Professional Development in Nursing and Its Importance

Professional Development in Nursing
Your Name
Department of ABC, University
ABC 101: Course Name
Professor (or Dr.) Firstname Lastname
Date
Professional Development in Nursing
The health sector is complex and dynamic because of changes in customer needs, technology, policies, and processes in service delivery. Nurses form the largest share of the workforce in the industry, which means their roles are being transformed by these changes. As a result, there was a need for a comprehensive plan to ensure that nurses were prepared for changes in their profession and to ensure that their roles as equal partners in healthcare delivery were respected and nourished (Smith, 2019). The IOM report Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health of 2010 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) was adopted as the national blueprint to ensure these changes. The current paper seeks to discuss these reports' recommendations on nursing education concerning my educational development as a nurse.
Key Issues from the Report
The four key messages of the report call for nurses to practice to the full extent of their training and education, achieve higher levels of education & training, become partners with physicians instead of helpers, and play a key role in workforce planning and policy formulation. The first two messages are the most relevant to the discussion in the current paper. Based on these messages, the RWJF recommended the removal of scope-of-practice barriers, an increase in the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80% by 2020, doubling the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020, and ensuring nurses engage in lifelong learning. In other words, these recommendations opened avenues for the professional development of nurses. According to Mlambo et al. (2021), nurses' lifelong learning is underpinned by continuing professional development (CPD) because it continuously exposes them to new information and the need to study further as part of educational development.
My Education Level and Job Prospects
As an undergraduate in nursing, I am yet to experience the impact of CPD, which should begin at the start of my professional experience. The expansion of educational opportunities has expanded the roles of nurses, including the development of leadership opportunities and the emergence of new nursing professionals based on trends like evidence-based & patent-centered care and technological advancement in data utilization. According to a survey by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 59% of nurses with BSN secure employment before graduation, while 92% get employed within six months of graduation (AACN, 2020). This means that my current education level almost provides full assurance that I will get a job before or after graduation. However, I will take advantage of the CPD to pursue MSN and DNP.
Because of the increasing global demand for nursing professionals, a Master of Science (MSN) in Nursing is among the most popular degrees. MSN allows RNs and holders of BSM to advance their education. MSN classes improve skills and allow nurses to specialize in different areas. In my case, for instance, I will pursue an MSN-Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL). The specialization pos...