Career Development Plan

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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There is a need for people to create their own career plans. This is due to the increasing rate of change in institutions, companies and organizations and also change in knowledge and skills (Rouda R.1996). A career development plan is aimed at determining which career best suits you. This is achieved after a careful and complete exploration of all available career options. The career options are arrived at after self assessment. The first step should be to know what new skills and knowledge you need and whether these match your interests in your career. One should determine which gap exists between the situation you are in and the outcome you want to achieve. After this determine how you will acquire these skills or how you will enhance the knowledge and abilities that you already have. (Johansen et al 1996).Some companies may offer the template for a career development plan if it has career development policies and frameworks in place. Usually, there is no one format to write up a plan and neither is there a defined list of things you should or should not include. Keeping a career development plan is a continuous process and ...
... should be updated and reviewed frequently .One should also be honest with himself on issues like your strengths and weaknesses and also about what you like and what you don’t like. In this paper I have used the provided template.

Description of a career stage.
My name is Walter Kihara and I’m a registered nurse with the National Health Service (NHS).I have 12 years of experience working as a Children’s nurse. I have worked as a Children’s nurse in various hospitals around the country.

Current Knowledge.
I began my nursing career in 1998.I attended The Loyal College of Nursing where I received a Diploma as a licensed Practical Nurse. I worked as a nurse for 5 years. I gained much experience and skills on the job then decided to further my education and career and I joined Southwest Community College and took prerequisites for the Registered Nursing program. After qualifying, I sat for the National Licensing Examination for Registered nurses. I enrolled at Baptist College of Health Sciences to further my education. I graduated in August 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

Current Skills.
My skills include certification in neonatal care, and children nursing. I have worked extensively with the prisoners, schools and also with the disabled. I have also taken care of outpatients, acted as a mid wife nurse and worked with the emergency patients.

Positions held
During my career I have been a staff nurse in charge of hospital setting. I have also worked as a supervisor in nursing home setting and also in a prison setting. I have worked as a school nurse for 3 years. I am currently working as a district nurse.

Area of interest.
The area of knowledge I find interesting is nurse consultant, children nursing, operating theatres, Cardiac rehabilitation and taking care of road accidents victims. I now want to work as a Nurse consultant so as I may help provide patients with services that are fast and convenient. Here I will be in a position to help schools offering courses in nursing to plan nursing curriculums and also help institutions like hospitals and public health services on how to carry out staff education programs. I also have a great interest in developing manuals and guides and educational materials to specific nursing services aspects.

Desired Role
My desired role is Nurse Consultant. Nurse consultant is a redesigned nursing role aimed at strengthening leadership retaining experienced and expert nurses in clinical practice. In this role, I have unique opportunity to be at the central process of health service modernization, helping to provide patients with services that are fast and convenient. As a nurse consultant, I will spend a minimum of 50% of my time working directly with the patients and ensuring that patients benefit from the very best nursing skills. I will also be in a position to advise schools of nursing, hospitals and public health groups on issues of health services and other problems related to nursing. I will be in a position to offer advice on administrative procedures of a nursing organization. I will advise in all the services offered in nursing through community services. I will also consult with other groups involved in nursing on matters of professional and education problems. I also want to participate in research and surveys and prepare articles and offer lectures to nursing institutions and nursing groups.

Knowledge needed
After reviewing the course description, the areas of knowledge needed in nurse consultancy include thorough knowledge of how to develop personal practice, knowledge on research and evaluation, and also how to contribute to education, training and development. One also needs to be a very experienced registered nurse and also who is ready to specialize in a particular field. Also needed is the ability to offer consultancy services on complex and sensitive health care issues to the public and private sector and also to other agencies. One needs to be able to provide expertise, direction, information and technical assistance to these agencies.

Skills needed
Apart from one being licensed and have experience working in a hospital or a clinic one should also have good communication skills because it requires mostly working face to face with patients and interviewing them. Hence there is need to know how to ask the questions and which questions not to ask. Technical skills are also required because one needs to read and analyze medical records and reports.

Accomplishments needed
The requirement of working as a nurse consultant is getting a certificate which shows the employers that you have acquired the legal nursing knowledge and skills.

Conclusion
A Career development Plan is a useful tool in assessing ones stand in the career life. With it, one is able to know where he is, what he has achieved and what he needs to achieve in the future. I have developed this career plan so as I may achieve my dream of working as a Nurse Consultant.

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The author is senior writer at https://www.allacademicanswers.com