Professional Goals Essay Paper

APA format, 3 scholarly reference, no website references. Paper should Identify how a baccalaureate degree will contribute to attainment of your personal and professional goals.
Discuss your short term and long-term goals and the steps you will take to successfully achieve these outcomes.
Discuss any barriers to achieving these goals and how you will overcome them.
This assignment is to be between 750- 1000 words in length, formatted according to APA style requirements.
The paper will include a cover page, and reference page, an opening paragraph, a body, and a conclusion.
A minimum of three scholarly references is needed. References must be from texts or scholarly journals. No websites. All references must be less than 5 years old. My plans are to use this program to become a wound ostomy nurse.

Professional goals paper

Introduction

Education is an activity that is intended to facilitate both personal achievement and professional development. This is particularly true for advanced formal education. That is because the professional and personal goals direct career choices to be a part of the nursing fraternity and health care industry. The implication is that advances in education is intended to be directed by personal and professional goals, creating a supportive and synergistic relationship such that even as education advances and goals are achieved, new and more appropriate goals would be presented (Catalano, 2015). The present paper presents professional and personal goals and their correlation with education. Professional Goals Essay Paper

Short-term and long-term professional and personal goals

The short-term goals are intended to be achieved over the next 24 months (two years). In this case, two professional goals and two personal goals have been identified. The first professional goal is participation in the health care industry and expand my knowledge. This is a continuous goal and I will make progress through participation in professional forums with other nurse and medical personnel, and promoted by medical associations and other respected organizations. I anticipate that attending these forums will be beneficial to my professional nursing knowledge through exposing me to new knowledge and technologies. The second professional goal is being on track for promotion in the workplace. Over the next two years, I would like to increase my workplace responsibilities by adding value to the medical organization that employs me. I will achieve this goal upon graduating from the current education program and using the education attainments in my professional evaluation to fast track my promotion (Finkelman, 2016).

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The first short-term personal goal is to live a well-rounded healthy lifestyle. My interpretation of being healthy is being conscious of my energy expenditure and consumption. Attending to school and professional responsibilities have tasked my energy expenditure thereby having a negative effect on my health. I intend to address this concern by engaging in regularly scheduled and supervised yoga and cardio exercises, eating fresh foods, and sleeping for an average of seven hours every night for at least five nights every week. The second personal goal is to sustain involvement with my local community of nurse professionals. I intend to achieve this goal by attending at least one formal or informal forum with other nursing personnel at least once every month. This will allow me to sustain my contribution to my community of young nurse professionals. In addition, I will contribute my time to mentorship programs for aspiring and young nurses. I expect to develop myself and gain greater confidence through helping others (Finkelman, 2016).

In addition to the four short-term goals, I intended to achieve two long-term goals over the next two to five years. My long-term professional goal is to become an established nurse professional. In four to five years’ time, I would like to turn into a prominent, recognized and established nurse professional within my field. I will consider this goal achieved once I am invited to host or give keynote addresses at professional forums such as the national meetings called by the American Nurses Association. My long-term personal goal is to continue my education and gain a broader perspective in other fields related to health care. Within the next five years, I would like to gain an exceptional awareness of the nursing and medical industry, I identifying where I can make the most impact, and determining how to link my continued education to benefit both myself and community at the personal level (Hunt, 2015).

Barriers to achieving professional and personal goals

There are five barriers that present the potential for preventing me from achieving my personal and professional goals. The first barrier is limited funds that hinder that achievement of goals that attract financial goals. This is particularly true for education, I will address this barrier through seeking sponsorships and grants to offset some of these costs. In addition, I will seek loans where appropriate. The second barrier is the difficulties in balancing professional and personal responsibilities, especially when there are conflicting needs particularly with regards to time. I will address this barrier through better time management and prioritizing my needs when faced with conflicting needs. The third barrier is infrequent feedback that would make it difficult to gauge my achievements against the goals. I will address this barrier through directly seeking objective feedback and acting on them to reveal my ‘blind spots’ and gain the awareness to improve myself. The fourth barrier is the fast evolution in the nursing industry such that what is considered cutting edge now turns obsolete within a short period of time. I will address this barrier by always revising my goals to ensure that they reflect the most current understanding of the nursing field. The final barrier is being in an unsupportive environment where I would lack the resources to develop myself and achieve my goals. I will address this barrier by first committing myself to seeking out the resources that would present me with growth opportunities, such as studying away from home if the home environment offers a lot of personal distractions (Finkelman, 2016; Hunt, 2015).

Conclusion

One must accept that education offers an opportunity for self-improvement. In addition, one must acknowledge that the pursuit of education is directed by professional and personnel short-term and long-term goals. The short-term goals are intended to be achieved within two years while the long-term goals are intended to be achieve at between two and five years. Even in the presence of goals, it is necessary to be aware of the limitations brought about by barriers that include limited funds, balancing responsibilities, infrequent feedback, fast evolution, and unsupportive environment.

References

Catalano, J. (2015). Nursing now! today’s issues, tomorrow’s trends. (7^th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: FA Davis Company.

Finkelman, A. (2016). Leadership and management for nurses: core competencies for quality care (3^rd ed.). London: Pearson Education.

Hunt, D. (2015). The nurse professional: leveraging your education for transition into practice. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.  Professional Goals Essay Paper