Professional Development & SMART Nursing Goals

No matter the career field you pursue, it’s crucial to come up with your own professional development goals. You may change some of these goals as you reassess them every few years to ensure they’re aligned with your overall life goals, but having goals set in place is the foundation of your potential success. 

What is professional development for nurses?

In 1985, the Journal for Nurses in Staff Development was first published. Only four years later, it was incorporated with the National Nursing Staff Development Organization, which is now known as the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD). Throughout the 1990s, there was a massive increase in nursing professional development (NPD) activity and publications, and in 2016, ANPD defined NPD as:

A specialized nursing practice that facilitates the professional role development and growth of nurses and other healthcare personnel along the continuum from novice to expert.

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Professional development in any line of work tends to evolve as time passes, and the specialty of nursing is no different.

This is largely due to the rapid technological advancements that have occurred over the past few decades. As technology and diagnosis and treatment capabilities continue to become more advanced, so do professional development goals for nurses. 

Professional development goals for nurses

No doubt about it, a lot of us have a strong desire to advance in our careers. However, when we take a second to reflect, there’s only a blurry picture of what we see ourselves doing in the future.

Some of us may not know the exact job title we want to achieve, and there’s a lot of us with no solid plans in place to help us develop on a professional basis. This is why nurses NEED to create professional goals for themselves. 

When it comes to setting nursing goals, it’s important to choose ones that YOU want to achieve. Don’t think about what everyone else wants you to do. 

Also, keep in mind that professional development isn’t necessarily all about the money, but do remember that when advancing professionally, you usually get opportunities to make more money.

So, if you prefer to advance as far as you can go with financial gain being your primary motivator, then definitely take a look at salary estimates for nurses in your specialty and at different locations.

You may find that part of your professional development goals require you to move to a new location, and it’s important to prepare for these kinds of changes as early as possible in your career so you can eventually get settled. 

Some of the more common professional development goals that nurses set for themselves are:

• Acquire advanced technology skills
• Maintain continuing education unit (CEU) requirements
• Refine interpersonal skills
• Hone specific skill set to mastery/expert level
• Take a management position
• Obtain professional certifications

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Creating a nursing professional development plan with SMART goals

Nursing SMART goals help nurses identify their goals and come up with a plan of action. SMART is an acronym that nurses can use when mapping out their goals. The SMART acronym stands for the following:

• S: Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

Why is it important for nurses to set SMART goals?

Nurses who set smart goals have a much better chance of advancing their careers and reaching new heights. Additionally, nurses who set SMART career goals can provide better care for the patients as they are motivated and encouraged to continue making progress as a nurse. When nurses are incentivized internally it makes everyone’s jobs a bit easier and improves nursing care overall.

• Be specific: Try and create a goal that is concrete and detailed. If you set a goal that’s too wide in scope, you might get pulled in many different directions. Say for instance, that you are charting goals and want to advance as a nurse. Simply having a goal as advancing as a nurse would be to vague and broad. This could happen in so many ways. Try instead something like: obtain my Master of Science in Nursing degree.
• Make it measurable: To achieve your short and long-term goals, it’s important to know how to gauge your progress. This allows you to stay motivated and keep working toward your goals.
• Keep it attainable: Not everyone can become the president of the American Nurses Association, however, there are unique goals that you can achieve. You want to create a practical goal that you can set out to accomplish.
• Be realistic: Similar to the last specification, it’s important to have goals that are indicative of your capabilities. Though it’s important to have ambition, you don’t want a goal that you can’t possibly achieve either.
• Make it timely: Creating goals won’t work if they don’t have time stamps or deadlines. For example, if you want to get your MSN, choose a date to get it by. Choosing a date will give you a sense of urgency and will help motivate you to get it done.

Examples of SMART Goals

Now that you understand what the definition of SMART goals is, it’s time to give some examples of them.

• Become a nurse practitioner within three years: This goal is concrete and has a timestamp. The nurse will have a firm understanding of what they want to achieve and when they want to achieve it.
• Earn a Master of Science in Nursing Degree in the next two years: With this goal, you are able to grow as a nurse. The goal works because it’s specific and has a timestamp as well.
• Find a nurse to mentor within the next year: Finding an opportunity to mentor another nurse is a great way to help improve your job satisfaction and help someone else. This is a great, SMART goal because it’s easily attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive.
• Earn certification in the next two years: Nurses who pursue certification have a better chance of retaining their jobs or finding another one if necessary. It gives them a unique competitive advantage. This SMART goal works because it’s specific and attainable.

Nurses benefit extensively from a professional development plan or SMART goals. This is mostly because the industry’s highest-performing organizations show great favor to those with verification of their advanced skill sets (and there is much assessment and verification of skills made during professional development). 

Nurses can begin their professional development plan as soon as they like. The earlier a nurse starts in their career with professional development, the greater the possibilities become. 

How do your business goals overlap with your personal goals?

When coming up with your business or professional goals as a nurse, it’s important to investigate your personal goals as well. Sometimes, these two things can conflate. Aligning your personal goals with your business goals can bring you a greater sense of joy.

At the end of the day, nursing can become more than a job but a vocation. When you are able to make a vocation out of a job, then you are investing in your spirit long term.

As Minority Nurse puts it:

Personal goals for you as a nurse take some reflection of the kind of nurse you want to be and what kind of legacy you want to leave from your career. What will make you most satisfied at the end of your career? Will it be starting a clinic halfway around the world, advocating for nursing in the highest government echelons, or being the steadfast patient advocate in the maternity department where you’ll be happy to spend your entire career? These goals help you assess how to improve your nursing style, tweak your approach to patients, or even adapt your home life with the rigorous demands of your career. Your personal goals might reflect on nurses you admire for their bedside manner or for their relentless promotion of the nursing profession. Setting your personal nursing goals helps you figure out the necessary changes you need to make for career satisfaction.

Having fulfillment in both your nursing life and personal life can enrich your life. If you are still thinking about nursing goals, try to write them in ways that capture your life passions as well.

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Final thought

Professional development for nurses can take your nursing career to places you never thought possible. From entering new nursing specialties to managing more than a hundred nurses as a facility supervisor, your nursing career possibilities are as wide open as you make them. 

No matter the professional development plan you put into place, you’ll need to maintain an active nursing license to achieve your goals. Check out these free nursing CEUs to get you started on meeting your state’s CEU requirements.