Introduction So why develop learning goals at all? By doing this you will be able to outline skills, new information and personal achievements you will strive to accomplish. It is important to create a meaningful learning plan that will be useful both as you proceed with your experience, and afterward as a testament to your achievement(s). Basically, a learning plan identifies where you want to go, how you will get there and how you will know if you are successful. It will help you determine you will be “different” once you have completed your experience. A learning plan typically consists of: Developing learning goals Strategies that will be undertaken to achieve your goals Criteria by which you will assess the completion of each objective     SMART Learning Goals This topic will help you develop SMART learning goals. A learning goal clearly describes what you want to learn or achieve. A SMART learning goal is Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-limited Developing a SMART learning goal makes sure that your goal is focussed and provides a clear idea of what you want to learn. A SMART goal makes it easier to plan relevant learning activities, measure your progress towards achieving the goal and know when you have met your goal. The following graphic shows you how developing SMART learning goals is part of a continual process, which includes reflecting on your practice and developing a LEARNING PLAN with goals and activities.     How do I start? You start by reflecting on your practice, and discovering what your strengths and learning needs are. You can also get feedback from colleagues, which will help you identify strengths and learning needs that you missed or didn’t think about, adding depth to your own reflection. This reflection helps you to continually improve your competence as a nurse. You will use the learning needs you identified in your reflection to develop learning goals and your Learning Plan.     Your Learning Plan Research shows that you are more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down. Having a Learning Plan allows you to write down your goals, and track your learning activities and outcomes, all in one place. You need to have it least two learning goals in your Learning plan. Ensure the goals are relevant to you and you practice and you have the opportunities to be able to meet them.     What is a SMART Learning Goal? A SMART goal is: Specific A Specific goal is detailed, focussed and clearly stated. Everyone reading the goal should know exactly what you want to learn. Measurable A measurable goal is quantifiable, meaning you can see the results. Attainable An attainable goal can be achieved based on your skill, resources, and area of practice. Relevant A relevant goal applies to your current role and is clearly linked to your key role and responsibilities. Time-Limited A time-limited goal has specific timelines and a deadline. This will help motivate you to move toward your goal and to evaluate your progress. A SMART learning goal is structured so that anyone who reads your goal statement will understand what you want to learn. For your learning plan, you will be developing professional goals, but you can use this format for any type of goal, professional and personal. Here are two examples of SMART goals: “I want to lose 7 kilos and lower my BMI form 27- 24 my trip to Thailand next January” “I want to run the 5km fun run in July 15th”     How do I write SMART Learning Goals Start by identifying what it is you want to learn. Be specific and write it down in one sentence. Try not to use vague phrases such as “I want to learn about…” If you are too vague, then how will you know when you reach your goal? Use an action word to describe what you want to achieve. Using an action word makes sure your goal is measurable. Examples of action words are: Identify Develop Plan Design Compare Describe Evaluate Explain Demonstrate Create Make sure your goal is realistic, given the resources that you have. A goal set too high may set you up for failure, where as a goal set too low will fail to challenge and motivate you. Make sure your goal is related to your practice. Identify a reasonable time frame to complete your learning activities and achieve your goal. Make sure that your learning goal is about what you need to learn and is not a learning activity. For example, “I am to enrol in a course about nursing legislation” is a learning activity, not a learning goal. The goal is to identify and explain the various legislation that governs nursing practice in New South Wales. The activity is the course. Example; of a goal that is not SMART: “I want to learn about depression” Example; of a SMART goal: “I want to identify the difference between dementia, delirium and depression, including the common causes, symptoms and treatments. I will complete this by September 30th” Introduction Why should you be concerned about planning your career? It is your career. If you don’t take responsibility for the success of your career, then who will? Besides, considering all the time and energy you spend at work; why not ensure you get maximum satisfaction from your work and career? The workplace has been affected by a number of significant changes, which have definite ramifications on your career planning. Less job security: Gone is the era of job security, with the same employer for life, where good employees automatically move up well-defined career ladders. Even higher education, downsizings will continue to eliminate some jobs in response to increased pressures to reduce cost. Workers will, of necessity, need to be more mobile in finding the right job- and employer. Up is not the only way: In many professional