Capella University
PHI_FPX 1200
Professor Name
November 2024
Skill Development Plan
Critical thinking as a skill is one of the components of healthcare professionals and personal development. They include situation analysis, the ability to reason, and many ways of perceiving a given problem. Critical thinking brings a progressive quality into the thought processes of the health professional enabling informed decision-making about solutions to problems impacting patient care. This plan is going to explain various activities required for this plan concerning strengths and opportunities for skill development. It has been possible to identify three nursing skills that ought to be developed which are; communication in nursing, leadership in nursing, and adaptability in healthcare. These are the skills that are going to help me map how I propose to improve these competencies.
Target Skill 1
Communication in nursing:
| Strengths: Communication is one area in which I possess great skills because through it I can care for my patients and interact with other members of the healthcare team. I can fully explain the processes and strategies of care to the patients and their relatives to the extent that they will understand them. Good active listening, helps me capture and analyze all the needs and concerns of the patients hence making sure that am in a position to acknowledge and appreciate them. |
| Areas of Improvement: I would say I have average skills in communication but can always improve, especially while dealing with pressure during emergency healthcare environments. At these times there is a tendency to speak fast and this may cause misunderstanding with other practitioners. Besides, I also consider gaining more effective non-verbal communication skills in a manner that will depict sympathy and professionalism between the patients and the colleagues. |
| Desired Outcome: I want to know more about the following concerning nursing communication skills in order to provide better care and safety of the patients and also to Create date: enhance teamwork. I am going to get a feeling of self-confidence that would allow me to make relevant communications clearly and comprehensively even in the face of a lot of pressure, hence allowing all the members of the health team to be well coordinated. |
| Goal Statement: Strengthening the knowledge in the sphere of communication in nursing will benefit the development of patient-orientated care and cooperation with other healthcare professionals. In the future, I picture myself explaining myself clearly when there is a lot at stake and where information has to be communicated in such a manner that it enhances the care being provided to patients and reduces harm. To achieve this goal and be a good communicator to provide constructive clients experience and positive interaction with colleagues it is necessary to practice this skill constantly while thinking about its outcomes. |
| Practices for Growth | Role-Playing and Simulation in Nursing: Such a kind of role-play and simulation allows me to practice communication paradigms that are already set in a selected safe healthcare context. These will include patient handover, management of the patient in an emergency, and interprofessional patient conferences. I get the outcome of enhancing actual and non-verbal communication, hearing my peers’ reactions to the message, and identifying how I can deliver the message under pressure.Reflective Journaling in Nursing Practice: I record my experience in a communication journal about interaction with patients, families, and the health care team. Then I use the writing about specific examples where the communication was effective or could have been effective to make identification of patterns and times of growth. Reflective writing fosters self-improvement and learning which I believe is important in the development of effective nursing communication skills while also helping me recall patients’ needs and how I can adapt my method of communicating with them. |
| Action Steps | Step 1: I will attend workshops in nursing communication, especially on the conceptual model of the point of handover and in interdisciplinary practice. These workshops would enable me to understand the measures that can be adopted to enhance communication within healthcare facilities.Step 2: In situations like an emergency or a difficult conversation, I will seek a debrief from more senior nurses or colleagues, for example, I could have done better, it is this feedback that helps me to discover where precisely I lack in communication.Step 3: I will teach the patient their treatment plan and then use the teach-back method to ask them to explain it back to me in their own words. This will ensure I check their understanding of their care before changing to new communication techniques for the sake of clarity for the patient. |
| Potential Obstacles/Challenges | One of the barriers that may hinder me from achieving my communication goals of coming up with effective communication goals, and encouraging reflective or thoughtful communication is the fast pace of most healthcare organizations. The heavy patient load and pressure time may dexterously compromise the time that is required to communicate with patients and colleagues. Handling some patients’ problems or some family members who might be very anxious or nonadherent would also be difficult, and needs interpersonal skills. |
