Introduction
This second assessment is an action plan for the three identified learning needs from the first assessment. The reflective self-assessment (assessment one) allowed me to identify three learning needs derailing my professional development objective. Three identified learning needs from the first assessment were minimal knowledge about The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s (NMBA) approved practice areas, going above and beyond for my patients and fellow work colleagues, and being too self-critical (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). This second assessment examines how these learning needs will be met to improve my career growth and get me registered by NMBA. Specifically, the action plan integrates the quality improvement activities, timelines, resources, situational awareness, and risk management for each learning need, as discussed below.
Learning need 1
In my daily evidence-based nursing practices, going above and beyond for my patients and fellow work colleagues for my patients and fellow work colleagues is my other learning need. I often work beyond the working hours out of my desire and willingness to support the nursing care delivery processes. I have established loyalty with patients in these efforts because they believe I tirelessly care for their well-being and health. In addition, my colleagues have also benefited from my tireless devotion by sometimes working overtime, which sometimes eases their work burden and improves our relationships (Rush et al., 2019). Although these positive outcomes have been realized, my weakness is working beyond the stipulated time, even when the supervisors render no request or remuneration. To address this weakness, I will utilize work management seminars and workshops to avoid transcending my team members and patients. These events are often organized at the organizational level to empower the nurses and other professionals with soft skills such as controlling, leading, organizing, and planning to avoid time mismanagement and conflicts among team members. Once I learn and implement these skills in my daily nursing practices, I will likely work within the defined time limits without exceeding others (Kaihlanen et al., 2018).
Nevertheless, failure to address this learning need may give rise to conflicts with my workmates. Sudden and unrealistic expectations may emerge from workmates who may negatively perceive my transcending as a way of making the management look at them as average workers. Such expectations may make some of my colleagues jealous and think I am exposing their weaknesses to the top management. In due course, my interpersonal and interprofessional collaborations may significantly decline as people perceive me as too ambitious (Lindfors, Flinkman & Kaunonen, 2022). I will address this risk by communicating to my colleagues that I love transcending while executing my daily nursing practices. I often emphasized during staff meetings that transcending gives me the confidence to know that I am causing a positive impact on patients’ lives and easing the workload for my workmates. In addition, I am aware that nursing practices require tireless devotion by registered nurses to improve patients’ health and well-being. Focus is placed on patients’ healthcare needs rather than personal interests to demonstrate professionalism for registered nurses. Similarly, transcending for workmates helps to ensure that nursing practice gaps due to late coming are mitigated healthcare delivery proceeds even in the partial absence of nurses on duty. These efforts ensure that patients’ urgent and non-urgent health conditions are addressed to avoid potential mortalities (Rush et al., 2019).
Additionally, I will use the internet to conduct personal readings about how to avoid transcending for workmates and clients. Such a resource will allow me to access many articles to give me insights about benefits, demerits, and possible solutions to avoid transcending. I expect to start reading about transcending from May 1, 2023, to May 31, 2023. Also, I will attend quarterly work management workshops and seminars to improve this learning need (Lindfors, Flinkman & Kaunonen, 2022).
Learning need 2
Being too self-critical is my other weakness as a registered nurse. As part of my situation awareness, I have often demonstrated self-critical when reflecting on my daily evidence-based practices like diagnoses, treatments, and feedback collection. This practice has made me mostly acknowledge my flaws and avoid repeating them in future practices. For instance, I often made inaccurate documentation when handling patients’ healthcare needs during staff shortages. I would try to multitask, but in the end, I would recognize flaws in my documentation (Lindfors et al., 2022). After a self-critical evaluation, I would acknowledge that busy schedules and fatigue were responsible for my flaws. Through self-criticism, I have been able to prioritize my task schedule, exercise, and adopt a healthy lifestyle to mitigate these adverse nursing scenarios. Despite these positive outcomes, self-critical is a weakness in my work because it makes me overthink when handling my life experiences. I believe being too self-critical and overthinking situations affects my work because it makes me spend much time brainstorming on potential solutions to challenging nursing experiences (Kenny et al., 2021). For example, there have been incidences where some of my patients have taken longer than expected to recover despite my tireless devotion to delivering nursing care. This has been due to minimal clinical abilities in delivering critical care. Because of self-critical, I have sometimes felt low self-motivation, low self-esteem, and social anxiety. However, I wish to seek assistance from a behavioral therapist to improve my mental strength. I will likely have mitigated negative thoughts and habits through the behavioral therapist’s efforts. My mindset will likely be set on my strengths and successes while knowing I have room to improve my experience, skills, and knowledge in dealing with negative emotions (Lindfors, Flinkman & Kaunonen, 2022).
If I do not manage the adverse effects of being too self-critical, my self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-motivation may significantly decline, resulting in poor work performance. Negative thoughts may surpass my positive thought as the focus would be placed on failures instead of achieved success and strengths (Lindfors et al., 2022). To manage this potential risk, I will attend leadership seminars organized by employers to improve my critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. I will likely use organizational resources such as computers and internet connections to attend the seminars. Alternatively, experts invited to the seminars will be another resource for me to utilize and express my concerns about self-criticism. I plan to utilize leadership seminars starting May 31, 2023, and July 31, 2023. In this same timeline, I will seek services from a behavioral therapist to improve my emotional intelligence so that self-criticism can be used to enhance my nursing practices (Butler, 2023).
