilities of a nurse practitioner.
Distinguish yourself as a nursing professional. Nursing and healthcare practices continually change. Setting professional goals to keep developing your skills as a nurse might help you remain competitive.
Improve your quality of care. Nurses who continually improve their skills and knowledge can provide higher standards of care for their patients.
Increase your earning potential. Many factors influence a nurse’s salary, including skill level, education and leadership responsibilities. Professional goals related to furthering your education or honing your abilities may help you negotiate, apply for or receive a higher salary.
Motivate yourself to do your best. Long-term professional goals can provide daily inspiration. Nurses with clear objectives for their careers may be more motivated to continue their education, improve their skills or provide quality patient care.

15 professional goals for nurses

Here are 15 professional goals that may increase your motivation, develop your nursing abilities and advance your career:

1. Increase your technology skills

Develop your healthcare technology abilities. Nursing practices increasingly involve advanced technical devices and systems. Many medical facilities use electronic health records that nurses create, access or update. Your workplace may also use other technology, such as portable patient monitors or telehealth services. Familiarize yourself with these healthcare technologies so that you can understand and use all of their features proficiently. You might also set a professional goal to become capable of troubleshooting, or problem-solving, issues or errors with your workplace’s healthcare technology.

2. Get certifications

Receive nursing certifications. Professional nursing organizations often offer a wide variety of nursing certifications. You could pursue a certification that shows you have a specific ability, like first aid or clinical research skills. You might also consider enrolling in a certificate program for a nursing specialty or specific unit, such as pediatrics, oncology or neonatal.

3. Improve your efficiency

Become more efficient in your nursing responsibilities. Nurses often balance multiple duties and patients within a day. Having the ability to perform your tasks with optimized efficiency can help ensure that you fulfill all of your shift responsibilities while providing quality patient care.

4. Further your communication skills

Hone your ability to communicate effectively with patients, physicians, fellow nurses and others you collaborate with daily. Most nurses communicate through many methods, including written and verbal communication channels. Learn to speak and write as clearly as possible. You can also practice listening actively and reading medical documentation carefully.

Nursing communication often involves interpreting body language, too. Pay attention to a patient’s or medical professional’s physical responses while interacting with them. For example, if you notice your patient tensing their shoulders, ask if they’re uncomfortable and if there’s a way you can help.

5. Find a mentor

A nursing mentor can help you define and achieve your professional goals. Some medical facilities have internal mentorship programs for nurses that you can join. You could also ask a nurse you admire to mentor you without the help of a formal program. A mentorship with a nurse who has more professional experience than you may assist you in creating goals that are more realistic and achievable.

6. Get an advanced degree

Earn a higher nursing degree. A more advanced degree can increase your nursing knowledge and skills, give you the legal ability to perform more patient care responsibilities and raise your earning potential. If you currently have an associate degree, think about getting a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Earning a bachelor’s degree can help you advance to an administrative, leadership or managerial role, such as a charge nurse or unit manager.

If you already have a bachelor’s degree, consider earning your Master of Science in nursing (MSN). Getting an MSN allows you to become an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN). With an APRN license, you can assess, diagnose and devise treatment plans for patients. In some states, you can also prescribe medications. An MSN degree gives you the ability to pursue multiple advanced nursing positions, such as:

Clinical nurse specialist
Nurse practitioner
Nurse-midwife
Nurse anesthetist
Nurse educator

7. Become an expert at certain tasks

Try to master a few of your nursing responsibilities. You likely perform a wide range of tasks each day, such as administering IV fluids, helping patients understand their treatment plans, maintaining healthcare records or monitoring vital signs. Set a professional goal to improve your productivity and accuracy at several of these duties.

8. Optimize your patient care

Perfect your patient care techniques. One of a nurse’s primary goals is to provide quality care to their patients. Think about ways that you could optimize your current patient care tactics or practices. For example, you could work on becoming a stronger advocate for your patient’s individualized needs.

9. Be a mentor

If you are a more experienced nurse, consider becoming a nursing mentor. Being a nurse mentor can help you make a difference to less experienced nurses. You can serve as a nursing mentor through an official program or simply let newer nurses know they can come to you with questions or for career advice. If you decide to become a mentor through a formal program, you may need to complete nursing mentorship training first.

