Professional Development

Morgan DeSmidt
 Patient Care Abilities
• Personal Strengths
– Strong interpersonal skills
– Empathetic
– Managing stress

• Opportunities for improvement

– Time management
– Critical thinking skills
– Charting thoroughly
 Patient Care Goals
• Short Term
– Goal: Learn to prioritize tasks effectively in order to
complete all tasks assigned to me
• Strategy: Develop a organization tool that works best for
me
• Long Term Goal
– Goal: Provide high quality patient care using
advanced critical thinking skills and a high level of
knowledge about medications and diagnoses
• Strategy: Stay updated on the latest knowledge and
continuously study medications and diagnoses
 Unit Leadership Personal
Strengths
• Strengths
– Energetic and willing to take action
– Team work skills
– Flexible

• Opportunities for Improvement

– Delegation
– Ability to say “no”
– Taking the lead in a stressful situation
 Unit Leadership Goals
• Short Term
– Goal: Develop the ability to take the leadership role in stressful situations
• Strategy: Push myself to take the lead in rapid responses and codes

– Goal: Develop the ability to say “no” when needed.

• Strategy: Identify when I am not comfortable completing a task and explain to whoever is asking to
me why I can not help them

– Establish a strong relationship with staff members

• Strategy: Introduce myself to everyone on the unit within the first two weeks

• Long Term Goals

– Become a nurse leader on a critical care unit
• Get my Clinical Nurse Leader and become a leader on my unit

– Be a role model to others who desire to be a good leader

• Express strong leadership qualities that those around me will admire
 Professional Development Goal
• Short Term Goals
– Goal: Become a part of a successful new graduate program
• Strategy: Research programs and compare them against each other in order to find the
best fit for me
– Goal: Get hired as an ICU nurse
• Strategy: Develop a strong portfolio that accurately depicts my qualifications
– Goal: Obtain PALS and Trauma Care certifications
• Enroll in courses so that I am prepared for critical situations and have a broad scope of
knowledge
• Long Term Goals
– Goal: Become a CCRN
• Practice as an ICU nurse for 2 years, study, and then apply for a CCRN program
– Goal: Travel and work as a critical care nurse in another country
• Research different nursing opportunities that allow me to travel to different countries
 Leadership Book: Bossypants
• Complements strengths
– Setting high standards for myself
– Problem solving
• Approaches Weaknesses
– Try not to control everything
– Except that mistakes will happen
• Professional Growth
– Strong female role model
– Worked her way to success
 Leadership Shadowing
Experience
• Why charge nurse?
– I will have to closely work with the charge nurse as a staff nurse
– Exposed me to what resources they can provide to staff
– Charge nurse is an admired leader on the ICU unit who the hospital
relies on a lot to provide critical patient care and statistics about their
own unit
• What I learned
– What an ICU charge nurse must respond to in the hospital
– How patient assignments are made
– How nurses are scheduled on the unit
– What the role of a charge nurse is in a house wide meeting
 Professional Activity Experience
• Why ACLS?
– It will allow me to provide a higher quality of care to
critically ill patients
– It is a requirement to work in a critical care unit
• What I learned
– Adult algorithms for bradycardia, tachycardia, and
cardiac arrest
– Stroke protocols
– Establishing airways
– Identifying cardiac rhythms
 Timeline
December 2018: Graduate

January 2019: Take the NCLEX

February 2019: Begin a career in the ICU

2019 Get PALS and CTP certifications

Winter 2020 Apply to a leadership position in ICU

Winter 2021 apply for CCRN program

 References

• Fey, T. (2011) Bossypants. New York, New

York: Little, Brown and Company.