Page 8 - Career-Action-Plan-09-05-2017a

Step 5: Determine who and what can help you.
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8 | Transforming Healthcare Through Education
Generally, your resources will include time, people, your employer and,
if you’re a student, your degree program. Approached strategically,
most nursing or healthcare management programs offer outstanding
opportunities for professional growth, self-exploration, portfolio-building,
and career positioning, in addition to the coursework learning opportunities.
Step 6: Decide how you’ll handle obstacles to your plans.
Whether looking at goals, strategies, or tactics, it’s wise to assume that life
will intervene and occasionally blow up your best-laid plans. So knowing
that your plans will be disrupted, displaced, and hijacked on a regular
basis – and planning for it – will help you see these events as detours, not
derailments.
There are lots of ways to deal with interruptions. If time or scheduling is
an issue, scale back your plans for the time being. Instead of trying to
follow through on all your strategies and tactics, focus on just one. Instead
of working on learning a new language for four hours a week, do it for
just one. Instead of pushing for a second master’s degree, read some
interesting reference books over your lunch hour until you’re able to start
your coursework.
If financial constraints delay your goal of moving to a different city and
landing your dream job in a research hospital, simply switch your focus for
the moment. Use the time to build skills and credentials that will increase
your value to potential employers when you eventually do arrive. See
if there are ways to connect with nurses who specialize in your area of
interest there to get a better sense of the local job market in advance of
your arrival. For example, if you want to move to Denver, consider joining
their chapter of the professional association you want to focus on while
you’re waiting for the opportunity to move.
If personal commitments to family and friends mean those to your career
are temporarily set aside, decide whether to take a time-out for the moment
or simply scale back but continue to move forward with your goals more
slowly. If the latter, make a firm commitment to schedule in time for your
career-development activities so you don’t completely lose your forward
momentum.
If, on the other hand, you decide what you really need is a time-out (and
this can often be the case), it helps to have a trigger firmly established in
your mind for when you’ll re-start your career activities. Whatever timing
works best for you, just make sure you honor that commitment to yourself
and your career.
The key point here is to realize that those you love will always need your
time and attention, and unanticipated events will always occur in your live.
But don’t let those temporary distractions and even derailments discourage
you. If you want to pursue your career goals, once you’ve figured out your
career action plan, you can always pick it back up right where you left
off. Once you’ve already thought it through, you know which actions to
complete next.