Personal and Professional Accountability in Nursing

Personal and Professional Accountability in Nursing Developing a successful career in nursing requires personal commitment and dedication.

Continuous reflection on the successes and failures made is essential in developing a plan to address the challenges and meet the desired goals. This involves identifying your strengths and maximize on them while having strategies to address your weaknesses. Reflecting on my career this far, I realize that there are major milestones ahead of me. This paper presents the strengths and weaknesses in selected areas.

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2 Personal and Professional Accountability

As a nurse, I am expected to be accountable for all my actions. Building on personal and professional accountability has not been a problem for me. Being a proactive person, I always think before acting. I understand the choices I make have either positive or negative consequences that I must face. I make and act upon my decisions knowing that their outcomes are up to me. Also, I ensure that I work collaboratively with other care providers and provide services that are under my required scope of practice (Potter, Perry, Stockert, & Hall, 2018).

Having a proactive personality is one of my greatest strengths that makes me accountable professionally and personally.

My greatest weakness when it comes to accountability is too cautious. I often find myself considering many options while trying to avoid negative outcomes. In most cases, it is time consuming and strenuous but worth it in the long run. Also, ensuring accountability while working in a team is not easy due to the divergent opinions of the members. Hence, the need to follow the team leaders’ guidance.

Career Planning Career planning is essential for every nursing student and practitioner who want to progress in their career. I have plans on where I want to be as a nurse. It is habitual for me to set goals on what I want to achieve over a certain period. Having both long term and short term goals enables me to keep track on the progress I make. My long term goals involve the educational and practice accomplishments that I plan to achieve in a period of three five and ten years whereas my short term goals focus on my daily practice and monthly objectives. This has been my greatest strength so far as I can see myself grow career wise and also note the setbacks that I face.

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My greatest weakness when it comes to career planning is not able to meet to meet my accomplishments on time. In most cases, it is being influenced by factors such as family commitments, finances and lack of time. Nonetheless, I keep encouraging myself to achieve and learn something every single day of my life.

Personal Journey Disciplines Being discipline is one of the reasons I have accomplished to be what I am today. It has been the basis of my individual and professional growth. Arguably, it is not easy to make plans and stick by them especially with several distracters. However, I find one of my greatest strength and satisfaction in achieving goals and accomplishing plans. However, it has not been that easy for me. I tend to procrastinate on things that I could have done to a later time which has affected my ability to achieve certain goals within a specified period. I am still working on personal discipline, and I am making a lot of progress. I have learnt the hard way before as a result of not being discipline with sticking to my plans.

Reflective Practice Reference Behaviors/Tenets It is hard to advance in any endeavor without reflecting on the milestones that you achieve at every step. For me, the reflective practice has been the most important aspect of my personal growth. With every goal I set, I come up with a workable plan to achieve it. I often reflect on every progress I make towards a goal to identify the setbacks I face, as well as my strengths. Hence, having a reflective practice helps me keep track of my personal developments and achievements (Howatson-Jones, 2016).

How I Will Use My Leadership Skill to Advocate for Change in My Workplace Nurse leaders are entrusted with additional roles and responsibilities in their workplace.

This includes being change agents. As nurse leaders, we are competent advocators, which is a

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core aspect of leadership (Pardue, Young, Horton‐Deutsch, Halstead, & Pearsall, 2018). A nurse leader should be in a position to identify the need for change advocate for change within their area of practice. Advocating for change is essential to improve general practice and to promote safe, quality and effective care delivery (Potter et al., 2018).

As a leader, I will use my influence to advocate for change. First, I will make others see the shortcomings of the current practices and what could be done alternatively to promote better outcomes. I will also consider the opinions of other colleagues on strategies that could be adopted in the case. I will advocate for change in practice by influencing change as well as seeking the support of fellow nurses. Also, I will be a good leader to my team through exemplary actions and also by mobilizing, guiding, mentoring and motivating them through the change process (Potter et al., 2018).

Personal Goal for Leadership Growth and the Implementation Plan to Achieve the Goal As a leader, I yearn to be in a better position to lead and serve my team members. It is my passion to be able to influence others positively and also inspire them to be the best they can be in their areas of specialization. Therefore, I will be willing as a leader to provide support and conducive environment for others such that they can advance personally and professionally (Marquis & Huston, 2017). Hence, I will mentor, support and encourage other nurses to grow and also work collaboratively with them to ensure organizational goals are being met. Through this, I will be able to grow as a leader and also be of great help to my team members both in their professional and personal development. It is the risk I am willing to undertake as a leader to ensure more success and advancement in my department.

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5 References

Howatson-Jones, L. (2016). Reflective practice in nursing. Exeter, UK: Learning Matters.

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Pardue, K. T., Young, P. K., Horton‐Deutsch, S., Halstead, J., & Pearsall, C. (2018). Becoming a nurse faculty leader: Taking risks by being willing to fail. Nursing Forum, 53(2), 204212. doi: 10.1111/nuf.12244 Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2018). Essentials for nursing practice-ebook. Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences.