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Current Career Assessment
Career assessment is a fundamental tool that enables one to understand and discover their skills, aptitude and talents in the given field or career. Career assessments however come in different varieties based on the individual’s consideration about the job. These types vary in terms of methodology, the attributes measured, the validity and the target, customer profile among many others (McMahon, 2015). My career assessment is qualitative in nature as it tries to clarify my preferences and goals. I have been working as an educator for deploying airman for the last few years. I have also taken part in teaching advanced trauma care for nurses at level one trauma centers once every month. Currently, I teach the same course and I project I will be doing so for the next 2-3 years. At the end of this period I will have to retire and pursue new opportunities in other fields; the reason I have been compelled to come up with this career plan.
Basic Instructor Course is a very important undertaking for trainers or people who are involved with teaching soldiers within the army system. However, since I missed it before I began teaching, I am currently undertaking it. According to the military directives, it is among the basics to be learned before one starts teaching. This course is aimed at helping me know how to teach by translating my training skills and techniques to the classroom. It will also enable me gain confidence in front of big audiences and the ability to get accustomed to the classroom. Teaching is new to me and so I am not that comfortable teaching as would be my wish. However, I hope that after attending the Basic Instructor Course I would be able to overcome some of these challenges. Basic Instructor Course also provides a nice experience since skills obtained here can be applied both in the army school systems and the civilian world.[“Write my essay for me?” Get help here.]
Peak and Valley Moments
Being a trainer or teacher in the armed forces like any other occupation has its peak moments and challenges. One therefore has to come up with new ways of handling both situations when they arise. For instance, one should device ways of improving or maintaining the peak moments they experience and ways of dealing with challenges as they arise. Peak moments are known to energize the individual while challenges could end up draining the individual. During the eight months I have been teaching I have encountered several energizing moments and challenges.
` To start with, I really enjoy teaching knowing that am gaining valuable experience that will be of importance in my future employment since I aspire to teach nursing students at a community college or university. The teaching profession requires one to be confident and have vast knowledge and understanding about the discipline they are teaching. Interacting with the young airmen gives me the opportunity to build my confidence and on the other hand, the clinical shifts at the level one trauma center is an opportunity to increase my bank of knowledge about trauma care more so its importance to the nurses.
Seeing the light bulb go off in students’ head when they can comprehend new subjects they had never encountered brings a lot of joy to me. Teaching process is based on the principles of learning. Teaching should therefore enable the student learn new ideas and improve their understanding on those they already were aware off. For my case, a student being able to comprehend new subjects at the end of the day is great achievement since it shows learning has taken place.[Click Essay Writer to order your essay]
During my teaching periods, passing of important information to the deployment troops which could be used in saving another airman’s life is a source of gratification to me. I feel honored when am given the opportunity to pass knowledge and skills from my experience in deployments to the young airmen. However, I have also been experiencing several challenges in the current job. First of all, I have to commute about two hours a day in dense traffic. This therefore means I need to adjust my waking time and the time I leave the house. I therefore have to wake up very early in the morning, prepare and leave early for work. This problem also eats into my time while returning home from work. As a consequence I arrive late and very tired. However, I have plans of relocating nearer to the barracks to ease these inconveniences.
Military students are stressed individuals and always in errands far away from their families. The above mentioned factors therefore pose a big challenge to the instructor, trainer or teacher concerned. My case for instance, I am involved with teaching individuals who leave their families for about three weeks. This greatly decreases their attention and participation in class. Also, they do not like attending training classes, hence making it difficult to teach them, since there are no people to be thought. The above mentioned could be as a result of stress and fatigue attributed to their operations during errands.
Apart from teaching, I also have to do 12 hour clinical shifts in level one trauma center. Balancing between the two; accessing residents at the trauma center and teaching at the barracks is time demanding and mentally draining. Sometimes back, I had to skip some classes with the troops due to the exhaustion. However as time went by, I learnt to appreciate it. Nowadays, I view it as a way of assisting the residents to be confident, compassionate and exceptionally competent.
Self-Assessment
Self-assessment helps one, through self-evaluation, to assess aspects that could be of importance to his or her identity. It is through self-assessment that one can be able to self-verify and self-enhance whichever aspiration they have chosen, bearing in mind not to damage their self-esteem. It also involves one’s’ skills and strengths towards performing or achieving certain set goals. Below is part of my self-assessment.
