One of the most important learning objectives in graduate nursing school is to develop your professional identity. Your professional identity includes how to bring your personal values into your profession so that you don’t lose your sense of self. Thus, it is important to create your professional identity early, often, and actively rather than letting experiences and reactions to experiences define you. In addition to bringing your own belief system into your professional identity, part of the graduate nursing school learning objectives is to learn and embrace the values of the profession.
This should reflect the advance graduate role you are preparing for in your program of study (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner)
Write a letter to yourself. Your letter should be no more than 350 words. It should fit on one page. The letter should describe what core values are most important to you. You may explain why those core values are important to you, if that will motivate you in the future. The letter should explain how you want to incorporate those core values into your professional identity as an advance graduate nurse. You can do this by identifying the change you want to cause through your practice of nursing, the way you want to treat your patients, the way you want to interact with other members of your profession, or anything else that will help you identify how you will honor your core values within your practice of nursing. They letter may also identify why you wanted to become an advance graduate nurse or what motivated you, if that is relevant to how you will incorporate your core values.
The letter should also identify what type of reputation you want to create. How do you want your patients to know you? How do you want your colleagues to know you?
The letter should also incorporate the 5 attributes of professional identity:
Actions and behaviors
Knowledge and skills
Values, beliefs, and ethics
Context and socialization
Group and personal identity
