Advanced Practice Nurse Professional Development Plan Paper

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the nurse practitioner (NP) practice requirements in his/her state of practice, NP competencies and leadership skills to develop a plan to support professional development.

Directions:
1.    Introduction: Provide an overview of what will be covered in the paper. Introduction should include general statements on scope of practice, competencies, and leadership, and identification of the purpose of the paper.
2.    APN Scope of Practice: Research the Nurse Practice Act and APN scope of practice guidelines for the state in which you intend to practice after graduation (California, but possibly looking to move to a state that allows full NP practice down the line). Describe the educational, licensure, and regulatory requirements for that state in your own words. Identify whether your state allows full, limited, or restricted NP practice. Discuss NP prescriptive authority in your state. Provide support from at least one scholarly source. Source may be the regulatory body that governs nursing practice in your state.
3.    Nurse Practitioner (NONPF) Core Competencies: Review the NONPF Core Competencies. Describe two competency areas you believe to be personal strengths and two competency areas in which you have opportunities for growth. Discuss two scholarly activities you could do during the masters program to help yourself achieve NP competencies. Provide support from at least one scholarly source. Source may be NONPF Core Competencies document provided
1.    https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.nonpf.org/resource/resmgr/competencies/2017_NPCoreComps_with_Curric.pdf
4.    Leadership Skills: Analyze three leadership skills required to lead as an NP within complex systems. Describe two strategies you could use to help you develop NP leadership skills. Provide support from at least one scholarly source. Textbooks are not considered scholarly sources.
5.    Conclusion: Provide a conclusion, including a brief summary of what you discussed in the paper.

Requirements:
1.    The length of the paper should be 6-8 pages, excluding title page and reference page(s).
2.    Support ideas with a minimum of 4 scholarly resources. You may need to use more than 4 scholarly resources to fully support your ideas.
3.    You may use first person voice when discussing information specific to your personal practice or skills. 
4.    Current edition APA format is required with both a title page and reference page(s). Use the following as Level 1 headings to denote the sections of your paper (Level 1 headings use upper- and lower-case letters and are bold and centered):
o    APN Professional Development Plan (This is the paper introduction. In APA format, a restatement of the paper title, centered and not bold serves as the heading of the introduction section)
o    APN Scope of Practice
o    Nurse Practitioner (NONPF) Core Competencies 
o    Leadership Skills
o    Conclusion