10. Volunteer your time

Sign up for nursing volunteer opportunities. There is often high demand for nurses to volunteer their time at clinics, hospitals and other medical facilities in underserved communities. Organizations may also look for nursing volunteers during or immediately after natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes or tornadoes. If you’re interested, you can even travel internationally as a nurse and volunteer to help with disaster relief, hygiene protocols and more.

11. Specialize in a nursing field

Some nurses choose to specialize in a particular field or type of nursing. If you want to pursue a nursing specialization, start by considering your personal nursing interests and experiences. Nurses who want to work in a specific type of medicine or with a certain kind of patient can pursue many specialties, including:

Pediatrics or children’s healthcare
Infection control and prevention
Cardiovascular, or care for patients with heart and blood issues
Geriatrics, or care for elderly adults
Holistic care
Psychiatric or mental health care
Oncology, or care for patients with tumors
Neuroscience
Dialysis, or the removal of waste from a patient’s kidneys
Medical-surgical
Neonatal, or care for newborns
Ambulatory care
Obstetrics, or care for pregnant women and new mothers
Gastroenterology
Orthopedics, or care for patients with bone and muscle issues

12. Lead a balanced life

Take the time to care for yourself. Between long shift hours, tending to many patients and balancing multiple tasks, the nursing profession can be very busy. Nurses who practice self-care, however, ultimately can perform their duties more efficiently and provide better care for their patients. Maintain your overall well-being by spending time with loved ones, getting enough sleep, hydrating and other self-care tasks.

13. Continue your education on your own

Educate yourself on new or developing healthcare technologies, practices and methodologies. Learning about the latest nursing and medical news can help you hone your skills and stay up-to-date on developments within your industry. Set a professional goal to learn something new every week, month or quarter. To practice self-education, consider:

Subscribing to nursing journals or digest newsletters that recount recent nursing publications
Going to lectures, conferences, workshops and other events for healthcare or nursing professionals
Taking part in a local or national nursing organization
Reading the publications from your hospital, unit or clinic
Talking with other nurses about the latest healthcare news or nursing developments

14. Take advantage of in-services

If your workplace offers in-service classes, workshops or job shadowing opportunities, sign up and attend. In-service training can be a great way to hone your nursing skills, learn new industry practices or develop knowledge about a specialized nursing field. If your current hospital or medical facility doesn’t offer in-service training, consider speaking with other nurses and medical professionals at your workplace about working together to develop some in-service opportunities that could benefit all of you.

15. Become a nursing advocate

Practice being a nursing advocate. Nurses often have opportunities to advocate for their patients, such as by:

Mediating conversations between patients and doctors about treatment plans
Helping patients understand medical terminology
Updating a patient’s family members on your patient’s progress
Explaining to patients their legal rights at both the regional and federal level
Teaching patients how to advocate for their own healthcare services, such as by creating medical summaries
Communicating to physicians or other medical professionals your patient’s wishes for their healthcare treatment

You might also consider being an advocate for policy changes, the nursing profession or your community. For example, you could:

Take part in public forums about healthcare protocols
Work with local schools to improve their healthcare services
Offer expert medical or nursing testimony
Write to local or national policymakers about healthcare initiatives under consideration

Tips for setting professional nursing goals

Here is some advice that may help you create and achieve your professional ambitions in your career as a nurse:

Aim for realistic objectives

Set goals you can realistically achieve. A goal can be ambitious while still being personally doable for you. Consider using SMART goal strategies to help you design professional objectives that are both attainable and practical.

Create timelines for your goals

Figure out timelines so that you can make steady progress toward achieving your goals. You might create sub-tasks for your timeline to help you accomplish smaller objectives related to your more ambitious goals. For example, if one of your nursing professional goals is to get an advanced degree, you could set deadlines for tasks related to that aim, such as researching graduate programs or writing your personal statement.

Reevaluate your goals as needed

Sometimes, you might set goals you realize later are too complex or ambitious. Other times, your professional aspirations may change and evolve as you gain more nursing skills and experience. Periodically review your professional goals and see if they align with your current needs, desires and lifestyle. It’s okay to realize that you want to change an objective, alter its timeline or create entirely new goals.

Choose fulfilling goals

Work toward goals that you find rewarding. Try to create goals that align with your professional interests and experiences, as well as other influencing factors in your life. Making progress toward and achieving your goals may cause stress but should also be personally and professionally fulfilling.

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Nursing Professional Goals Essay

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