areas, there are trends toward flattening of organisational structures. The traditional linear career patterns will be less available. Employees will need to be more flexible, adaptable and creative in defining their job, and may need to consider lateral moves or rotational assignments to broaden the experience and leverage of their skills. Technical Knowledge and skills obsolescence: Rapid advancements in technology and state of the art knowledge especially in health care requires employees to upgrade their skills and “retool” themselves just to remain current with their job requirements Changes in Evidenced Based Practice: Best practice is always evolving and being abreast of current research and best evidenced based practices will become a self-governed requirement of employers. It is definitely in your best interest to position yourself for long-term employability in the rapidly changing world of work. Begin now preparing for the future.      How do I go about it? REFLECTING: Taking time to write and reflect on your career can increase your self-awareness and help you organise and synthesise your thoughts. Set aside regular amounts of time to journal. You will need to make your PDP a priority and is why we get you to make a start in this unit. GAINING SELF-AWARENESS: A PDP is a concept that emphasises gathering input from many sources. First, you will need to some self-analysis on aspects of work that gives you satisfaction and aspects that do not bring satisfaction. A suggestion would be to continue to use your PDP book to write about other events and to analyse those to learn more about what elements you would want to include and emphasise in your career. You may want to write about work you have done in the community or volunteer work or other jobs you have held in the past in order to look for nuggets of information about important areas future jobs include in order to bring satisfaction. SEEKING OUTSIDE INPUT: Work to gain more information from others to have the full picture about you. Talk to your supervisor, NUM, preceptor, mentor, clinical educator, previous lecturer or peers to gain information. You might identify extensive skill training, or might emphasise a more academic approach. There is no set pattern the term “individual” is basic to the concept especially as it applies to your willingness and capacity to learn and grow. DEVELOPING ACTION STEPS: How can you get from where you are to where you would like to be? How can you improve your satisfaction with your career? First, determine something you would like to change in the very short term. Then list concrete steps you can take to move  towards that change, some examples may be: Update my resume Ask for new assignments in your current position Get involved in projects in your workplace Seek a mentor Obtain on the job guidance from someone who is more expert Engage in regular clinical supervision Enroll in post graduate degree (like you have already)Just to name a few. Setting longer term goals: After you have begun to test out new areas you want to explore, work with input from someone to set goals which cover the bigger picture for the next 3- 5 years. This is where you will find the final assessment within this unit very helpful.     Writing your Professional Development Plan   In a large part your ability to do your job, to succeed and to be happy in your work depend on your ability to develop yourself to meet the challenges you will face. Formalising this plan will help you clearly identify your goals and make sure you have got the ability to reach them. It is amazing how lazy some goals are, and it is not until you subject them to a moment’s thought that you find they are unrealistic and you have no idea how to reach them. That is why we present you to SMART goals in the next topic. Therefore a Professional Development Plan allows you the opportunity to take timeto look at these crucial questions and analyse them on your terms.   What does it need to contain? There a multiple "sample" documents on the web. I have also included a couple within this module. Actually,  the form and design itself does not really matter providing it has space to log your current strengths and weaknesses, where you will need to be in the future, what your main goals are and what support you will need to reach them. What really does matter is the thought that goes into understanding the answers to those questions. Even the most detailed form available, filled in mechanically and with little thought can be completely useless. Here are two examples of what a Professional Development Plan may look like. These are examples only and I encourage you to develop your own that reflects your individuality and purpose. PDP Example #1 PDP Example #2   Introduction A career can be defined as a lifelong process that aligns your individual interests and opportunities present in the external work-related environments, in order to meet both individual and environmental needs (Tams and Arthur 2010). Career planning involves the process where you evaluate opportunities that exist to determine your goals and take advantage of employment experience, education and various other development opportunities that will help you reach your goals (Sonmez and Yildirim 2009). Career progression involves developing through a hierarchical career pathway where each new position is viewed as having greater responsibility, authority and remuneration. In the past, measures of success in a career have often valued extrinsic factors such as status, remuneration and opportunity for further promotion. It is important to note career progression is only one outcome of career development. Career development is a