Advance Practical Nurse Professional Development Plan Nursing is a very lucrative career. However, it takes a lot of work and determination to be a nurse. The job requires specific skills and education as well as licensing. Find below my personal Advanced Professional Development Plan (APN). I will also discuss such aspects as background, marketing strategies and curricula.

I appreciate that to get the education and practice I need as a nurse I have to follow the APN professional development plan. I have discussed in this paper how I will achieve this. The outline is as follows:

Identify

Prioritize

Plan

Do

Evaluate

Record

Identify My Learning Needs

I can do this in a variety of ways. First, I will reflect on my practice. I will determine which of my practicing areas I feel uncomfortable or unsure. I will evaluate if any of the areas I feel uncomfortable have something associated with the safety of the client or patient's health. If for any reason there are some associations, then I will seek to become more competent in the concerned areas. Fortunately, there are resources to help me evaluate how competent I am. Most nursing associations, based on their own competency profiles, have forms used for self-assessment. These will help me evaluate myself in the key competencies required by my association. I will therefore get to know my areas of weaknesses and improve on them appropriately (Professional Development). To evaluate how knowledgeable I am in various fields, I will take quizzes and tests. This can be quite an effective method. I can also ask for feedback form co-workers and supervisors. They will certainly have an idea of what I am exceptional at doing and what areas need some improving. I will do this annually so as to establish what I need to learn every year (Professional Development).

Step 2: Prioritize My Learning Needs

After identifying what I need to learn, I will list them from what needs to be learned first to what will be learned last based on my priorities and judgment (Professional Development). I will use the following criteria to achieve this. I will give most priority to those needs whose lack of may lead in me compromising the safety of the client or patient. Second in the list will be those needs that are key skill sets in my line of work and whose deficiency will reflect badly on my workmates. After that, I will focus on those needs that will allow me to grow in competency in my line of work. Generally, it is recommended that you should learn to first be competent in the current job before learning for expansion or job change (Professional Development).

Step 3: Prepare a Learning Plan

This plan will have listed in it all the activities that I will undertake so as to achieve my learning needs (Professional Development). I will view it as a guide. I will keep it manageable - having between 3 to 5 goals for one year. However, I think it is still okay if the plan covers more than one year and therefore have more goals overall. My plan will likely cover between 3 to 5 years. I will update it annually especially if my job specifications or responsibilities change during that duration.

Step 4: Do the Learning Activities

The next step after drawing the plan is execution. A plan is no good if it is not executed upon. I also appreciate that there exists several ways that I can learn (Professional Development).

Step 5: Evaluate My Learning

After completing every activity of learning, I will evaluate how effective this activity was towards helping in the achievement of my goals. I will ensure that I have documentations of these reports. It is very important that besides me, my employer and colleagues as well as the nursing association also have this information (Professional Development).

Step 6: Record My Learning

Lastly, I will record every activity when completed. The data that I will collect will cover:

The activity's name and what competency it targeted

The date I completed the activity

The results I achieved in taking that activity, e.g. certifications or grade awarded

Comments made to refer to in the future

APN Scope of Practice

To evaluate scope of practice of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), the American Nurses Association is always asked several questions, among them:

Whether what the nurse is doing is within the scope of his or her practice

Whether it is within the scope of acute care NP to see pediatric patients

Whether certified nurse-midwives should attend to male patients

Whether Clinical Nurse Specialists have any prescribing...

Things like the following need to be considered:
Scope as well as Standards of Practice

Laws and regulations governing the practice

Policies of the institution and procedures laid out

Self-Determination

Liability that may arise and the need to manage risks

The profession's essential documents aid in assuring the public of the nurses' competency and inform legislation. The practice of APRNs is governed by the Nurse Practice Act and the Board of Nursing. Other laws and boards may also impact nurses' practice. For example, some states have nurse-midwives being regulated by a Board of Midwifery or the public health (Scope of Practice). Also, some states do not identify CNS in the Nurse Practice Act, which implies that the CNS and any other registered nurse have the same scope of practice in that state (Scope of Practice). CRNAs' scope of practice is pretty standard, this is however not evident in the various states' statutes. Acts whose interpretation is not conclusively evident are interpreted as a matter of opinion by the regulatory bodies. For instance, who is allowed to carry out micro-dermbrasion and under what kind of circumstances? What parameters should be considered in carrying out radiologic procedures? Is an APRN capable of administering IV anesthetics for intractable pain? Also, rules and regulations, state practice acts and professional standards of practice control the process of the development of procedures and policies (Scope of Practice). It takes a shorter time to earn an associate degree compared to a bachelor's degree but its level of training is not as intensive as that of a bachelor's degree. Bachelor's degree also offers graduates more opportunities in the job market. Advanced practice nurses require more qualifications to practice and a master's degree is a necessity. They must have demonstrated much superior clinical skills and have passed specialty tests, as well as the National Council Licensure Examination.

Any APN that wants to practice in the United States must have a graduate nursing degree from a program that has been accredited (Owyoung). To obtain a nursing license, nurses are required to pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) and to register for this examination they need a graduate degree. Licensure will require the nurse to take a specific state's NCLEX-RN or having another state where he or she took the test endorse him or her (Owyoung). To get an advanced practice certificate, the nurse will have to contact the state's nursing board. Despite most APNs qualifying to make prescriptions, the authority to prescribe is dependent on the state the nurse practices. Some of the requirements needed to qualify for certain licensing are listed below giving an example of California and Clinical Nurse Specialists (Owyoung).

The requirements needed to be registered as a nurse depend heavily on the background of the nurse and the mode in which the nurse will be registered. Generally, to be registered as an APN, the nurse needs to have been registered in California before applying (Owyoung). In the case of CNS, the holder of a the master's degree must submit official university academic transcripts, Verification of the Completion of Master's Degree in a Clinical Field or Clinical Field Related To Nursing Form as well as the 'Verification of Clinical Nurse Specialist Clinical Experience' form (Owyoung).

Advanced registered nurse practitioners shall have their license renewed after every two years on their birthday or before the birthday. They will pay the required fee and shall have completed 30 hours in continuing education (and if their license has any authority to prescribe, fifteen additional hours in pharmacology) and another two hundred and fifty hours practicing as an ARNP at the time of license renewal in the practicing renewal two-year cycle (ARNP).

Personal Assessment

This will allow me to know my position especially as concerns career growth. It will give me a chance to reflect on my skill sets, my goals and weaknesses as well as what I really want (Faber). I will analyze my accomplishments and successes I have had while practicing and also my failures during that time period. I will evaluate what I have done and therefore get insights on what I should have done better and so improve my future practice. This will allow me to grow in my craft (Faber). I will measure the progress I am making by evaluating initiative, knowledge of my job, attendance, productivity and judgment. I will achieve this by having specific goals. For instance, one goal can be: I will have my production increased by 15% (Faber). And another goal can be: For the entire year, I will arrive early to…