Professional Goals

Goals are important statements that guide actions. As a student nurse practitioner, I have identified four short-term and three long-term goals that act as guides for my actions in the professional environment.  The purpose of this paper is to identify my short and long-term goals to establish fulfilment in my career development.

My short-term goals are determined by the time in which I intend to achieve them: two years. My first short-term goal is to expand my professional knowledge and participate in the medical industry. I intend to achieve this goal through participating in professional forums (such as conferences hosted by medical associations) where I will engage in constructive courses with other professional medical personnel to understand their unique perspectives and improve my knowledge. My second short-term goal is to be on track for a workplace promotion. I intend to have my workplace responsibilities increased over the next two years. To achieve this goal I will need to continue my education and show determination.  I will achieve this goal through using my improved knowledge acquired from achieving the first goal to fast track my promotion (Finkelman, 2016).  Synthesis in Advanced Practice Care of Complex Patients in Primary Care Settings Essay

My third short-term goal is to live a healthy and well-rounded lifestyle with a focus on good health and wellness while balancing my professional and personal life. I intend to achieve this goal through being conscious of my energy consumption and expenditure. I understand that attending to school, work and personal responsibilities can be tasking on my health. I will improve my health through engaging in supervised and regularly scheduled exercise activities, eating healthy diets, and getting adequate sleep. My final short-term goal is to sustain involvement in advocacy activities and community initiatives. I intend to achieve this objective through participation in community advocacy activities, and highlighting problems affecting the community. Besides that, I will participate in community outreach activities and offer my services to gain a better understanding of my community (Black, 2016). I intend to achieve the four short-term goals over the next two years.

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In addition to the four short-term goals that have been discussed, I intend to achieve three long-term goals over the next five years. My first long-term goal is to turn into an established nurse practitioner with the professional qualifications, licensure and certification to offer nursing services to the public. My intention is to become an established, recognized and prominent nurse professional. I intend to achieve this goal through continued education, improve my professional knowledge, competence, and skills. In addition, I plan to be engaged in public education programs to increase my prominence (Catalano, 2015). My second long-term goal is to be engaged in public advocacy as a primary influence. I intend to achieve this goal by volunteering for a public/political office and using the office to influence public policy development. I understand that politicians have a monopoly on policy development and believe that my professional nursing background will allow me to bring in a nursing perspective to policy development (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014). My final long-term goal is to gain a broader perspective of nursing interests and continuing my education. I understand that nurses have a unique perspective that could conflict with the interests of other stakeholders. For instance, nurses understand that acquiring an expensive diagnostic equipment will improve care outcomes, while management would be restricted by the cost of acquiring the equipment. I intend to achieve this goal by attending further education in business education.  This will turn me into a multi-dimensional individual capable of organization and critical thinking to influence resource management with a focus on achieving the best possible care outcomes (Hunt, 2015). I intend to achieve the three long-term goals over the next five years.  Synthesis in Advanced Practice Care of Complex Patients in Primary Care Settings Essay

Week 4 Journal

During my practicum as a family nurse practitioner (FNP), I came across a 16-year old female with depression. As an FNP, I was often the first to see patients with mental disorders. An FNP can diagnose and provide treatment to patients with uncomplicated mental disorders like anxiety and depression, within their scope of practice (Balestra, 2019). The patient reported and presented symptoms such as increased appetite, sadness, crying outbursts, irritation, increased weight, insomnia, concentration difficulties, social withdrawal, and feeling hopeless and worthless.  Since in the context of primary care I was seeing the client for health needs and the depression was acute, I was able to successfully diagnose the patient for depression and prescribe sertraline as the first-line treatment. I collaborated with a mental health provider in the organization during the initial diagnosis and the period management of the patient.

In line with my short-term goals, after handling this patient I decided to become involved in advocacy activities for people with mental illnesses within the organization and the community. I often sensitized community members about mental health conditions to reduce the stigmatization of people with mental health illnesses. I also educated the community members and the patients who visited the organization to actively seek medical attention without fear whenever faced with a mental health condition. According to Mannarini & Rossi (2019) people with mental health problems normally face social stigma associated with mental illnesses and this makes prevents people from seeking treatment and also make recovery difficult. Therefore, sensitizing the community about mental illness is the first step towards reducing the social stigma associated with mental ill-health (Stuart, 2016).

References

Balestra, M. L. (2019). Family nurse practitioner scope of practice issues when treating patients with mental health issues. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 15(7), 479-482.

Mannarini, S., & Rossi, A. (2019). Assessing Mental Illness Stigma: A Complex Issue. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2722. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02722.

Stuart H. (2016). Reducing the stigma of mental illness. Global mental health (Cambridge, England), 3, e17. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2016.11.  Synthesis in Advanced Practice Care of Complex Patients in Primary Care Settings Essay