A professional development plan is a document created to guide practice and at the same

time record the activities undertaken to meet Standards of Practice, as well as employers
expectations. It can also be described as a self-development map that helps sets goals for
development in identified areas of practice. Among other things, it involves identifying what
skills you need to learn, the aspects of yourself that needs to be improved, abilities that are
lacking and areas which needs to be given priority for improvement.
The Professional Development Plan can provide direction to expand knowledge and maintain
expertise in an identified area. The objective of it is to plan for your aspirations in regards to
personal development. Creating a professional development plan is one way nurses indicate that
they are maintaining their competence to practice and take their professional development
obligation seriously (Self Improvement Mentor, 2015; College of Registered Nurses of British
Columbia, 2015).
Ongoing professional development is essential to increase educators' knowledge, skills, attitudes
and beliefs so they create an enriching teaching/learning environment. Nursing faculties face the
challenge of maintaining knowledge and expertise in their identified areas of clinical
concentration and demonstrating that they are excellent educators in dynamic educational
environments.
My Professional Development Plan will include goals for each of the four components listed in
the assessment under the heading Educational Leadership: clinical competence, professional
organizations, networking, and scholarship. Also my Professional Development Plan will be
ongoing through the completion of the program and throughout my professional career.

A timeline for the Professional Development Plan will be included and it extends beyond this
semester and the nursing Masters degree program.
From the UTMB nursing assessment competency tool used in the previous assignment (GNRS
5108 Educator Professional Role Development), I was able to determine my areas of strength,
competency, as well as areas of weaknesses that needs improvements. As an aspiring nurse
educator, one of the glaring areas that I need to improve on is the use of the adult learning
theories and styles in the education of my patients, colleagues and patients family. In the
learning style assignment I have been able to use the knowledge gained from the Learning style
Module to determine the preferred learning styles of some of my nursing colleagues. As an
educator my goal is to employ the knowledge and understanding gained from the learning
theories and style in the education of my future students with the awareness that different people
in the same class or patient with the same disease or medical condition have different learning
style that will impart how they understand the knowledge or information that I may be
attempting to pass across to them. Compliance on the part of my patients will be a measure of
their understanding and acceptance of the information provided to them through education.
Another area of weakness identified, using the UTMB nursing assessment competency tool, was
lack of measureable outcome in the teaching of nurses in my hospital. We are currently teaching
nurses aseptic techniques in the management of PICC lines. Following the knowledge gained
from using the assessment tool we have now included measures to ascertain that the rate of PICC
line and other intravenous line infections decrease significantly on the ward. As part of my
professional development plan, I will like to improve my skills in data interpretation and using
data in clinical management and in outcome measures instead of depending on presuppositions.

My goal towards achieving these plans is through educational leadership, to read more
professional nursing journal and attend conferences as well as discuss with colleagues who may
be knowledgeable with data interpretation.
Educational leadership involves developing clinical competence, commitment to professional
organization, developing collaborative relationships through professional networking and
engaging in the four aspect of scholarship (scholarship of discovery, teaching, application and
integration). As a nurse leader, one of my goals is to become a preceptor for nursing students
and new nurses in the hospital where I work presently. The hospital provides educational/training
opportunities for nurses interested in precepting nursing student. I hope to complete this
preceptor training within the next 3 months.
The American Nurses Association standards define competency as an expected and measurable
level of nursing performance that integrates knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment based on
established scientific knowledge and expectations for nursing practice( American Nurses
Association, 2013). To achieve competency as a nurse educator, my goal is to successfully
complete the Masters program in nursing education within the next 24 months.
Professional organizations are usually a nonprofit organization seeking to further a particular
profession and the interest of individuals engaged in the professions. In furtherance of
Professional Development, I am a member of two nursing organizations including the
Association of Rehabilitation Nursing and the Texas Nurses Association.

My goal is to be more involved with the activities of these organizations though conference
attendants, reading of journals and possibly become an executive member of one of this
professional organization after completing my Masters degree.
Professional Networking can be defined as a type of social networking that is focused on
professional goals; and it has been described as one of the most important forces in a
professional career (ONeil, 1988). My goal is to use the opportunities of my membership in
nursing professional organizations and attendance at conferences to expand my professional
network so as to develop my expertize and enhance my vision for leadership in the future, postgraduation.
Scholarship:
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) defines scholarship in nursing as
those activities that systematically advance the teaching, research, and practice of nursing
through rigorous inquiry that: 1) is significant to the profession, 2) is creative, 3) can be
documented, 4) can be replicated or elaborated, and 5) can be peer-reviewed through various
methods (AACN 2005).

Boyer (1990) suggested that scholarship means more than engaging in original research.
Specifically he thought of scholarship as having four separate, yet overlapping functions. These
are: 1) Discovery, which comes closest to what academics mean when they speak of research. It
is about discovery of new findings, 2) Teaching, in which the teacher creatively builds bridges
between his or her own understanding and the students learning, 3) Application, in which the

emphasis is on the use of new knowledge in solving societys problems (practice), and 4)
Integration, in which new relationships among disciplines are discovered.

My goal as a nurse educator is to engage in scholarly activities including teaching and

publications in nursing journals. To achieve these goals, I will hope upon graduation to work in
an environment such a nursing college or university that promotes scholarship and also provides
mentorship to new faculties.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing, (2005). Position statement on defining scholarship for
the discipline of nursing. Washington, DC: Retrieved from
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/defining-scholarship on 11/05/2015
American Nurses Association, (2013). Competency Model. Silver Springs, Maryland:
American Nurses Association Leadership Institute.
Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, NJ:
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia, (2015). Retrieved from
https://www.crnbc.ca/QA/RN/ProfDevPlan/Pages/Default.aspx on 11/05/2015

O'Neil, E. (1998). Nursing in the next century. In E. &. O' Neil, Strategies for the future of
Nursing (pp. 222-223). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Self-Improvement Mentor, 2015 Retrieved from, http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/examplepersonal-development-plan.html/ on 11/05/2015