How to Write a Personal Improvement Plan for a High School Nurse
Although there is some amount of luck involved in securing the perfect career, satisfaction and success depend on goal-setting and self-awareness. By thinking about where you want to take your nursing career and putting professional goals to paper, you'll recognize opportunities for personal development and learning in the high school where you work. Remember that self-improvement in nursing is not just about clinical-skills development. Communication, compassion and initiative are also important traits that make a successful health practitioner, especially when counseling and teaching young people. Be honest with yourself about what areas you need to improve to reach your future goals.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Assess your current skills and experience. In a notebook or binder, list all of the positions you've held to date, including clinical work placements, and think about what you learned in each job. Ask yourself what's been the defining moment in your career so far, and write down what that experience taught you. If you have spent most of your career as a high school nurse, for example, you may have had to talk to a pregnant teen about her options. This experience probably taught you how to be approachable and relate to young people with pressing health and personal issues.
-
2
Write down the challenges of your current position. As a school nurse, you need to fix bodily bumps and scrapes while listening with compassion to student concerns. You'll also need to develop compelling health education programs that students can relate to. Write how you can meet these expectations, and consider how you'll know when you've been successful. Ask yourself the same questions about your goals five years down the road. For example, maybe you'd like to move to a bigger school with more responsibility. How you'll know that you've met that goal is pretty obvious, but you have to ask yourself what you need to do to get there.
-
-
3
Think about how your work as a school nurse fits in with your future career goals. Write what you can do within your current position to get closer to your long-term professional objectives. For example, perhaps you could take on more responsibility by helping teachers develop their physical education programs. This experience would prove your willingness to take on extra responsibility when applying for work at a larger school.
-
4
Section off part of your notebook for writing a learning journal, and take notes in it every day. Each time you write, think about what a situation from the work day (good or bad) taught you, and how that knowledge helps you move toward your career goals. According to RapidBI, regular journaling will help you to recognize more opportunities for growth in your day-to-day activities. For example, from your journaling, you might notice that many teens are approaching you about depression. As a high school nurse, you might take a leadership role organizing a support group for students with mental health issues.
-
5
Review your plan every six months. Ask yourself whether your goals are the same or if you've developed new ones. Reassess your time lines, and make sure your learning expectations are realistic.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit nurse chris image by John Keith from Fotolia.com