Learning need 3
Minimal knowledge about the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s approved practice areas is one of my learning needs. As a registered nurse, I must meet the specialty and general registration requirements since I am still a student nurse. To meet these requirements, I will seek additional theoretical knowledge and extra clinical abilities in other areas of nursing. Theoretical knowledge will be acquired from personal reading and research about nursing practice areas. I will broaden my theoretical knowledge by reading journal articles and books about NMBA-approved practice areas (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). In addition, I will also pursue further studies in extra clinical abilities in nursing areas such as critical care and geriatric nursing to improve my leadership competencies in providing quality nursing care (Kenny et al., 2021). Based on my vast experience in peri-operative nursing will lay a strong foundation for demonstrating effective communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking competencies in my endeavors. This factor will empower me to apply emotional intelligence and prioritize integrity and mutual respect in my endeavors. These competencies will likely improve as I pursue further education when I pass all the assessments that test my ability to fulfill specialty and general registration requirements (Butler, 2023).
If I do not improve my knowledge about the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s approved practice areas, I will risk not getting a practice license as a registered nurse. NMBA offers practice licenses for professionals who have fulfilled the specialty and general requirements because they are competent and experienced in delivering quality nursing care to patients. I will mitigate this risk by participating in workshops conducted by NMBA to equip healthcare providers with vast knowledge about the Council’s specialty and general requirements (Hodge & Varndell, 2020). More so, workshops will allow me to engage in interpersonal and inter-professional collaborations while interacting with experts and work colleagues. Such experience will empower me with more knowledge and skills to improve my specialty and general practice in clinical settings. In addition, the current situation in Australia is that more knowledge about NMBA’s approved practice is needed in their pursuit of registration. As student nurses, there is a need to demonstrate efficiency with interprofessional collaborations to address the patient’s complicated health conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Due to inconsistent interprofessional collaborations, registered nurses need to effectively implement specialty and general nursing practices due to minimal knowledge about NMBA’s nursing practice areas (Cooper, 2020).
Reviewing content on the NMBA website and reading articles from Medicine and Health databases such as BMJ Best Practice, Cochrane Library, and Australian Medicines Handbook are possible resources I will use to address this learning need. These resources offer vast information about specialty and general nursing practices. I can access and read the theoretical information about this learning area with an internet connection, smartphone, and laptop. It will take me three months, from May 1, 2023, to July 31, 2023, to address this learning need (Cooper, 2020). This period ensures I can improve my theoretical knowledge and clinical competencies in critical care and geriatric nursing to be registered with NMBA.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as a registered nurse, I have opportunities to improve my learning needs and professional development. I have succeeded in my nursing roles, particularly by improving patients’ well-being and health through peri-operative nursing. Despite this success, three learning needs derailing my professional development efforts, which I look forward to addressing to achieve my desired success. Minimal knowledge about the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s approved practice areas, transcending for my patients and fellow work colleagues, and being too self-critical are my learning needs. These learning needs will be addressed through personal research, attending seminars, and seeking behavioral therapy to improve my emotional intelligence, competencies, and experience in delivering quality specialty and general care. These efforts will cover three months between May 2023 and July 2023 to boost my chances of getting registered by NMBA.
References
Butler, J. (2023). Emotional Intelligence in Nursing Leadership: Clinical Update. ANMJ.https://anmj.org.au/emotional-intelligence-in-nursing-leadership-clinical-update/
Cooper, M.K. (2020). Australian Regulatory Requirements for Migration and Registration of Internationally Qualified Health Practitioners (Doctoral dissertation). https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/130112/1/Cooper2020_PhD.pdf
Hodge, A., & Varndell, W. (2020). Professional Practice. In Professional Transitions in Nursing (pp. 42–78). Routledge.
Hodge, A., & Varndell, W. (2020). Professional transitions in nursing: a guide to practice in the Australian healthcare system. Routledge.
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Kenny, A., Dickson-Swift, V., McKenna, L., Charette, M., Rush, K.L., Stacey, G., Darvill, A., Leigh, J., Burton, R., & Phillips, C. (2021). Interventions to support graduate nurse transition to practice and associated outcomes: A systematic review. Nurse education today, 100: 104860.
Lindfors, K., Flinkman, M., & Kaunonen, M. (2022). New graduate registered nurses’ professional competence and the impact of preceptors’ education intervention: a quasi-experimental longitudinal intervention study. BMC Nurs, 21: 360.
Lindfors, K., Kaunonen, M., Huhtala, H., & Paavilainen, E. (2022). Newly graduated nurses’ evaluation of the received orientation and their perceptions of the clinical environment: an intervention study. Scand J Caring Sci, 36: 59-70.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2016, June). Registered Nurse Standards for Practice. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx
Rush, K.L., Janke, R., Duchscher, J.E., Phillips, R., & Kaur, S. (2019). Best practices of formal new graduate transition programs: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 94: 139-158.
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