SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING PLAN

The Self-Directed Learning Plan (SDLP) is a process and document to chronicle your accomplishments and learning steps through the MSN program and beyond as they relate to your professional goals.

The SDLP will help you to identify and target the array of competencies you need to reach your professional objectives and to help you organize your Kaplan MSN learning experience to suit your career objectives.

The SDLP will be a section of your Program Portfolio, so take some quality introspective time to consider strengths and areas of development relevant to your career objectives. Knowing your strengths and areas to develop, you can begin a plan to find out what you need to do to achieve your career goals. We encourage you to continue to reflect on the identified areas throughout the MSN program. If you feel a strength or development area is no longer relevant, you may add another to take its place. At any time, you may also add additional areas.

Anticipated Nursing Role: Family Nurse Practitioner

Professional Goal (3-5 years) from now: I will be my collaborating with my colleagues to open a clinic in Chicago IL, to provide care for all group and age especially the women and children. I will also build a clinic in Nigeria, in order to provide my people with good health care and also provide good opportunity to the nurses back home.

Knowledge that prepares a graduate student for an advanced nursing role: I believe so far that this course I have given me some insight that will go a long way to prepare me into my new role as a nurse practitioner who will practice with group of professional in our own clinical setting. Master degree education will help equip nurses with broad knowledge that will lead to changes that will improve quality outcome, build and collaborative inter-professional care team and to translate evidence into practice.

Skills that prepare a graduate student for an advanced nursing role: Critical thinking, decision making skill, leadership skill and collaborative skills are all graduate courses that help prepare the nurse to function well in various nursing role like nurse practitioner or nurse educator. Nurses executing this roles and skills clearly provide expertise in their assessment and critical thinking for health promotion disease prevention.

Accomplishments that prepare a graduate student for an advanced nursing role: The accomplishment that will help a graduate student is the ability to apply research based knowledge and theoretical knowledge to any of the specialties in order to provide care to patient, families and the community at large.

Strengths to Leverage

Step 1: The most effective and satisfied people align their work with their natural strong points. Identify 3-5 of your key strengths (see Column 1 below); these could be a competency, skill, ability, knowledge area or personal characteristic. Think about how you can leverage those strengths to be effective in your work, achieve your professional goals, and become a leader in your profession.

Step 2: At the beginning of each course in your MSN program, answer the following question either using this template or a narrative format. What do you expect to learn in this course that will help you leverage your strengths? (See Column 2 below) Be as specific as you can, e.g., assume that a strength is your analytical ability.

Step 3: Answer the following questions either using this template or a narrative format. Did you learn what you expected to learn? (See Column 3 below) Was there information or insights that helped you that you didn't expect to learn at the outset of the course? What changes or additions, if any, will you make to your SDLP based on learning in this course?

Areas to Develop

Step 1: We all have strengths, but we also have areas on which we need to improve. As related to your career goal, identify 3-5 areas to develop (see Column 1 below); these could be a competency, skill, ability, knowledge area or personal characteristic. Think about how you can improve in these areas so that you can achieve your professional goals and become a leader in your profession.

Step 2: What do you expect to learn in this course that will help you to develop in the identified area? (See Column 2 below)

Step 3: Answer the following questions either using this template. Did you learn what you expected to learn? (See Column 3 below) Was there information or insights that helped you that you didn't expect to learn at the outset of the course? What changes or additions, if any, will you make to your SDLP based on learning in this course?

Reflection

What do you expect to learn in this course that will help you achieve your academic and professional goals? (Your reflection should be at least one well developed paragraph.)