APN Professional Development Plan

APN Professional Development Plan

Advanced Practice Nurses (APN) are involved in the process of continuously gathering new knowledge, ideas, and skills that are in line with job responsibilities. The nurses make critical decisions about patient care and thus their knowledge is crucial in determining the patient outcomes (Zainuddin, Suryadi and Fuad 33). The developments in healthcare such as emergence of new strains of cancer or complications of common diseases such diabetes make it necessary to have a professional development plan. It is thus a strategy used to promote the quality of excellence throughout the career (Zainuddin, Suryadi and Fuad 37). Advanced Practice Nurses who formulate professional development plans are able to provide quality services to patients.

There is an ever-changing policy about healthcare services. The Advanced Practice Nurse must remain informed about the changes in policy and how they affect their service delivery (Zainuddin, Suryadi and Fuad 36). For example, the rights of patients are faced with controversy in the age of mercy killing. While some states are proactive in campaigning for mercy killing others believe it is not the duty of the nurse. However, they hold that nurses should be working to save the life of a patient. However, a professional development plan will indicate the areas that a nurse should study (Zainuddin, Suryadi and Fuad 40). It will also help a nurse to consult with other professionals, read research papers, and journals.

The professional development plan is a proactive approach to amass knowledge about healthcare services. It helps a nurse to be informed before a critical situation arises (Horn, DeMers, Lightfoot and Webb 132). For example, after the Ebola virus outbreak, many Advanced Practice Nurses decided to develop professional plans to study the disease. The study will help them to gather all the information necessary to manage the outbreak, reduce the number of people who die, and the spread of the virus.

A professional development plan for Advanced Practice Nurses involves identifying what is lacking compared to what is available. It should help a nurse to assess the strengths and weaknesses (Bindon 102). The future plans should be based on modifying the weaknesses and converting them into strengths. It should be actionable since a less realistic professional development will not help a nurse to make any progress. It should involve timelines to ensure specific dates or periods are earmarked for the specific development (Bindon 109). Nurses should constantly review professional development since there may be need to incorporate new ideas that should be included in the process of delivering quality healthcare to patients.

Works Cited

Bindon, Susan L. “Professional development strategies to enhance nurses’ knowledge and maintain safe practice.” AORN journal 106.2 (2017): 99-110.

Horn, Jacqueline, Stephen T. DeMers, Sharon Lightfoot, and Carol Webb. “Using continuing professional development to improve maintenance of professional competence: A call for change in licensure renewal requirements.” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 50.2 (2019): 120 -145.

Zainuddin, Zainuddin, Suryadi Suryadi, and Nurhatati Fuad. “Program Evaluation of Continuing Professional Development at Teacher Working Group.” International Journal for Educational and Vocational Studies 1.2 (2019). 23-74