Self-Directed Learning Plan (SDLP) For Nurses: Leverage Your Strengths And Develop Your Skills

Professional Goal (3-5 years) from now:

The Self-Directed Learning Plan (SDLP) is a process and document to chronicle your accomplishments and learning steps through the graduate program and beyond as they relate to your professional goals.

The SDLP will help you to identify and target the array of competencies you need to reach your professional objectives and to help you organize your graduate learning experience to suit your career objectives.The SDLP will be a section of your Program Portfolio, so take some quality introspective time to consider strengths and areas of development relevant to your career objectives. Knowing your strengths and areas to develop, you can begin a plan to find out what you need to do to achieve your career goals. We encourage you to continue to reflect on the identified areas throughout the program. If you feel a strength or development area is no longer relevant, you may add another to take its place. At any time, you may also add additional areas 

Professional Goal (3-5 years) from now: I want to deliver primary health care services in an efficient manner to patients belonging to all age groups.

I intend to complete a master level program for nursing that will place due emphasis on clinical experience and advanced practice instruction

I wish to acquire license and set up a private practice for providing care services to all patients, regardless of their cultural or socioeconomic background. 

Knowledge that prepares a graduate student for an advanced nursing role (minimum of three items):

1. Masters education prepares a graduate nursing student for the future role as an advanced treatment practitioner
2. Prove a comprehensive information of relevant exploration literature related to a selected specialty field of advanced nursing practice
3. Ability to examine key communal and political effects on the delivery of professional and advanced practice nursing facility
4. Knowledge and assistances required for the sustenance of addition to practice and the growth of healing and evidence-based treatment interventions in advanced nursing practice

5.Knowledge on the need for a culturally competent practice in advanced nursing.

Skills that prepare a graduate student for an advanced nursing role (minimum of three items)

• The aptitude for seeking information, its retrieval and assessment
  •Analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Demonstration of an openness to novel ideas for pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions
  • Adequate capability to interconnect systematic knowledge, with the help of written, oral, and web based media
  • Demonstration of professional leadership skills
• Ability of translating the collected evidences into practice (Poronsky, 2013)
• Building and leading effective collaborative practice among inter-professional care teamsAccomplishments that prepare a graduate student for an advanced nursing role (minimum of three items):

1. Communication and relationship management

2.MSN degree

3.Knowledge of the contemporary healthcare environment (Spencer, Anderson & Ellis, 2013)

4.Abiity to successfully implement change management

5.Competence in demonstration of advocacy, ethics, career planning and personal and/or professional accountability (Ares, 2014)

Step 1: Strengths to Leverage	Step 2: Course Learning Goals	Step 3: Course Outcomes & Assessment
Strength 1 – Communication and people skills	I intend to learn the different communication styles that will help me better interact with my patients and staff members	I have been able to speak with the patients effectively and understanding what they intend to communicate.
Strength 2 – Empathy and compassion	I want to display compassion towards all service users who suffer from a range of health abnormality	The course helped in display a sense of willingness of care for patients who are suffering from depression, resentment, anger, fear and anxiety
Strength 3 – Honesty and trustworthiness	I wish to remain accountable for all my deeds in the nursing practice	The course inculcated the attribute of accepting mistakes made, while caring for patients. I have also become well aware of the negative consequences of disclosing medical or personal information of patients
Strength 4 – Time management	I want to learn how to manage work stress within stipulated time frame	The course provided the opportunity to learn time management skills that should be applied at instances when there is understaffing, or huge work pressure (Ashley, Brown, Halcomb & Peters, 2018)
Strength 5 – Reliability and flexibilty	I wish to learn flexibility during stress or workload	The course did not help much in understanding the ways by which flexibility can be maintained during overtime or days off (Okuno-Jones, Siehoff, Law & Juarez, 2017)

Areas to Develop

Step 1:  We all have strengths, but we also have areas on which we need to improve. As related to your career goal, identify 1-2 areas to develop (see Column 1 below); these could be a competency, skill, ability, knowledge area or personal characteristic. Think about how you can improve in these areas so that you can achieve your professional goals and become a leader in your profession.