| Key Supporters | Supporter 1: Nursing PreceptorPreceptor plays an important role in the nursing practice, and in the development of good communication skills, my nursing preceptor will assist me. They will see how I liaise with patients and other members of my team; probably then they will be in a position to advise accordingly.Supporter 2: Senior Nurse ManagerAnother key supporter will be a Senior Nurse Manager who serves in the same department that I work for. This is because a portion of what they do involves employees’ efficiency in communication and the team and patients, so they will be in a good position to explain to me how I can make positive changes in the communication to benefit my patients. |
| Supporting University Resources | Capella Connect: I will be able to get in touch with other nursing students and working nursing professionals who are striving to develop their communication skills. I’ll be able to describe and compare the strategies and success stories of learning from others.Writing Center: The Writing Center will help me gain the opportunity to showcase that capability in communication that is important when it comes to the documentation process of patient’s status, research, and patient care plans especially in the nursing field. |
| Benefits From Change/Connections to Personal, Academic, and Career Goals | Looking at the area of communication skills the changes I expect to see will be felt personality, academically, and in my career path in nursing. At a personal level, effective communication will help me strengthen interpersonal relationships with the patient and their families by gaining their trust. Academics will enhance my nursing studies by providing me with the competitiveness to undertake classes that involve group work and making proposals. It will professionally be so important in nursing practice since it enhances one to grow in his nursing career, enhances one to become a group leader, and enhances collaboration and coordination of care in the promotion of health outcomes. |
Target Skill 2
Leadership in Nursing:
| Strengths: Another of the great benefits of nursing leadership is that I can communicate with such a wide cross-section of personnel. It also makes the work environment friendly to establish and is accredited by each individual as belonging to it. Besides that, I can effectively handle assignments in a volatile healthcare setup. This has strengthened my leadership skills since it’s easy to relate to people’s problems and come up with sensible solutions that will be cheered by my subordinates. |
| Areas of Improvement: I am quite assured in my leadership competency, but I know well that there is a severe lack of decision-making skills and that this aspect lacks efficiency when it comes to stressful situations. Decision-making is preferably done promptly and wisely; thus, the strengthening of the requisite skills in navigating through the midst of a choice between an efficient evidence-based practice on the one hand and the imperative reality that entails my day-to-day conduct on the other will hold me in good stead. |
| Desired Outcome: At Capella University, I desire to build on this knowledge and become a better nursing leader to make better judgments, as well as become more of a decisive leader in the healthcare field. One of my personal goals has been to improve my speed of synthesizing information into decisions to make during a time of pressure. With what I already possess as strong points in leadership, I would like to build an invitational approach to being collaborative and to be refining it thus in perpetuity. |
| Goal Statement: My development goals are to assume the role of an inspiring, approachable, confident nurse leader who possesses the qualities of an experienced decision maker, and delegation skills, and to foster a positive professional working environment and effective teamwork amongst the members of the healthcare team. By so doing, I come out as a better leader to make a greater contribution toward desirable patient outcomes, team integration, and growth in the field of nursing. |
| Practices for Growth | Participatory Leadership in Nursing: Acceptance entails getting the full member of the team, taking them through, and asking them to feel like it is their own. In this case, all people in the nursing team are allowed to come up with anything that has to do with every aspect of the nursing practice thus promoting ownership. Participative leadership in the focal area of health care could lead to the enhanced health state of patients because, in the decision-making process, an idea can be offered consideration depending on health care clinical prescription. This approach will improve my leadership skills as it will help involve other people in key decisions most appropriately within a team, enable me to delegate duties more appropriately, and gain a reputation in my line of duty as well as amongst my team. Evidence-Based Decision-Making: Clinical decision-making makes it possible for the nursing profession to adopt practices backed by primary research and knowledge. As a result, due to wishing to strengthen the leadership capacity, the decision-making would have incorporated evidence-based practices. That will be made possible through the updating of practice with the current nursing literature, attending seminars involving professional development, and practicing what is informed through evidence-based guidelines. With improved data analysis I will be in a better position to make the right decisions that meet the inpatient’s needs and ensure that patient safety and quality are my top priorities. |