Having worked for about eight years as a teacher at the military and with still about 2-3 years before my retirement, I see the need to start preparations for my new career. I therefore have about three years, which is enough time, to continue teaching while considering the other option. I have always had strong interests in the field of education which has also grown over time while teaching troops at the barracks. I therefore wish to become a nursing instructor at a community college or university in the future after retirement from my current career. I find this achievable based on the following strengths and skills.
I have been fortunate enough to be in the teaching position as I have and am still teaching deploying airman in the military. Through this, I have acquired valuable experiences from deployments that could help save an airman’s life. I also happen to have the confidence and knowledge about the tasks that I teach these young airmen. I, however, experience problems with speaking in front of a class but am sure I will get over it after gaining more experience in teaching.
Every month I participate in advanced trauma care for nurses at level one trauma center through a 12 hour clinical shift. This equips me with the required knowledge and skills required in teaching in a nursing school. Assessing the resident nurses during this rotations also helps improve my confidence in front of people, something am really in need of.
Action Steps
I have worked as a teacher in the military for just eight months through which I have had several challenges since it is new to me. At the same time, I will be retiring in the next three years and am thinking of the teaching profession as my next destination. I have therefore come up with some short term and long-term goals that will help in my career planning.
For the short term goals, I aim at improving my teaching capabilities in terms of confidence and mastery of the subject. The aforementioned will be acquired through the continued teaching of the young airman and teaching of advanced trauma care for nurses. I am going to continue teaching for the remaining three years before retiring. I also plan to keep in touch with friends who have recently retired from the military and are currently teaching in the civilian settings.[Need an essay writing service? Find help here.]
My long term goal is to become a nursing instructor either at a community college or university in the next five years. By doing this I would have quenched my ambition of teaching in a nursing school. I plan to achieve this through the knowledge I have obtained from this program. I also have the idea of pursuing an additional degree in patient safety so as to give me an upper hand in bargaining in the market. However this cannot be achieved since it can fit nowhere on my current schedule.
Professional Development Plan
For the remaining 2-3 years, I plan to continue teaching deployment strategies to our airman prior to deployment. I also plan to continue teaching in advanced trauma care for nurses every month and to continue with the 12 hour clinical shift at the level one trauma center. This will help me in gaining the required skills, knowledge and experience that will be fundamental in my new career, as a nursing instructor. Through the continued teaching, I would be able to gain the confidence of talking in front of big crowds, which is my main problem currently. Teaching advanced trauma care for nurses and the clinical shifts at the trauma center will help me in the mastery of trauma care for nurses.
After retiring from the military, I have plans of teaching in the academic environment, in this case a nursing instructor. As a result, am always in touch with some of my friends who have recently retired from the military and are actively engaged in teaching in the academic world. From them I have been able to obtain advice on things to do before applying for the teaching jobs. It is from some of this advice that I came up with the idea of pursuing an additional degree in patient safety though unfortunately it cannot fit into my current schedule.
The knowledge and skills I have acquired through teaching the troops and the residents at the level one trauma center will be enough for a start in the nursing instructor role. At the end of the 3 year period, I will also have gained enough confidence for teaching. This wish of becoming a nursing instructor at either a community college or university after retiring from the military is what has prompted me to plan of starting my basic instructor course that is scheduled to start in February next year. This is aimed at teaching basic concepts to students, delivery of information in a formal setting and the techniques to deliver the required information.
Conclusion
Changing from military to civilian career could pose many challenges that would require prior planning to contain them. Lifestyle changes are the first transition challenges one may face. For instance, while in the military, one may have had certain privileges which could be extended to family members. When one leaves the military, termination of some if not the majority of these privileges occurs. Separation of spouses, in the search for other job opportunities could also occur since one may have to move to the new place of work.
Based on the above potential challenges, one could therefore be advised to plan in advance for such. This would mean development of a career plan on the new career they are intending to join. From the career plan, they will be able to come up with some of the challenges they may face during the transition and their solutions. It is advisable that they begin planning early, say one year before, for their departure. Paying visits to family support centers and friends who already have left the military and settled as civilians could also be of great benefit (Britt, 2006).
References
Britt, T. W., Adler, A. B., & Castro, C. A. (2006). Military life: The psychology of serving in peace and combat. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
McMahon, M., & Watson, M. (2015). Career assessment: Qualitative approaches. Rotterdam: Sense.
