The Professional Portfolio
A professional portfolio is the evidence of your skills, achievements, and professional experience. Your résumé /CV. Portfolios come in two varieties: a Growth and Development portfolio is your main portfolio. It holds all evidence of your education and achievements and is for your eyes only, and a Best Work portfolio or Profile is a collection of materials you select from your Growth and Development portfolio for review by others for a specific purpose, such as a promotion or an award.
How do I use my portfolio?
You’ll use your professional portfolio to plan your continuing education and professional development. You can also use your portfolio to market yourself. When applying for a career-ladder promotion, a new position, or admission to an education program, review your portfolio and select the appropriate materials for submission. You can do the same when you think you deserve an award or other recognition.
Several professional associations are either using portfolios for certification or developing a plan to do so. Also, several states have considered or are considering requiring a professional portfolio for re-licensure. So you may be using your portfolio to select evidence for these purposes, as well.
For the purpose of this course the following are the tags required for your professional portfolio:
1. Professional letter examples. It is your cover letter, the one you send as an invitation to consider you as a candidate for work position, or research grant recipients as two examples of its use.
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/cover-letter-samples/nurse-practitioner
http://www.coverletter.us/nurse-practitioner-cover-letter/
2. Nursing Philosophy (from prior course) as your personal statement. It is what it is your hallmark as an Advanced Practitioner.
Example as follow:
Personal statement or philosophy statement relating to your role as an APN
Nursing is an art that can never be defined in one word or way. I remember before I decided to enroll in nursing school, I cared for an old lady through a home health agency. She kept telling me how wonderful I was to her, how patient, compassionate and always willing to assist her with her daily activities. She kept saying it is not about doing it, it is how you do it. She made me realize how much I could enjoy being a nurse and she constantly encouraged me to pursue a career in nursing.
When I enrolled in nursing school, it was not a smooth journey either because it was a very hard and demanding program but I learned a lot. It was then I realized nursing was not all about giving medication and helping someone to the bathroom. I learned about the importance of establishing rapport with a patient as soon as you assume care with them.
I challenged Practical Nursing boards and started working as a LPN before I completed my BSN program and the idea of nursing grew even more. Working as an LPN made me realized at times I may have to provide care to the family member may be a little more than the patient him/herself. I learned daily that nursing is way more than just what you learn in books and school and completing the care plan interventions.
Nursing to me is all about the relationship you establish with your patients, understanding them from their perspective. Asking them what they think is going on with their health or what has been changing in their body. I like to ask, how do you feel? What do you think? Asking these questions to my patients gives me a door to see them in a holistic manner. It helps me as a nurse to understand if their symptoms are just physical or are psychological as well. Someone may be experiencing a lot of life stressor and not eating right, or not drinking a lot of water. As a result they start experiencing a lot of headache. Instead of thinking it is a migraine and heavily medicate them. It is fair to give this person a little does of Tylenol. Encourage them to perform some relaxation exercises, eat well and drink plenty of water. I have come to learn that, food, water and our brains is what makes us or breaks us. If we think positive, we excel and do better in every aspect of our lives including our health. If we think negative them the vice versa will occur.
