Running head: EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GOALS 1

Developing Educational and Professional Goals

Sarah Spradlin

Old Dominion University

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Developing Educational and Professional Goals

The purpose of this paper is to discuss my educational and professional goals that

I have for my nursing career. I will be graduating with my associates degree in nursing

(ADN) this May along with starting my first job in this profession towards the end of July

upon passing my NCLEX. Unlike others, there was not a single event that led me to this

career choice of becoming a registered nurse (RN). I chose this career because I enjoy

health care and wanted to participate in a more depth and complex manner dealing with

patients, rather than filling prescriptions for customers daily. In this paper, I will

elaborate on my personal goals to further my education as well as my profession.

Examination of My Journey

I immediately started college after graduating high school and five years later I

graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Radford University. Although I

enjoyed the education I received and the time spent at Radford, I knew that I didnt want

to further my education in psychology any longer. I spent seven years working in

pharmacies as a pharmacy technician from the time I graduated high school until now;

thinking that pharmacy school could potentially be in my future plans one day and hoping

that I would grow to enjoy it, which never did happen. I quickly became uninterested in

the pharmacy world but I knew that dealing with medications and talking to customers

was the only thing that interested me.

I decided on nursing school a year after obtaining my bachelors degree. My

thoughts of nursing have significantly changed compared to the first day of starting

nursing school. Nursing is a lot of hard work and it takes trustworthy, hardworking, and

team oriented professionals to fulfill this role. Although I am not a licensed RN yet, I

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value nursing and the experiences that I have had thus far. This profession is the perfect

fit for my career interests, along with the development of further education and

professional goals that have been formed amongst the journey of nursing school.

Specific Educational and Professional Goals

There are two educational goals that I have set for myself throughout the

progression of my Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN). The first would be to learn

how to appropriately work in groups with peers. I enjoy working with co-workers while I

am at work or while I am in a hospital along with collaborating with those people. When

it comes to grades and working on projects with others, I tend to take over because of my

concern for excellence. I believe that group projects tend to unease me because I have

had numerous poor experiences of receiving grades that are not up to my standards. I

believe that I will reach this goal by collaborating with my peers to distribute group work

evenly.

The second goal I would like to achieve while obtaining my BSN is to enhance

my critical decision making when it comes to patient care. Being new to this aspect of the

health care profession, experiencing new situations and conditions to which I have not

before been exposed can be unnerving. I am striving daily to improve my knowledge

base and apply the clinical skills I have learned thus far. I believe I will grow stronger in

this area as I am able to begin my career and expand my skill set.

Professional Goals

I have had a long-term goal of attending nurse anesthesia school and becoming a

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Throughout my clinical rotations I have

been exposed to many settings and areas of patient care and I have found that I tend to

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strive when placed in a critical, fast paced environment. I believe by becoming a CRNA

it will allow me to excel in an area I would enjoy, while providing essential care to

patients and their families.

Another professional goal I have in mind would be to become more involved in

my hospital to help expand thoughts and ideas to benefit the work environment by

possibly obtaining a leadership role. I would enjoy the opportunity to create new ideas to

help fix problems or produce concepts that will help the nursing staff to achieve better

patient outcomes by providing optimal care. I am a problem solver, so fixing problems

and presenting solutions is a strong interest to me.

Self-Assessment

Strengths

An area in which I believe to have strength is my tendency to jump in a leadership

role with confidence and determination. I am eager to complete tasks to the best of my

abilities and I am also able to provide my peers with constructive guidance and assistance

in order to complete projects or task in a timely and efficient manner. Because I believe

that these are my strengths, becoming a CRNA is more appealing to me due to their

autonomous and committed role for the care of their patients.

Weaknesses

As a new nurse, a skill that I would like to improve is time management. When

presented with multiple tasks and deadlines I tend to become overwhelmed and struggle

with what may be the best way to complete everything efficiently and without error. I am

continually improving and have attempted to become even more organized during my

clinical experiences, but I feel this is an area that I need to work on developing further.

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My hopes are that by improving this weakness it will also help me to be a more proficient

nurse, which will come with time and experience.

Conclusion

As I reflect on my professional and educational goals I am very pleased with how

much I have grown already within this ever changing profession. Nursing is a career

where I feel I am constantly working toward the greater good and can continuously make

a difference in the world. My hope is that as I strive to reach these I will not only

continue to better myself but also better the lives of patients and families whom I have

the opportunity to interact with.

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I pledge to support the Honor System of Old Dominion University. I will refrain from
any form of academic dishonesty or deception, such as cheating or plagiarism. I am
aware that as a member of the academic community it is responsibility to turn in all
suspected violators of the Honor Code. I will report to a hearing if summoned.

Name: Sarah Spradlin

Date: March 3, 2017