Career and Professional Development

Dear Writer,
Please write one page paper addressing the highlighted questions below.
Please use 3 separate scholarly resources within 5 years to support the paper.

Planning for Future Success
Purpose
The purpose of this discussion is to examine your future career goals as a DNP-prepared nurse leader.
Instructions

1. Examine your short and long-term goals upon completion of your DNP degree program.
2. Appraise and describe additional skills or training that you may need to prepare you for your future career goals.
   Notes from course
   Throughout your nursing career, you have engaged in many professional development opportunities. Development may have come in the form of academic preparation, such as your decision to complete your DNP degree, or through opportunities provided by your organization. You may have independently pursued specialized nursing certifications or served on committees or boards of professional organizations. It could be that you have assisted in facilitating policy change or worked with non-profit organizations to advance healthcare outcomes in your community.
   As you complete your DNP degree journey and prepare for your future as a DNP-prepared nurse, there may be exciting career prospects that surface. These opportunities pose not only an option for you to utilize the knowledge and skills you have acquired during your DNP degree journey but can propel your nursing career in new and unchartered directions. While there has been significant growth in Doctor of Nursing Practice degree programs nationwide, the number of nurses holding a terminal degree remains significantly low. With over 3.8 million registered nurses across the United States, less than 2% hold a doctoral degree (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2019). The shortage of academically prepared nurses results in a high demand for doctoral-prepared nurses to occupy positions that require advanced knowledge and leadership skills.
   The scarcity of doctoral-prepared nurses places you in a unique and desirable position when leadership positions are vacated or new roles are created. To be primed for these opportunities, it is important to keep your curriculum vitae (CV) current and reflective of your academic and professional accomplishments. Your CV should be a portfolio of training, continuing education, interprofessional and/or intraprofessional committee work, membership in professional organizations, certifications, and any professional presentations.

Additional skills
• Acquiring specialized certifications
• Participating in nursing scholarship
• Serving on a local or national board
• Volunteering in the community
• Serving as a mentor or preceptor
• Expanding business acumens

o Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Forms, Access
o Learning Management Systems
o Change management
o Conflict resolution

Career Planning
As you prepare to complete your DNP-degree journey, there will potentially be many new opportunities that come your way. As you surface from this program with the terminal degree in clinical nursing practice, your skill set extends far beyond just the clinical environment. Roles as organizational leaders and nurse administrators, policy makers and influencers, interprofessional collaborators, researchers, and educators are among the many prospects for DNP-prepared nurses. It is not too early to consider how you might use your academic preparation to advance your professional career.

. As you prepare to engage in the interview process, it is important to consider questions that you will want to ask. An interview is a reciprocal interaction, and the conversation should be mutually beneficial to all parties. Not only will the interviewer learn about you, but you will gain an understanding of the position and expectations, the team aligned with the position, benefits, and the challenges or concerns that need to be addressed in this role. Once you have a well-defined understanding of the position, you will be able to make an informed decision whether the position would be a valuable career move