Another thing I learned from being a nurse is that we should always be reminded that we are advocates for our patients both verbal and nonverbal patients, but we do not have the last say. Most times we know more things related to the healthcare field compared to our patients. Our patients look at us and establish a lot of trust before you decide to do anything to them like giving them medication, sticking a needle on them, putting them on some times of machine. They establish some kid nog trust. So we should always be willing to educate our patients on what we think is going on with them and why we are doing certain interventions on them. Advocacy also comes with utilizing the ethical principles in our nursing care like autonomy, respect, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice
I currently work as a nurse in the emergency department, prior to that I word in medical surgical, home-health, rehab, and long term acute care. Nursing was not the same in all these areas. I took care of different kinds of patients in their different stages of life. While all was very interesting, I really love working in the Emergency room. The ER is the combination of all in one visit or sometimes in part of the visit. We do a lot of patient teaching, stabilizing, and referrals. We do not necessarily see the same patients every day, and that Is what makes me grow as a nurse. Prior to working in the ER, I never worked with the pediatric population. And I was amazed how wonderful working with all age groups can be. I am always curious and willing to learn more about nursing and wanting to do more for my patients. I decided to enroll in the Family Nurse Practitioner- Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program because I knew the program will give me all what I mentioned and more
The DNP program will not only allow me to earn the knowledge of what will make me a great family nurse practitioner but also it has a research part that will allow me to research on the current issue related to health care and/ or the nurse practitioner role in the society. As nurse practitioners we see a lot of patients from hospital to home setting and understanding research is vital to improve the care we provide to the communities we serve. Research in nursing is what bring about evidence-based practice which is the best way of practicing our daily nursing activities.
I took a theory class in the spring 2016 when I began my DNP course and I was amazed how all the nursing theories were pretty much what makes modern nursing better today. One of my favorite theories was “the theory of goal attainment” by Dr. Imogene King. This theory talks about the importance of nurses and patients having mutual goals that will improve patients’ health (King & Fawcett, 2012). For example, if a patient comes to the ER with several symptoms, instead of only telling them this is what we are going to do and this is what you are going to do. It is best to say, this is what I think we should do and give them a chance to say what they want done and what they do not want done. This does not mean you should not explain the rationale of your interventions but allow the patients to participate in their own care by making decisions with you. This will make it easier for the both of you because you will not have to struggle trying to do something to a patient that she/he does not like or later get sued because you did something that the patient did not agree to.
The DNP class has also allowed me to learn the importance of cost effectiveness and how nurse practitioners can be more cost effective compared to primary care physicians in providing their care. Learning all this information also allows me later as a nurse practitioner to be a great mentor to staff nurses and student nurse practitioners as well. Encouraging them on the constant use of evidence-based practice during direct patient care. And explain all the whys that they may have so that they feel better and understand what they have to care for the patient(s) in a different way compared to what they are already used to base on the current evidence and research at the time.
Having all that said, I believe nursing is an art that can never be explained in one simple word. The art of nursing is fulling to both patients and nurses themselves. Being a nurse practitioner will allow me to continue to advocate for my patients and do more for them like diagnosing and treating their symptoms in a cost effective manner, adhering to the ethical principle and the holistic approach at all times. I will also continue to learn more about nursing, medicine and all the current evidence based studies to ensure I provide the best care to my patients.
Reference
King, I. M., & Fawcett, J. (2012). Imogene King. interacting systems framework. [electronic resource (video)] :. Athens, OH : FITNE, 2012.
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This example has been downloaded from /giving credit to it and be used only for educational purpose: https://maryville.instructure.com/eportfolios/21286/PracticeBased_Evidence/2b_Personal_statement_or_philosophy_statement_relating_to_your_role_as_an_APN
3. Resume CV
See attachment on this mail for a CV /Resume sample
4. Business Proposal. It is a plan / a deadline proposal, your impact to the business/the position you are applying for.
Examples can be found at:
https://www.nurse.org.nz/examples-of-np-job-descriptions-business-case-proposals.html
5. LinkedIn page provides career insights for the professional NP jobseeker.
https://www.linkedin.com/title/nurse-practitioner
6. License (your licenses). To be included in your CV
7. CPR card. To be included in your CV
8. Continue Education (CE) including the ones required for the NP certification application.
9. ARNP certification application.
There two main certification bodies on which websites you will find the application form, requirements by states, test centers, cost, score required, and frequency to retake test if needed.
American Academy of Nurse Practitioner (AANP): https://www.aanpcert.org/
American Nursing Credentialing Center(ANCC): https://www.nursingworld.org/ancc/
State
Testing Center
Hope above information helps you to complete your portfolio. Any other questions, please be free to contact me.
Thank you all.
Dr. Alonso
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