1. Creating Your Career Blueprint
Kathleen Kessler
Carole Stacy MSN, MA, RN

2. Ready..Aim..Shoot
If you don’t know where
you’re going, any road
will get you there.

3. Before you create your plan….
• Understand yourself
• What do you really like to do?
• What do you do really well?
• What do you dislike doing?
• Talk to nurses in a variety of roles.
• Job shadow
• Get out of your comfort level, be a little
adventuresome (or may a lot).

4. Goals Need to be..
• Personal (Your own)
• Practical (Worth the time and effort)
• Possible (You need to think you can do it)
• Pleasurable (Enjoy the process)

5. Barriers to Achieving Our Goals
• Too many at one time
• Unrealistic standards
• Negative self talk and
surroundings
• Measuring by failures

6. Goal Categories
• Family
• Job
• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Social
• Physical
• Financial

7. CPR
• Categorize your goals
• Prioritize your goals
• Recognize your priorities

8. Personal SWOT Analysis
• Strengths: What sets you apart from others?
• Weaknesses: things you aren’t good at, or
areas where you can improve.
• Opportunities: Identify elements you can
build on or take advantage of to improve
your chance of success.
• Threats: Things that can derail your success

9. Define your Career Objectives
• What do you want to accomplish?
• Why is this important to you?
• Write a Career Mission Statement
“ have my DNP by the time I am 40 with my
own family practice”
Ideally this should be a 5 to 10 year
perspective

10. Set Major Career Goals
• Specific- make sure your goal pertains to one particular
outcome
• Measurable- definable end point
• Achievable- you must be reasonably able to accomplish
• Relevant- must relate to what you are trying to accomplish
• Time bound- otherwise you may not ever get it done.

11. Creating your blueprint
• Conduct a skills audit, what you have, what
you need, where you can get what you need.
• Create an action plan for each career goal
• How will you accomplish this?
• What support do you need?
• Where can you get this support?
• Find and use mentors!

12. Create a Career Development Plan
• Do your homework
• Be realistic in setting your goals
• Make a plan and update it yearly
• Don’t over promise yourself
• Accept that you may need to go at a slower
pace, one missed goal doesn’t equal failure.

13. Questions and Comments