Assignment: Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Part 1: Developing an Academic and Professional Network
Assignment: Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Part 1: Developing an Academic and Professional Network
When was the last time you read Meditation XVII of John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions?
Unless you are a student of seventeeth-century poetry, you may not be all that familiar with this piece. However, you may be much more familiar with one of its well-known phrases: “No man is an island...”.
As you begin your journey toward achieving your academic and professional goals, you have a great opportunity to network with academics and professionals who can help ensure you do not travel alone. This network can help to clarify your own vision for success and can help guide you now and in the future. To paraphrase Donne, no one is an island.
Begin creating an academic and professional network by identifying which academic and professional connections and resources with which you need to collaborate to succeed in your MSN program and as a practicing nurse.
To Prepare:
Consider individuals, departments, teams, and/or resources within Walden University and within your profession that you believe can support your academic and professional success.
Identify at least two academic and at least two professional individuals, colleagues, or teams that might help you succeed in your MSN program and as a practicing nurse.
Download the Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Template.
The Assignment:
Academic and Professional Network
Complete Part 1 of your Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Template. Be sure to address the following:
Identify at least two academic and at least two professional individuals or teams to collaborate with to be successful in your MSN program and as a practicing nurse.
Explain why you selected these individuals and/or teams and how they will support your success in the MSN program and as a practicing nurse.
Academic and Professional Success Plan
Prepared by:
Week 1 | Part 1: My Academic and Professional Network
The nursing profession is one that requires a collective effort to steer individuals into the necessary outcomes. Nursing is changing quickly, and one individual cannot master all the changes that the profession experiences (Wofford, 2018). Conversely, professionals need to adapt to the changes lest they are left behind in the pursuance of the future of healthcare. To that extent, collaborative inputs are necessary for nurses. Having a unique and diverse professional and academic network is one of the avenues of ensuring that a nurse stays up to date with the changes. Developing this professional and academic network portfolio creates an insight into what one intends to achieve as a professional. Additionally, career advancements are motivation for every nurse. Nurses need to land their dream jobs. That can only happen if they are surrounded by the right individuals and teams. A lack of a good support system, resources, and tools to advance a career only implies failures.
NETWORK MEMBER 1
Name: Vincent Hall
Title: Program Director
Organization: Walden University, College of Nursing
Academic or Professional: Academic and Professional
Why I selected this individual and/or team and how they will support my success in the MSN program and as a practicing nurse:
Notes:
Nursing is a highly dynamic profession that requires an individual to instill an insightful knowledge and skillset to succeed. That is only achievable when an individual has the right people to steer him/her through the dynamism of the profession. Vincent Hall is an unrivaled candidate when it comes to nurturing learners from amateurs to when they become professionals. Hall is both an academic and a professional with vast knowledge both in the clinical setting and the academic ranks of the nursing profession.
The choice to include Hall in this list is based on multiple factors ranging from his current role at Walden University and the inputs that he has instilled in the nursing profession. Hall serves as the MSN SP program director for MSN at the College of Nursing at Walden University. In his role as a director, he supervises multiple aspects of operations at the college. Some of his areas of supervision include public health nursing specializations, nursing informatics, nurse executive, as well as nursing education. His experience is unrivaled, having served as the director of the school of nursing at Western Carolina University (WCU). At WCU, Hall supervised learners both in undergraduate and graduate courses. He also serves as a committee member at the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Hall continues serving as a member of the American Association of College Nursing (AACN), where he, alongside other professionals, revise the standards of baccalaureate and higher degree education in the country. Hall has been a nurse educator for more than 30 years and has also been a registered nurse for more than 40 years. At the very least, Hall understands the operations in modern healthcare. He is also skilled and experienced. He has a wide network of other professionals who help in shaping the nursing profession collectively. To that extent, collaborating with Hall in professional development is an avenue towards understanding nursing right from its current basics deep into the factors that are poised to change the profession.
Hall is also a renowned professional in improving healthcare quality and patient safety in contemporary healthcare facilities. As an academician, Hall teaches NURS 6052: Essentials of Evidence-Based Practice and NURS 8250: Advanced Theoretical and Scientific Perspectives in Nursing. Both courses are vital to understanding the scope of contemporary healthcare. For instance, every healthcare facility is currently committed to developing platforms of complete implementation of EBP. Every nurse needs input in the advancements of evidence-based practice. With the help of Hall, it becomes easier to understand the growth that the profession is experiencing in terms of EBP. In the same breath, nursing theory keeps shaping individual perceptions in practice. Nurses develop their philosophies bearing specific models and frameworks in mind. Networking with Hall should help in structuring personal perceptions to match the theoretical models and frameworks that emphasize better healthcare for the future.
Ultimately, Vincent Hall is a publisher whose works keep shaping multiple elements of the nursing profession. Publishing academically-researched books are one of the valid avenues of disseminating nursing knowledge. As a professional who considers delving into nursing research and extensive publications, collaborating with Hall will be a necessity. His advice on how to conduct research and develop futuristic publications will be vital in delivering the ultimate skills and knowledge to a nursing profession that is fast developing to implement evidence-based practice fully. Some of the areas in which Hall has published include heart failure and self-management, promoting collaborations in nursing education, effects of social support on health on gay men with HIV/AIDS, and Common Gastrointestinal Complications Associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/AIDS. All such publications establish Hall as a professional and an academician whose inputs on individual careers will be vital.
NETWORK MEMBER 2
Name: Walden University Nursing Faculty Professors
Title: Professors
Organization: Walden University, Faculty of Nursing
Academic or Professional: Academic
Notes:
Academic development is important to an individual who is intending to advance his/her career. Walden University's faculty of nursing is blessed with professionals who are vastly experienced in nurturing learners. The faculty is passionate about offering a good experience to learners and helping them achieve their goals as masters' prepared nurses. To a nursing practitioner, having faculty members who are committed to achieving common goals is a blessing (Schmidt). A nurse needs to understand the academic world. A nurse must also partake in research and knowledge creation that have consistently formed the basis of nursing. At Walden University, faculty professors have been vital in creating a learning climate that nurses demand. The professors often engage learners in research and collective discussions that expand knowledge in multiple academic elements. The professors are also readily available to learners whenever they have problems that need advanced skills to solve. Having a network that consists of professors from the nursing faculty at Walden University will be vital in developing my career...