Step 2:  What do you expect to learn in this course and in your program that will help you to develop in the identified area? (See Column 2 below)

Knowledge that prepares a graduate student for an advanced nursing role (minimum of three items):

Step 3:  Answer the following questions either using this template. Did you learn what you expected to learn? (See Column 3 below) Was there information or insights that helped you that you didn’t expect to learn at the outset of the course? What changes or additions, if any, will you make to your SDLP based on learning in this course

Step 1: Areas to Develop	Step 2: Course Learning Goals	Step 3: Course Outcomes & Assessment
Area 1 – Endurance	I wish to display good mental endurance for thriving in fast paced nursing environment	The course provided the opportunity to prepare for unexpected emergencies and take critical decisions
Area 2 – Enthusiasm	I want to display a sense of enthusiasm and inquisitiveness in my practice	The course helped in utilizing all opportunities for seeking nursing knowledge and implementing them to situations that involve clinical management
Area 3 – Creativity	To use imagination and inventiveness while generating ideas and solving problems (Chan, 2013)	Although the course did not help much in improvement of this action area, I wish to enhance the capability of empowering patients for delivering high quality care services to all patients

Reflection

What did you learn in this course and expect to learn in your program that will help you achieve your academic and professional goals? In this reflection, provide an evaluation of how your SDLP can provide for lifelong learning.

The course helped in gaining a sound understanding of the capacities that are expected of family nurse practitioners in all environment. This helped me to develop knowledge on the way by which my role as a Family Nurse Practitioner requires me to coordinate and deliver nursing care and workflow, with the aim of ensuring optimal health outcomes of all patients. I also realized that I am expected to manage all kinds of chronic conditions, besides overseeing the wellness and health of the vulnerable population, such as, infants, women, and older adults.

I also realized that owing to the ability of Family Nurse Practitioners to work with a far-reaching patient population, present across all life stages, age ranges, and genders, I will be entitled with the responsibility of working in an equally varied number of locations. These can range from physician’s offices, sovereign private facilities with other NPs, and main hospitals, to local health departments, schools, community hospitals and ambulatory care amenities. Furthermore, the course also helped me gain cultural competence, compassion, empathy and time management skills. This SDLP will help me to continue lifelong learning by instilling in me the key attributes of collaborative care. Thus, I will be able to approach my patients in a better way and apply family centered care approaches, while treating my patients in near future.

References

Ares, T. L. (2014). Professional socialization of students in clinical nurse specialist programs. Journal of Nursing Education, 53(11), 631-640. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20141027-03 

Ashley, C., Brown, A., Halcomb, E., & Peters, K. (2018). Registered nurses transitioning from acute care to primary healthcare employment: A qualitative insight into nurses’ experiences. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(3-4), 661-668. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13984 

Chan, Z. C. (2013). A systematic review of creative thinking/creativity in nursing education. Nurse Education Today, 33(11), 1382-1387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2012.09.005 

Okuno-Jones, S., Siehoff, A., Law, J., & Juarez, P. (2017). A System Approach to Advanced Practice Clinician Standardization and High Reliability. Nursing administration quarterly, 41(1), E1-E10. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000208 

Poronsky, C. B. (2013). Exploring the transition from registered nurse to family nurse practitioner. Journal of Professional Nursing, 29(6), 350-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2012.10.011 

Spencer, J. R., Anderson, K. M., & Ellis, K. K. (2013). Radiant thinking and the use of the mind map in nurse practitioner education. Journal of Nursing Education. Retrieved from https://www.healio.com/nursing/journals/jne/2013-5-52-5/%7B387936e8-919f-4e40-a63c-f87560ae7246%7D/radiant-thinking-and-the-use-of-the-mind-map-in-nurse-practitioner-education?version=1