Nursing Professional Practice Portfolio

The portfolio provides a means of monitoring professional development over time. Nurses make assessments on their progress to meet their professional and personal goals by reviewing their portfolios periodically. This gives nurses an opportunity to plan their nursing careers better. According to Charlotte (2015), a professional practice portfolio provides nurse’s future employers, peers and educational faculty with a wide-ranging view of the path taken by clinically skilled nurses. In other words, a professional portfolio provides competencies and expertise developed by the nurse as a result of the experiences as opposed to a typical resume that contains basic information like educational institutions attended past and current nursing positions and other background and demographic details. Various professional disciplines in institutions of higher learning have used portfolios to promote reflective practice among students, even though nursing adopted this concept relatively late (Green, Wyllie & Jackson, 2014).

Professional practice portfolio should be used to measure and assess nursing students’ development and professional reflection over time. Another reason is that the portfolio does not do away with curriculum vitae. Instead, it offers in depth details beyond what the curriculum vitae can accommodate. For instance, in occasion where the curriculum vitae lists the nurse’s background and experiences, the portfolio provides detailed evidence, competencies and expertise that the nurse has developed from her experience. However, using professional portfolio practice to demonstrate capability for professional nursing practice is challenging. First, developing a professional portfolio is time consuming. It takes a long time to gather the evidence required. Even after gathering the evidence, the process of completing it and assessment consumes a lot of time, hence negatively affecting students’ motivation (Mosol, Obwoge & Sum, 2016).

Also, there are ethical issues associated with the use of portfolios that pose as a challenge. Managerial and leadership competencies in nursing can be evidenced in a professional practice portfolio. In the beginning, this study mentioned that a nursing professional practice portfolio has four major recommended components and one of the components was identified as Personal information that includes the nurse’s curriculum vitae. When writing a curriculum vitae, a nurse is likely to include their key accountabilities and competence. By examining this part, one can easily identify a nurse’ management or leadership competence. Similarly, nurses are required to include assessment against competencies in their portfolio. With the help of her supervision, I assessed the needs of the patients, helped in care planning and monitored the progress in their recovery.

With the support of my supervisor, I remember helping a patient who had been depressed for eight months recover by identifying coping skills until he returned to work. That was the greatest outcome I experienced during my clinical practice. 2 Critical Discussion As a student, my duties were limited in the mental health and age care facility. However, this did not stop me from demonstrating professional nursing practice during my clinical placement. According to statistics, 1 in 5 Australians either will have a mental disorder or know somebody who suffers from the disorder (Chadwick & Porter, 2014). Despite this fact, mental illness is still wrought with stigma in our society. Chadwick and Porter (2014) define stigma as negatively labeling people living with mental disorders. Such negative labeling may act as barrier hence discouraging the individuals and families from seeking medical help.

With the help of my mentor and applying the theoretical knowledge I have about the significance of nursing attitude towards the mentally ill, I managed to break these barriers from the first contact with the patients as I influenced how perceive themselves. 1 Report on peak professional nursing organisation My interest as a nurse lies with mental health care. In fact, taking my clinical placement in a mental health care facility in Brisbane did not happen by chance, I planned for it. The experience was so satisfying immensely that I would like to work in a similar environment as soon as I get certified as a Registered Nurse. However, I would prefer to specialize in child and adolescent mental health. The Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN) is the peak professional nursing organization relevant to my career path.

, Berntsen, K. , Brynildsen, G. , & Hestetun, M. Nursing students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment in placements outside traditional hospital settings.  Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(19-20), 2958-2967.  Nursing and Health, 2(3), 57-64. doi:10. 13189/nh. 020301 Charlotte, D. Developing a professional nursing portfolio. , & Jackson, D. Electronic portfolios in nursing education: A review of the literature.  Nurse Education in Practice, 14(1), 4-8. doi:10. 1016/j. , & Najafi Kalyani, M. The challenges of nursing students in the clinical learning environment: a qualitative study.  The Scientific World Journal, 2016, 1-7. doi:10. 1155/2016/1846178 Mosol, P. pdf Mousa, M.  A. Empathy toward patients with mental illness among baccalaureate nursing students: impact of a sychiatric nursing and mental health educational experience.  Journal of Education and Practice , 06(24), 98-108. Retrieved from https://files. org/about-us/college-profile The Australian College of Mental Health Nurses.