In this personal SOAR report, certain attention will be paid to strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results as a part of a tool with the help of which it is possible to recognise my academic potential and readiness for self-assessment and improvement.
Strengths
Writing a paper about the importance of an innovation strategy in Australian government schools is a task that requires students to perform several roles simultaneously, develop a credible plan of work, and consider numerous writing techniques, academic requirements, and personal expectations. I was ready to work hard and use my strong aspects to play out in such roles as a student, a writer, and an ED nurse.
I believe that my main advantage over other students is that I have been working as a nurse in an emergency department for the last nine years. This general hospital is a unique opportunity for ordinary students to find a practical application of their theoretical knowledge and continue developing their practical skills, decision-making abilities, critical thinking activities, and personal, as well as professional, growth. Healthcare is a field that undergoes significant reformations and transformations regularly, and person-centred care delivery has to be properly developed as well in regard to the required context (McCormack, Manley, & Titchen, 2013). My intentions to improve the background knowledge and expand an understanding of nursing practice become a good contribution to the work done.
As a writer, I understand that each of my works is created to check my level of knowledge and the ability to share the information in a clear and interesting way. On the one hand, I create a paper for myself to gain a new portion of knowledge and to improve my skills in writing, researching and referencing different sources. On the other hand, I develop every project for a tutor who should evaluate my progress and achievements regarding the already established rubrics and requirements. My creativity, ambitions, and attention to detail are the strengths that can help me to succeed as a writer.
Finally, as a nurse, I have a privilege over other nurses due to a lifelong learning process. Not many nurses and therapists find it necessary to learn during their work. They have already made certain achievements and gained their degrees. However, the changing nature of health systems and health care delivery promotes lifelong learning approaches to comprehend the worth of development and change (Duffy, 2013). Therefore, I cannot stop learning because such a decision may contradict my nature and my intentions to be a professional nurse in an emergency department and a good leader and example for other clinicians.
I hope that my example and strengths can stimulate other students and nurses to achieve similar goals and focus on their professional development as an important part of nursing practice. It is not enough for me to be a successful ED worker. I aim to develop my leadership skills, promote confidence throughout the department, and support other medical workers. In an emergency department, nurses have to make numerous decisions quickly to save human lives. At the same time, they have to be aware of how to persuade and consult patients, organise and plan other people’s work, and envision continuous progress in the nursing field.
Opportunities
It is not an easy task to perform the roles of a writer, a student, and a staff nurse. If I were able to move toward the future of Assessment 1, I would use a chance to understand every available opportunity and use it properly. First, the opportunity to be a student of this facility is a unique chance to improve my knowledge and to learn what I can do as a nurse or even a future leader. My future graduation is an opportunity to prove that all my intentions, goals, and steps have a meaning. I have to deal with my personal and professional fears and make a decision to complete all tasks (Bowers & Khorakian, 2014). Although I am challenged to establish correct purposes in a learning process and at work, I have to plan my activities and make sure that each goal can be achieved.
Secondly, I have an opportunity to create a project about the importance of innovations in the field of education. This task may be a challenge due to the necessity to work with numerous academic and non-academic sources, use different skills, and follow a logical development of the events. In Assessment 1, it is necessary to understand personal readiness to work in the nursing and academic field. The delivery of health is a complex process, and innovation may not always deliver the expectations in the right way (Price & John, 2014). In fact, innovation is complicated and challenging in different fields. It is hard to predict its outcomes and be prepared for them. Even the most successful leaders are under a threat of being confused by another innovation, and much work has to be done, as well as many theories that have to be used by leaders to turn their challenges into their opportunities (Donate & de Pablo, 2015; Latham, 2014). As soon as I am able to cope with such challenges and a variety of tasks, I can have access to new opportunities and roles.
For example, I expect to improve my abilities as a future leader. To be a nurse means to be a person with properly developed communicative and organisational skills, the ability to persuade, motivate, and participate in all decision-making processes. The roles of a leader and an educator have to be understood. I should learn that my task is not only to share my experience and lead other students or nurses to follow my example. My task is to provide nurses and students with a portion of the support and clear explanations of why innovations are important in nursing, what strategies are appropriate and which steps should be avoided, and when a new direction should be chosen. Managing innovation in organisations is not an easy task, and innovations in healthcare facilities have to be developed in a certain order. Therefore, such steps as the establishment of goals, the clarification of the details, and the evaluation of the examples have to be undertaken as my opportunities in this academic project.
