Nursing offers formal and informal opportunities for personal development, including certification, changing specialties, continuing education, mentoring, and volunteering. These pathways can lead to changes in practice and philosophical approaches to nursing.
Nursing is a career that can offer great opportunities for personal development as well as increasing work-related knowledge and skills. Pathways to self-growth and wisdom can be formal or informal in nature, and sometimes lead to changes in areas of practice or philosophical changes in the way the discipline is practised, whatever the specified specialty. Formal means of personal development in nursing include certification in current or new areas of practice, changing specialties or areas of specialization, and continuing education. Informal opportunities for personal development in nursing can include mentoring and volunteering, among other options.
Certification is usually one of the first steps a nurse takes as a formal type of personal development. This process usually requires a minimal amount of time practicing in the specialty, passing a certification exam, and often meeting continuing education requirements in the field to maintain new credentials. For nurses, in addition to the new initials that indicate certification to add to their signature, accreditation is a public mark of competence. Changing specialties can also be a type of personal development in nursing. The multiplicity of areas, specialties and types of nursing practice helps to ensure that weariness or fatigue in one area need not mean retirement from the profession itself.
Education is an important path for personal development in nursing. Continuing education may be voluntary or required by a nurse’s state or country of practice. Regardless of the reason, continuing education helps in disseminating timely clinical information, regardless of when a nurse formally completed nursing school. Many nurses formally pursue higher degrees as part of their personal development by earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the field. These higher degrees may allow a nurse to leave a clinical nursing specialty to enter management or teach future nursing students.
Another type of personal development in nursing is mentoring a recent graduate or nurse to a specialized unit. Depending on the facility and the specific unit, this relationship may or may not be formalized. Either way, mentoring is a valuable experience for both parties and allows the mentor to reflect and summarize their own working knowledge for the less experienced mentee. In turn, the mentee has time to learn new skills and practice under close supervision.
Volunteering is another way to achieve personal development in nursing. These opportunities can be exotic like traveling abroad to third world countries or as familiar as practicing at a local homeless shelter. Volunteer work time can range from four hours a week, regular and continuous, to a six-month sabbatical. Whatever the type or duration of volunteer work, the nurse will be challenged beyond her usual skills in clinical practice and problem solving, giving to those in need.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
