Career Planning and Development for Students : Building a Career in a Professional Practice Discipline

Nurses assume a variety of roles in complex and ever changing health care systems. Moreover, the increasing demands of current work environments require that nurses be well prepared to provide and influence quality health care services. Nurse educators, therefore, are faced with the challenge of creating curricula that prepare and socialize students to take an active role in the evolution of their individual nursing careers as well as help shape the future of the profession. Changing professional practice environments offer students tremendous opportunities along with significant challenges. To achieve success in the current work environment students must become career resilient and selfdirected. Career resilient workers are dedicated to the concept of continuous learning, are ready to adapt and grow in order to keep pace with change, assume responsibility for developing their career, and are committed to both the their own success and that of the organization in which they work (Donner & Wheeler, 2004; Waterman, Waterman, & Collard, 1994). Career resilience is congruent with the definitions of nursing practice that include autonomy, self-direction and continuous learning. Developing the skills and professional attitude necessary for career resilience is a process that students should begin in the first year of their nursing education. Career planning and development is a dynamic process that adapts to the changes students’ experience as they build their professional knowledge, experience, and identity. Fundamental to the career planning and development process is self-discovery. The individual engages in a self-assessment process that requires ongoing examination of personal values, within the context of one’s nursing education and the professional environment. Clark (1997) describes this process as “self-concept and identity formation” (p.8). Active and structured participation in self-discovery can assist students to reflect on their growing professional values and attitudes and to learn and refine skills that will allow them to successfully and confidently participate in a formidable work environment at the outset and throughout stages of their career. The confidence that accompanies affirmation of the value of professional strengths has the potential to enhance and reinforce students’ sense of selfefficacy related to their academic and professional career choices. The purposes of this article are twofold: to convince academics to participate in formal career planning and development activities with their students, and to report on research about a student-focused career planning and development intervention program for student nurses.