| Action Steps | Step 1: Continued leadership development courses belonging to the category of participative leadership styles or involving decision-making processes in nursing. From these courses, I will be in a position to buy hand tools and get leadership strategies that will enable me practically as a leader.Step 2: Select a preceptor who demonstrates great decision-making and delegation skills and then offer to start a mentorship. This shall help in the refinement of the approach through checking and talking to such a mentor periodically.Step 3: Leadership in team meetings participation in general discussions, use of decision-making strategies by members, and utilization of evidence-based practices. |
| Potential Obstacles/Challenges | Of course, I have identified one potential issue: people within the team who are used to the more traditional approach to leadership. It is also likely to observe a certain level of decision-making-related fear or general reluctance to shift from working patterns. In this case, a positive attitude and effective communication will assist me tackle this problem at the initial stage when adopting participatory leadership mode. Another might be time well spent for I anticipate that managing my leadership development alongside my clinical practice might take extra time. |
| Key Supporters | Supporter 1: Senior Nurse LeaderAn elderly nurse leader outstanding in the field of nursing leadership shall be the main figure helping me in the course of my development. I will also allow the mentors to influence my judgment more in decision-making, delegation, and participatory leadership. Supporter 2: Nursing ColleagueAnother type of supporter will be a colleague from the nursing profession who understands well how to strengthen me as a leader and potentially confront me with my weaknesses, as far as leadership approach is concerned, while at the same time having faith in participative leadership. |
| Supporting University Resources | Capella Connect: Networking is also an opportunity where Capella Connect connects nursing professionals, and alumni, to other professionals. In this particular community, I get to learn about management tips while making friends with other professionals who in one way or the other are helping me shape my career in healthcare.Career Exploration & Planning Video Series: This will be a good resource if someone wants to at least have some information about career planning and professional development. I will utilize these videos to enhance my civility in relation to leadership roles for nurses and how one could easily shift to better roles without so much stress. |
| Benefits From Change/Connections to Personal, Academic, and Career Goals | The skills in leadership in nursing will have a positive impact on my personal, academic, and career goals. On the individual level, one will be confident and be in a better standing to manage complex healthcare environments and scenarios. As a purpose, this will seek to build me up for nursing positions such as the nurse manager or clinical coordinator positions that require very enormous strength in leadership to improve patient outcomes as well as organizational outcomes. These goals are therefore related and lead to sustained success in the field of nursing, and individual professional growth molding the career to focus on safety, teamwork, and efficiency of the health care system delivery. |
Target Skill 3
Adaptability in healthcare:
| Strengths: Some strengths in adaptability can be: being able to easily acquaint me with new HC settings, and as such working with different teams. This means that I can grasp very fast new measures, instruments, and practices embracing innovations and other surprise factors. I also have good communication skills which enable me to be able to work with others, especially during developing and agreeing on goal priorities, when there is a lack of clear information. |
| Areas of Improvement: Thus let me be adaptive most of the time it can prove very difficult to achieve the stresses of several changes at a go. This is supplemented by data that I am careful in uncertain conditions and, most importantly, when decision-making pressure is applied. In the above results, I see that I need to try to remain calm and adjust myself when things get delicate and when new unexpected challenges come up. |
| Desired Outcome: At Capella I expect that the factor of flexibility will develop, thus enhancing my capacity to manage several changes and several hardships effectively. It’s my desire to make better decisions when in a stressful state or working under pressure. I also try to improve stress control skills so that I will be calm and fully concentrating on the patient at hand when the congratulations and other factors are shifting very fast. Based on the above explanation, I wish to develop flexibility in my learning so that in the course of my practice, I can be acquainted with all types of settings that exist in the health facilities so that wherever I may find myself, I can be in a position to deliver the best health care to all patients despite the setting. |
