Question: Addressing Conflicting Values You are a single parent of two children younger than 5 year and are currently employed as a pediatric office nurse. You enjoy your job, but your long-term career goal is to become a pediatric nurse practitioner, and you have been taking courses part-time preparing to enter graduate school in the fall. Your application for admission has been accepted, and the next cycle for admissions will not be for another 3 years. Your recent divorce and assignment of sole custody of the children have resulted in a need for you to reconsider your plan. Restraining Forces: You had originally planned to reduce your work hours to part-time to allow time for classes and studying, but this will be fi scally impossible now. You also recognize that tuition and educational expenses will place a strain on your budget even if you continue to work full-time.

You have not looked into the availability of scholarships or loans and have missed the deadline for the upcoming fall. In addition, you have not yet overcome your anxiety and guilt about leaving your small children for even more time than you do now. Driving Forces: You also recognize, however, that gaining certification as a pediatric nurse practitioner should result in a large salary increase over what you are able to make as an office nurse and that it would allow you to provide resources for your children in the future that you otherwise may be unable to do. As well, you recognize that although you are not dissatisfied with your current job, you have a great deal of ability that has gone untapped and that your potential for long-term job satisfaction is low.

ASSIGNMENT: Fiscal planning always requires priority setting, and often this priority setting is determined by personal values. Priority setting is made even more difficult when there are conflicting values. Identify the values involved in this case. Develop a plan that addresses these value conflicts and has the most desirable outcomes.