Reflections for Portfolio

Reflections for Portfolio

A portfolio is an important marketing tool which highlights abilities while giving prospective employers an opportunity to learn about the candidate’s skills and career direction. Professional portfolios are as indispensable as résumés/curriculum vitas. Your portfolio — whether hard copy, digital, or both — is your showcase. Portfolios evolve according to your purpose and your audience. For the purposes of this assignment, you are required to develop and present in a hard copy format, a beginning professional portfolio. FAILURE TO SUBMIT WILL RESULT IN A GRADE OF ZERO. The portfolio should be: Contained in a single binder ****You may choose to begin an electronic portfolio and print this for grading!! This is highly recommended to prepare you for future credentialing. APA format: 10-12 pt. font, Courier, Times New Roman No word art or “cute” borders, artwork The use of divider pages and tabs is required as this will help your audience to navigate artifacts quickly. A suggestion is to portion from the grading rubric into a separate section. Please DO NOT include original documents in the portfolio, ONLY photocopies. PROFESSIONAL and should not contain hand written pieces (except for awards) Contents of the professional portfolio should include (but are not limited to): Your curriculum vitae Certificates or list of awards and honors. Letters of recommendation or thanks. Evidence of educational and professional qualifications Examples of your scholarly inquiry (publications, research activities, membership and involvement in professional organizations, presentations). Reflection or process summary (up to 5 pages in length) of your professional experiences and accomplishments thus far. Include your goals for your role as an advanced practice nurse. This MUST be written in APA (6th ed.) format. Submission of proof of attendance at a professional meeting. (Reflection/process summary Discusses professional experiences Includes professional accomplishments Identifies short term goals Discusses long term goals for professional nursing ) This is 30 points. Growing up in the Dominican Republic I always knew I wanted to work in the medical field. I was not sure if I wanted to be a Doctor or a Nurse, but I always knew I wanted to help people and the community. No one in my family was into medicine; However the church I attended on a daily basis had many people from the community who all needed help.. Not only medical, as well as financial help and guidance. I came to America at the age of twelve. I quickly started school with barely any time off in between travels. In the Dominican Republic I was so advanced with class work, I was supposed to graduate at the age of fifteen. Once here due to the language barrier I was pushed back to my regular grade for my age. At the age of sixteen I met Michael who years later would become my husband. I became a mother at the age of seventeen, and this took a turn of events. I graduated high school at seventeen, and decided to take a year off to care for my son.. After that year, I enrolled in school to become an Ultrasound Technologist. While working as a tech, I couldn’t help but to wonder what it would be like to become a Nurse Practitioner and make my dream come true. I spoke to many Nurses on a daily basis since I worked closely with many of them as well as Doctors. As an Ultrasound tech I spoke to many patients and quickly realized how much help they still needed after being discharged or even while still under the hospital care.. Since then, My long term goal has always been to be able to serve the community at large. One morning I woke up and decided that it was time to pursue my dreams and get back to it. I chose the path of Family Nurse Practitioner as this enables me to work directly with the patients and their family. My long term goal is to work for a clinic where I can educate low-income patients and help them manage their health and live healthier lives. Another goal is to reach the level of expertise as a nurse. I began as a novice upon graduation, and I have been climbing the ladder to competence and professional according to Benner’s Theory. I am looking forward to gaining more experience in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program. My goal is also to inculcate a high standard of critical thinking that will enable me to offer quality nursing care that is effective in meeting each patient’s needs, by advocating while allowing them to make the right choices, and respecting the pathway they choose to make for a healthier life style. The Family Nurse Practitioner program will provide me the education needed to be able to help the community by improving the patient lives and in the long run reducing the unnecessary visits to the Emergency rooms. This can be achieve by offering preventive care that will significantly help to reduce morbidity and mortality in the community. My short term goal includes completing my course of study as a Family Nurse Practitioner while balancing a fulltime work and family life. I am am mother of two beautiful kids who are now teenangers and help me on my day to day. Everyday it is still a challenge, However one I wouldn’t want to change. I keep focus on my studies and on my goals. Knowing that everyday I make a difference, makes everything all worth it.