Aspirations
I use my creativity, goal-orientation, ambitions, and understanding of innovation importance as my strengths that have to be developed in this work. These strengths promote the development of opportunities which include a further education process, professional growth as a leader and a supporter of innovation, and a regular job in terms of which it is possible to save human lives or, at least, improve the quality of life. I can leverage my strengths in different ways in order to improve my opportunities. For example, I can use my creativity and think of some new ways to gather information from different sources and to introduce an innovation in an organisation. In addition to available online sources like Future Unlimited (n.d.) about the existing educational system in Australia, it is possible to focus on access to such databases like A+ Education or ProQuest Education Database (Australian Catholic University, 2017). The Internet contains much valuable information about research, innovations, and leadership. It is better to spend more time on assessment and evaluations than to think about where to find additional time to correct the mistakes in a working process.
My ambitions may aspire to do more as a leader. I start speaking to different people and learn their personal fears or doubts about the coming changes and innovations. I should learn how to pose correct questions and help people answer my questions in the right way. A leader has to provide directions and make people think independently (Fisher, 2016). A leader has to follow the progress of a process and investigate the results achieved (Cloud, 2013). As soon as I can learn the hints and guidelines of these authors, I can improve my work and discover new opportunities.
Though I believe that individual work helps to discover personal strengths and weaknesses better than a collective type of work, I also like to cooperate with other people and achieve mutual goals. As a future nurse leader, I plan to work with many people. I understand that this task will require much time and much effort, but I can achieve success if I learn how to sacrifice for innovations. I should learn new things and be able to educate other people. I want my colleagues, tutors, and friends to see me as a successful leader with several clearly established goals who is aware of how to promote innovations and achieve benefits.
I compare the leadership of innovation with a dish where a number of ingredients are properly balanced. The peculiar feature of this “dish” is that some people may find it too perfect to be real, and some people may have a kind of food allergy to some of the ingredients. It is impossible to make all people love this dish. Still, it is always possible to try and make an offer. Leadership for innovation is complicated and challenging, and only proper use of personal strengths and the recognition of opportunities may help to succeed in leading people and to promote innovations in certain organisations.
Results
My work is my ability to evaluate personal skills in regard to external factors and opportunities. Sometimes, it is easy to cope with a task and understand what qualities and knowledge should be used. In some cases, people are challenged by the necessity to make a choice and consider the sources available. The results of my aspirations to be a leader have to be positive because I have a good plan, I may rely on professional tutors, and I can change anything in case of an emergency. Though the kind of work I have to perform this week is not the most important and influential project in my academic life, it helps to develop a certain portion of skills and investigate my leadership skills. I hope to make some contributions to the field of nursing I have been involved in during the last nine years. I do not believe that all nurses understand the importance of education. Therefore, they are in need of innovations and explanations of why they have to be involved in a lifelong learning process and develop their skills.
I expect to improve my cooperation with different medical workers and clinicians. I do not want to impose my opinion and make people accept it only because of my position. I want to develop cooperation in different ways. The process of managing innovations in healthcare organisations is based on mutual trust and understanding. Only when people are ready to cooperate and exchange their knowledge, they may benefit from innovations. In case some doubts or concerns bother a leader, it is required to solve all doubtful aspects and only then start thinking about innovations or changes.
I expect to see more understanding and enthusiasm in the work of nurses and educators. The field of nursing, as well as the field of medicine and healthcare, undergoes considerable changes regularly. People have to be willing to improve their knowledge and think about the achievements available to them. I want to believe that my practice and my explanations promote a better understanding of nursing leadership and involve new people in this practice.
At the same time, I want to believe that less confusion and doubts can be observed in the work of nurses and educators. I am happy to observe that every year new people join our hospital and demonstrate new approaches to our work. I want to see less confused or frustrated patients who are not satisfied with the services and care they ask for in our hospital. I believe that innovation and education are the two important aspects of the development of our general hospital. I am going to do my best to discover all the weak points and shortages in the work of nurses and think of the practices in terms of which nursing qualities can be developed. To begin with, I would like to focus on communication and the development of trustful relations between all nurses and clinicians who have to work in the emergency department of our hospital.
References
Australian Catholic University. (2017). Higher education. Web.
Bowers, J., & Khorakian, A. (2014). Integrating risk management in the innovation project. European Journal of Innovation Management, 17(1), 25-40.
Cloud, H. (2013). Boundaries for leaders: Results, relationships, and being ridiculously in charge. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Donate, M.J., & de Pablo, J.D. (2015). The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in knowledge management practices and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), 360-370.
Duffy, J.R. (2013). Quality caring in nursing and health systems: Implications for clinicians, educators, and leaders (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Fisher, J. (2016). The thoughtful leader: A model of integrative leadership. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Future Unlimited. (n.d.) Schools in Australia. Web.
Latham, J.R. (2014). Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a framework for future research. Quality Management Journal, 21(1), 11-15.
McCormack, B., Manley, K., & Titchen, A. (Eds.). (2013). Practice development in nursing and healthcare (2nd ed.). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Price, C.P., & John, A.S. (2014). Innovation in healthcare: The challenge for laboratory medicine. Clinica Chimica Acta, 427, 71-78.