Advanced Practice Nurse Professional Development Plan

Introduction

Nursing is a lucrative and rewarding career, but it demands significant work, determination, and commitment. The profession requires specific skills, education, and licensing. This paper presents a personal Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) Professional Development Plan, along with discussion of background, marketing strategies, and curriculum vitae preparation.

To obtain the education and practice required as a nurse, following a structured APN professional development plan is essential. The plan is organized around the following six steps:

The Six-Step Professional Development Framework

Identify — Prioritize — Plan — Do — Evaluate — Record

Learning needs can be identified in a variety of ways. The first approach is to reflect on current practice and determine which areas feel uncomfortable or uncertain. It is especially important to evaluate whether any of those areas relate to client safety or patient health. If such associations exist, steps should be taken to become more competent in the relevant areas.

Fortunately, resources exist to assist with this evaluation. Most nursing associations provide self-assessment forms based on their own competency profiles. These forms help evaluate performance against key competencies required by the association, revealing areas of weakness and guiding improvement accordingly (Professional Development). To gauge knowledge across various fields, quizzes and tests are also effective tools. Feedback from co-workers and supervisors is another valuable method, as they can offer perspective on areas of strength and areas needing improvement. This process should be conducted annually to establish learning priorities for each year.

After identifying what needs to be learned, the items should be listed in order of priority — from most urgent to least urgent — based on professional judgment (Professional Development). The following criteria guide this prioritization: highest priority goes to needs whose absence could compromise client or patient safety. Second priority goes to needs representing key skill sets in the nurse's role, the deficiency of which could reflect poorly on colleagues. After that, focus shifts to needs that support competency growth in the current role. It is generally recommended to first become fully competent in the current position before pursuing learning aimed at expansion or career change.

The learning plan lists all the activities to be undertaken in order to meet identified learning needs (Professional Development). It should be treated as a guide and kept manageable — typically three to five goals per year is recommended. A plan covering more than one year, and therefore containing more overall goals, is also acceptable. A well-designed plan will likely span three to five years and should be updated annually, particularly when job responsibilities or specifications change.

The next step after drafting the plan is execution. A plan is only as valuable as its implementation. There are multiple modes of learning available to nurses, and selecting the most appropriate methods for each identified need is important (Professional Development).

After completing each learning activity, its effectiveness in contributing to the achievement of goals should be evaluated. Documentation of these evaluations is essential. It is important that the employer, colleagues, and the nursing association — not just the individual nurse — have access to this information (Professional Development).

Finally, every completed activity should be formally recorded. The data collected should include:

APN Scope of Practice and Licensure Requirements

The name of the activity and the competency it targeted; the date the activity was completed; the results achieved, such as certifications or grades awarded; and any comments to be referenced in the future.

When evaluating the scope of practice of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), the American Nurses Association is regularly asked questions such as: whether a particular action falls within a nurse's scope of practice; whether an acute care nurse practitioner may see pediatric patients; whether certified nurse-midwives may attend to male patients; and whether Clinical Nurse Specialists hold prescribing privileges.

The answers to these questions are not straightforward. Relevant considerations include the scope and standards of practice, governing laws and regulations, institutional policies and procedures, professional self-determination, and liability and risk management (Scope of Practice).

The profession's essential documents help assure the public of nurses' competency and inform legislation. The practice of APRNs is governed primarily by the Nurse Practice Act and the Board of Nursing. Other laws and boards may also affect practice. For example, some states regulate nurse-midwives through a Board of Midwifery or a public health authority (Scope of Practice). In some states, Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) are not identified in the Nurse Practice Act, which means the CNS and any other registered nurse share the same scope of practice in that state. CRNAs' scope of practice is relatively consistent across the profession, though this consistency is not always reflected clearly in individual states' statutes. Ambiguous legislative language is often interpreted by regulatory bodies as a matter of opinion — for instance, questions such as who may perform micro-dermabrasion, under what circumstances radiologic procedures may be carried out, or whether an APRN may administer IV anesthetics for intractable pain (Scope of Practice). Rules, regulations, state practice acts, and professional standards of practice all govern the development of institutional policies and procedures.

In terms of educational pathways, an associate degree requires less time to complete than a bachelor's degree, but offers less intensive training and fewer job market opportunities. Advanced practice nurses require additional qualifications, and a master's degree is a necessity. They must demonstrate superior clinical skills, pass specialty examinations, and pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN).

Any APN wishing to practice in the United States must hold a graduate nursing degree from an accredited program (Owyoung). Nurses must pass the NCLEX-RN to obtain a license, and registering for that examination requires a graduate degree. Licensure may be obtained by passing a specific state's NCLEX-RN or through endorsement from another state in which the test was taken. To obtain an advanced practice certificate, the nurse must contact the relevant state nursing board. While most APNs are qualified to prescribe, prescribing authority depends on the state of practice (Owyoung).

Registration requirements vary based on the nurse's background and the mode of registration. To be registered as an APN, the nurse must generally already be registered in the state of practice — using California as an example. In the case of a CNS, the holder of a master's degree must submit official university academic transcripts, a Verification of the Completion of Master's Degree in a Clinical Field form, and a Verification of Clinical Nurse Specialist Clinical Experience form (Owyoung).

Conclusion

This paper aimed to highlight how a nurse can develop a meaningful professional development plan. The plan outlined here is designed to support sustained achievement throughout a nursing career and includes personal assessment, curriculum vitae preparation, and networking strategies. A plan, however, is only as effective as its execution. Thorough and consistent follow-through on each component will be essential to achieving the career goals outlined. This plan will serve as a guiding framework along the path to professional success.