Nursing Journey: Advocacy, Education, and Social Change

Professional Development Plan

Nursing is a profession of caring and respect for human dignity, which is the core value I strive to maintain throughout my career. My primary goal while in school with Walden University now is to complete the MSN-Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program. Advocacy is the consequence of that respect required of a nurse, and with Walden University mission and vision; I am bestowed the ability to understand healthcare from the patient’s perspective and range of socio-cultural factors that influence their decisions. I have acquired the knowledge to assess how each individual interacts with and relates to others, families, and communities within a consistently changing society. As a nurse and agent of change, it is my

It is because of this shortage, I feel that all nurses should have the opportunity to give back to the field of nursing through education. After I left Western Africa and arrived in United States, I enrolled at a nursing school part-time while I worked as a nurse aid due to financial reason. Nursing is a passion for me; the second semester was rough for me especially with family and seven months pregnant, so I withdrew from school. After birth of my first child, continuing back from where I left was not possible due to sequence in nursing program, so I changed major to Nutrition/Dietetic.

Education was instilled in me at a very early age, neither of my parents attended any college; I am the first person in my family to complete higher education. The pressure to continue education and succeed was always there and is likely why I am who I am today. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science May 1987, behold I returned to school, and challenged the Board of nursing in my second year of the (BSN) program with all my transcript from nursing school from Western Africa and United States surprisingly passed the board in

However, I still felt incomplete for lack of evidenced-based knowledge as advanced practice nurse practitioner and coming back to Walden University is the best thing for my MSN to fulfill my goal of serving the underserved impoverished community. My coming back to Walden University will assist me in problem solving, and research development, it will also provide me with opportunity to perfect the APA format necessary for a scholar writer. Walden’s mission, vision statements and vision of social change states “Walden University supports positive social change through the development of principled, knowledgeable, and ethical scholar practitioners, who are and will become civic and professional role models by advancing the betterment of society by assisting with educating the nurses of tomorrow” (Walden University,