NURS 258 Professional Development Plan Template & Guidelines

Purpose: The purpose of the PDP is to assist you in conceptualizing the development of your professional nursing career in a succinct and
organized manner.
Instructions: Complete each section of the PDP template. This is the first page of the portfolio. You may use bullets and phrases instead of full
sentences to focus on the main points. To help you get started, some examples are included in the template in blue font. The expectation is that this
plan will be approximately 2-3 pages in length, using an 11 point font.
Goal Statement: (Example: To develop skills, experience, and knowledge as an expert professional nurse in a variety of health care settings and
specialties that demonstrate increasingly complex and comprehensive care.) 4 points

Elements

Clinical Practice

Leadership

Professional Development

Objective(s): Describe what

you want to accomplish in
your first two years in practice.
3 points

Obtain employment as an RN as
part of a new RN graduate
program in medical-surgical
nursing. Retain my critical
thinking skills I learned over
these past clinical rotations and
lecture in the nursing program.

Select and observe one role

model in the clinical ladder
nursing role, charge nurse, and
committee nursing role.

Apply to UHM and UHH

baccalaureate of nursing program
and graduate with a BSN. Continue
with taking professional development
classes and attending professional
development lectures (i.e. PESI)

Plans/Strategies: Describe the

actions that you will take to
achieve your objective.
4 points

1. Graduate RN program at KCC

2. Get my RN license
3. Apply to RN opening positions
4. Keep working at QMC to see
what area of nursing I am
interested in and hopefully get
my foot in the door on a unit
5. Keeping an eye out for job
opportunities

1. Learning what a clinical ladder

nurse does and how to apply
2. Learning the role of charge
nurse and their duties
3. Learning what nursing
committees there are at the
hospital and how to get
involved

1. After graduating the RN program,

then get my RN license
2. Finish up my pre-requisites for the
BSN program at UHH and UHM
3. Meet with a counselor to help with
my application and making sure I
am on the right track

Strengths: Describe the strong 1. Working together as a team

points about yourself that
with my classmates and other
make you such a great nurse.
members of the health care
3 points
team
2. Being able to report
abnormalities in a timely
manner
3. Learning critical thinking to
give safe and efficient care to
my patients.
4. Learning from my mistakes
and reflecting on my clinical
days.

1. Working as a team member

and not pointing the finger
when something goes wrong,
but instead to help the situation
and not make it worse
2. Helping out when and where I
can with others that need
assistance
3. Being able to anticipate needs
of others

1. Wanting to learn and being able to

learn from my mistakes
2. Wanting to further my education
3. Willingness to change my bad
habits and learn the correct way to
get things done
4. Seeking out new opportunities as
they come up

Skills/competencies: Describe
the skills and competencies
you bring to the role.
3 points

1 Team player
5. Experience in orthopedic
6. Experience as a nurse aide
and student nurse

1 Getting along with co workers

and other members of the
health care team and support
staff
4. Being able to know when to
delegate and when to assist
5. Willing to teach others what I
know to help them out-I have
been a preceptor at my work
place

1 I have been working as a nurse

aide on an orthopedic unit
5. I have floated to other units of the
hospital and gained experience
working with different patients
6. I was a certified nurse aide, I have
my LPN license, I am currently in
the LPN-RN transition program at
KCC, and I plan to transfer to UHH
or UHM to get my BSN

Areas targeted for growth:

From your own self
assessment, describe what
areas in yourself that you
would like to strengthen.
3 points

1 Being more confident with my 1 Overlooking coworkers that

seem to not be helping out
skills
6. Speaking up when I do need
7. Being more organized and
assistance and not trying to do
having time management
everything by myself because I
8. Being able to prioritize more
think I can just get it done faster
efficiently
and I dont have to waste my
9. Being more comfortable
time looking for help.
dealing with challenging
7. Using constructive criticism
patients and family members
instead of negative thoughts
10.
Not taking things
when I notice someone is being
personally (i.e. when a patient
rude to me
yells at me)
11.
Being able to recall all
that I have learned and gained

1 Stop procrastinating
7. Learning to make choices that will
benefit me in the long run
8. Making a list of goals and sticking
to it
9. Learning that I need to put life on
hold sometimes to be able to
finish my nursing career
10.
Staying positive that this will
all be worth it in the end
11.
Learning that there is no
perfect situation-everyone has
their own commitments and
responsibilities in life, its about

from my clinical rotations

learning to balance everything

without working myself up about
not having control over everything.