Walden University and Professional Development

It is essential to develop a professional development plan as an aspiring nurse practitioner. I do believe that consciously planning your purpose and having strategies for bringing your goals to pass is detrimental to your success. This is to ensure that as a graduate student we are prepared to face the challenges that come with our individual program of study by planning successful ways to excel. The purpose of this assignment is to describe how my professional development plan and my Academic background allows me to relate my goals to my specific program of study and to assess my skills and knowledge in order to enable me to set a target that would guide my academic goals as I journey through this entire course of study.

I believe that having a professional plan will help me stay focused and help me align my purpose on achieving my professional and educational goals.

My name is Yvonne Joseph. I am married with a son.

I live in Texas. I started my nursing journey in 2011 where I enrolled in a community college in pursuit of my associate degree in nursing. I have always wanted to be in the medical field as a young child growing up due to the fact that I enjoyed been around my aunty who was at the time a nurse but who is now a medical doctor. She would teach me so many things about the medical field and I absolutely enjoyed it more than anything else. As at that time I had no idea I would be a nurse, but I knew I will end up working either as a social worker, counselor, psychologist, caseworker or a nurse.

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I geared towards therapeutic rapport and providing comfort for the mentally challenged patient. I graduated from Navarro College 2013 and went straight to get my bachelor in nursing at University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. I graduated with my bachelor May 2015 and got my first job as a medical-surgical nurse and I absolutely gained so much knowledge. I had patients with all manner of diseases one could think of. It was bringing class theory knowledge to real-world practice. The uniqueness of the different disease process was part of what built my critical thinking skills and I am thankful for every experience I got.

I stayed on the medical-surgical unit for a little over a year then I moved on to the behavioral health unit. This was absolutely the best decision I believe I made and I have been in the behavioral health since then and I absolutely love it. I have a great passion for the mentally challenged patient. I have great tolerance toward these unique patients. After thinking about my service to the mentally challenged, I decided to advance my carrier to gain more professional knowledge to enable me to become more competent to care for these patients. My desire for growth and to better provide quality informed care was my driving force to embarking on this journey to become a mental health nurse practitioner. I received a lot of support from my family and friends when I decided to go back and further my education, but I was concerned about beginning my program due to the fact that I just had a baby and working full time and now adding a full-time education. I prayed about it plus my love for my behavioral health patients set the platform for me and then I came across Walden University. Their vision and mission aligned with my professional goals so I applied and I am currently enrolled in this course which I believe is the foundation for my success and will enable me to attain my dream of becoming a mental health nurse practitioner.

I am working full time at a Behavioral health facility, I have my advanced cardiovascular support, Basic life support and I am currently planning on being a certified behavioral health nurse. The experiences I have had makes me feel that I am prepared as well as having some experiences in scholarly writing gained while pursuing my bachelor’s degree from UMHB. I am quite familiar with APA style writing. Although I am familiar with these rules, I do aspire to be proficient as a scholar-writer while enrolled at Walden University. I know it may be challenging to continue this educational route as a master’s of science nurse, but I am willing to give my best and learn new ways to improve my skills and be a better nurse by providing quality evidence-based practice care to my patient.

My professional goal is to see myself become a mental health nurse practitioner by furthering my education and completing the MHNP curriculum through Walden University. As a mental health nurse practitioner, my purpose of completing a graduate program is to gain more knowledge and provide evidence-based practice care to the behavioral health population. One of my goals is to increase in knowledge, become a competent MHNP by providing extraordinary care to my community and incorporate social change and empowering my patients with ideas and strategies that promote self-worth and dignity to cope with the everyday challenge through the knowledge gained at Walden University. Walden University defined positive social change “as a deliberate process of creating and applying ideas, strategies, and actions to promote, the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, organizations, cultures, and societies” (Walden University, 2017).

By earning this MSN degree, another goal of mine is to gradually transition into a scholar-practitioner to enable me to give positive change not only to my patients but the global community across the lifespan. (Walden University School of nursing mission statement, 2018). My goal is to strive to be a better nurse and provide quality care in all manners, physical, mentally, and psychosocial health needs across the globe through the quality education received from Walden University. I am convinced that Walden University will help me achieve my goal of becoming an exceptional MHNP. Course Outcomes This foundations of graduate study course that I am currently enrolled in has increased my knowledge and has provided me the opportunity to be a better scholar-practitioner.

I have learned the art of writing in its details and how to be a responsible writer. It enhanced my communication skills and I am more knowledgeable about the APA writing style. I have improved in my scholarly writing by learning how to paraphrase, how to effectively use SafeAssgn, Grammarly, and the importance of academic integrity and plagiarism. I am doing much better at time management, I plan ahead and most especially I am competent with navigating through Walden University online resources, which was one of my biggest challenges. I also learned how to use the resources that are available to students, making use of the Walden writing center, Walden library, and properly locating peer-reviewed articles. It’s been an interesting class, getting to know classmates. My plan is to continue with time management and planning ahead of an assignment, setting at least 3 days a week to plan for the upcoming week; also I plan to use any spare time to start on future assignments and to continue to do the upcoming homework on the Saturday before the upper week to give me ample time to correct mistakes and be efficient. I find time management to be my biggest help in staying successful. Procrastination will destroy my success, procrastination makes me disorganized. Once I am conscious of time and use my time wisely, I tend to excel, I feel more relaxed, less anxious because my life is well balanced and I can spend the rest of my time with my husband and son. I will not procrastinate, I will be disciplined with my time, manage it effectively and continue to plan on ways to further increase my time management skills.

I do believe that practicum is the foundation for the start of one’s carrier. It is real life experience that gives students the opportunity to participate under the supervision of an expert in the field. I believe it is the primary starting point. Without practicum, I do not see any student excelling. Practicum will prepare me to work competently and independently as a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. As soon as I received my admission letter into Walden University and got accepted into the program I began planning for practicum. I like to do things ahead of time and I spoke with a psychiatrist about been my preceptor which he agreed. He is a great psychiatrist who takes exceptional care of his patients so I am currently looking forward to practicum and starting my practicum journey with him.

My goals are to be proficient in caring for the mentally challenged patient. I plan to be able to hold group therapy sections with the mental health patient and educate them on ways to cope with challenges such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse and to give my patients alternate ways to cope with life stressors other than resulting to drug use, or suicide ideations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2016: “Suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34 and the 4th leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 54” (CDC, 2016). Summary Becoming a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner is my earnest goal and I am ready to take responsibility in achieving this goal through the many challenges of previous academic experiences and working as a registered mental health nurse. This course is a stepping stone towards the achievement of my goal as a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner; it has set the pace and foundation for me to be successful in my field; I will continue to be teachable and continue to write responsibly as a scholar-writer and also citing adequately. I will use my time wisely and not procrastinate. Walden University has given me the privilege to be an aspiring scholar-practitioner by supporting me to achieve my goals. I am therefore grateful to Walden University for this opportunity.