| Goal Statement: I am committed to increasing my versatility as it relates to healthcare environmental changes. Stress can be greatly improved in the future, and I will be able to go with confidence with the decisions taken during a time of great doubt in being a strong and productive health professional. In the future, I visualize myself portraying image-based nursing roles that are rapid, adaptable, and demand trouble-shooting for patient and inter-professional team’s constructive outcomes. |
| Practices for Growth | Simulation Training for Adaptability: During simulation training, one gets the chance to practice flexibility in the content of the simulated environment. In this assessment, I will experience role plays that depict situations that occur in practice in the healthcare setting. It will enable me to solve the problem of decision-making strategies and brainstorm how to handle them, improve my problem-solving skills if am under pressure, and get feedback from the instructors as I go about it.Stress Management Techniques: Good management of stress is very important if one is to attain a level of flexibility that is incredibly smooth. The idea is that learning some of the relaxing methods such as mindfulness meditation, deep breathing techniques, or, for instance, physical activity, will help create a certain immunity to stress. These are what, I hope, will keep me calm, attentive, and in charge of myself during contingency situations linked to health care. |
| Action Steps | Step 1: Practice simulations to allow me to test how flexible and dynamic I am concerning the various situations in the health sector. This will be a great opportunity for me to build my skills in decision-making under pressure and therefore the need to respond to any fluctuations swiftly.Step 2: There are some ways of stress prevention, that I have tried to integrate into my daily practice – mindfulness meditation and deep breathing – so that I am not easily flustered at work.Step 3: Consult through mentorship with other players in the healthcare system who have spent quite some time on the job and seem to have been quite versatile in practice. Their leadership would also assist in fine-tuning all the strategies I am proposing herein and help improve my flexibility when applying the strategies in clinical settings. |
| Potential Obstacles/Challenges | There could be a challenge in coping with the workload of classroom assignments, clinical practice, and developmental skill exercises without appearing to be stressed. Yet another thing that at times I find most daunting, and this is more so in the high-risk areas such as the patient safety zone, has to do with coming out of the zone for unpredictable situations. Another challenge may be the small number of simulations with which I would be working, which means that it is possible to train flexibility only several times. |
| Key Supporters | Supporter 1: Academic AdvisorOne of the principal advocates of developing my adaptability will be my academic advisor. My adviser can help in the decision about which class would be most suitable in order to further develop this characteristic and about my career to get the most out of this aspect. In addition, they would be able to give some feedback on how I am managing to achieve the goal as well as monitor and remind me of the PPDs that I have set for myself.Supporter 2: Clinical MentorAnother practical source of support at one of the practical placements will also be a clinical mentor. He/she can explain the strategies of how to become attuned to the swift modifications of the clinical environments; explain the counter-stress measures, which he/she follows; immediately provide me with feedback regarding my ability to adapt to the situation mainly concerning patient care. |
| Supporting University Resources | Capella Connect: From this point of view, it is a strong professional and student network where discussion, reviewing, and timely support in students’ development of adaptability skills are possible and necessary. From this particular community, I will be able to find out how other people approach the concept of adaptability in healthcare.Career Exploration & Planning video series: This is a resource whereby I can get a view of the healthcare setting and thus, make applicability of adaptability to a larger part of my working experience. |
| Benefits From Change/Connections to Personal, Academic, and Career Goals | By learning flexibility, I will be therefore creating a colossal leap in attaining long-term fulfillment in my own life, studies, and work. At the individual level, better coping will enable him/her to cope with the challenges of life and respond to unforeseeable events with more enthusiasm. From an academic perspective, adaptability is advantageous in allowing one to work effectively with coursework; respond properly to unanticipated coursework, and clarify clinically rich educational experiences. This adaptability is good as it will enable me to be well-fitted for the advanced nursing course that demands fluid and leaderly thinking in various structures of healthcare. |