process that is far more broad-reaching than simply reaching career progression. It is all about meeting subjective, as well as objective determinants of not only success but also satisfaction. Chang and Daly (2012) claim it is a total process of managing life, learning and work over the lifespan and involves life planning, career exploration and skill building. We are all acutely aware that global change has had an impact on career progression however, in addition to this there has been great change within nursing since the model of the 1950s, in which nurses’ practices were directed within a medically dominated paradigm. In contemporary nursing there has been significant change in the roles nurses can fulfill as a result of policy reform (Chang and Daly 2012). Nursing is also increasingly governed by nurses. Whilst nursing does remained informed by other discipline’s it is also transmitted and co-created through a range of strategies framed by a consciousness of the uniqueness of knowledge, skills and attitudes that make up the practice of nursing.     Discussion The National Health Workforce taskforce (2009) state that new nursing paths and roles have emerged and evolved. These new paths and roles place a stronger emphasis on professional achievements which include, but not limited to educational achievements. Also, the dominating concept of professional career development as progression up a career ladder has to co-exist with more contemporary thinking which identifies professional career development as fluid, zig zag and up and down, and at times static (Chang and Daly 2009). These authors go on to say that there is an increasing emphasis placed on acknowledging the desire for work-life balance and wellbeing as part of career planning, as well as recognition that employees and our workplaces are providing varying patterns of work to include part-time, casual and contract arrangements. Conway, McMillan and Becker (2006) claim the outcomes of professional career development for nursing include enhanced capacity, confidence and cohesion with the health workforce. Roberts and Ward-Smith (2010) propose that there is a clear acknowledgment that career opportunities are shaped at least as much by personal aspirations, expectations and confidence as they are by factors such as economics employment opportunities and societal views about the interdependence among employers and employees. A competent and confident nursing workforce that has the ability to provide comprehensive, person-centred care and is part of a unified interprofessional health care team is reliant on the professional career development opportunities nurses undertake. While it is not the intention of this topic to focus specifically on career progression as such, it is necessary to acknowledge that over the last 50 years career pathways in nursing have changed in response to the changing role of nurses and other health professions within health care. It is agreed that career development is an interactive rather than a linear process that requires you to take responsibility for yourself and your career. It is imperative to remember that your career may go through periods of exploration, maintenance and disengagement and each of these will aid some kind of transition (Chang, Chou and Cheng 2006). How you respond to this transition will determine how you developed within your career, professionally and personally to enhance your career development. In preparing this module a definition was sought for the term ‘career’ where it could be defined as “the general course of action or progress of a person through life” (Macquarie Dictionary) it was there for decided that this module should look at framework for professional development that can be used to guide transition and promote excellence in current and future roles and positions. The definition was also drawn that a career is “the sequence of employments-related positions, roles and activities or experiences encountered by a person” (Arnold 1997) to emphasise that while a career is uniquely personal and is lifelong, we are focussing this module on the professional career development of those employed in nursing related positions. The policy and practice group, Research Society, Royal college of Nursing clearly state that: Pathways map out the role, knowledge, skills and experience required by nurses operating at different levels within each setting. The pathway s have been deliberately constructed in a uniform manner to illustrate the potential to develop and plan their career to enable nurses to transfer their knowledge, skills and expertise across roles and settings Such definitions highlight the need for a set of transferable skills that are superordinate to the task-orientated checklist of psychomotor skills, (albeit often underpinned by a technical-rational knowledge base) which are often portrayed as elements of competence nursing practice. Career development is an interactive rather than a linear process that requires nurses to take responsibility for themselves and their careers (Donner & Wheeler 2001). Career development, progression and response to transition all need to be directed towards and emerge from personal, professional and organisational strategy. A combination of: A direction- a guide or course of action into the future A pattern and consistency of behavior over time Positioning-examination of relative and competitive advantage Perspective-ways of doing things. The next topic will present a framework you can utilise as a mechanism to configure a professional career development strategy in a way that involves examination of the dynamic interplay among personal, professional and organisational factors.