Introduction
In this paper, I will describe my professional aspirations and the role of my practicum experience in helping to achieve two of my professional objectives. The first one is to evaluate what I need to facilitate a career change from a nursing student to a leadership and management role in six months and the second one is to practice leadership skills, within eight months, under the supervision of the preceptor, to complete my master’s degree in nursing leadership and management. Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains, which promotes higher levels of thinking in education, underpins these goals (Armstrong, 2013; Clark, 2013; Sherman and Prestia, 2019).
Identify Practicum Opportunity
One of the key insights I learned from my coursework and that aligns with my personality is the identification of opportunities for development and learning. Relative to this assertion, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2019) suggests that practicum sessions often help nursing professionals to identify new opportunities for leadership and development through discussions or engagements with colleagues. These areas of progress could enhance my learning process by enriching interactions with the supervisors because I would talk to them about exploiting existing opportunities for leadership growth.
Notably, I intend to leverage my practicum experiences to challenge the preceptor about new areas of research in leadership that we could enhance or exploit. My inquisitive nature would complement this exercise because brainstorming with other people about new ways of improving the nursing practice has been an area of personal interest to me. This exercise aligns with the views of Sørensen, Delmar, and Pedersen (2011) who say that researchers have made a lot of progress by questioning existing paradigms of leadership management. Overall, the learning process would help me to improve my effectiveness as a nursing professional by leveraging my personality traits to achieve the best healthcare outcomes.
Bring Fresh Perspective to the Work Environment
According to Sherman and Prestia (2019), nursing managers have many responsibilities and may have little time to mentor their juniors. In this regard, few nursing managers or leaders hear new perspectives from students, as they balance their roles as nurses and administrators (Sørensen et al., 2011). I will strive to bring a fresh point of view to the practicum experience and seek the views of my superiors about my proposals. This way, I will be testing my leadership skills based on the feedback I get from the nursing manager. I hope that the same exercise will help them to reflect on their leadership practices because I intend to encourage them to contribute towards improving the nursing practice as well.
Conclusion
Based on the insights highlighted in this paper, the two key objectives that describe my professional aspirations are premised on evaluating what is needed to facilitate a career change from a nursing student to a leadership and management role and to practice leadership skills under supervision of the preceptor. I may achieve these two objectives by exploiting opportunities from the practicum experience. For example, I intend to bring a fresh perspective to the work environment by challenging conventional wisdom about nursing practice. Secondly, I plan to identify practicum opportunities for improvement and engage my superiors in an exchange of ideas about leadership development. Overall, these insights show that my practicum experience could help me to achieve my professional goals.
References
Armstrong, P. (2013). Bloom’s taxonomy. Web.
Clark, D. (2013). Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains. Web.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (2019). Practicum process. Web.
Sherman, R., & Prestia, A. (2019). Win-win leadership practicums. Web.
Sørensen, E. E., Delmar, C., & Pedersen, B. D. (2011). Leading nurses in dire straits: Head nurses’ navigation between nursing and leadership roles. Journal of Nursing Management, 19(4), 421-430.