Running head: APN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
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APN Professional Development Plan
Emily Roach
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR 510: Leadership Role of the Advanced Practice Nurse
June 16, 2019

APN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
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APN Professional Development Plan
Introduction
Advanced Practice Nurses are nurses who have a master’s degree, post masters or even a
doctoral degree in nursing.
There are four different options for an advanced practice nurse.
These are Nurse Practitioner (NP), Certified Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Clinical Nurse
Specialist (CNS), and last is Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM).
When taking on the role of a APN
a professional development plan (PDP) is needed.
It is important for an APN take their career in
their own hands.
The PDP is an important as it allows one’s to assess his/ her knowledge,
education, and identify learning needs, licensure and governing requirements specific to the
geographic location (Spoelstra & Robbins, 2010).
This paper will discuss and highlight the roles
APNs in the state of Illinois, a personal assessment with Benner’s self-assessment tool, and
details of networking and marketing strategies.
Also, and up to date curriculum vitae will be
shown.
APN Scope of practice
To become an APN, you must earn a graduate degree. A valid RN license and bachelors
degree will be needed to get into a graduate degree program.
A master’s degree is the minimum
degree requirement to become a NP. Also, it needs to be from an accredited school. Once
graduated from a master’s degree program certification and state license is required.
There will
be a $395 fee for the certification.
There are 150 questions on the examination and test knowledge on
assessment, diagnosis, plan, and evaluation across the life span of an individual (FAMILY NURSE
PRACTITIONER (FNP), 2017).
Once that is completed and passed you can send off all the information required to get
licensed and your prescription authority.

APN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
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According to the National Council of State Board of Nursing (NCSBN, 2019), CNPs are
APRNs who are educated to provide care to the patient population in their specialty area
.
Roles
and restrictions of APNs differ from state to state. That may cause some confusion form many.
This lack of uniformity creates confusion among APRNs, the public and healthcare community,
devalues APRN position in shaping health policy and limits access to APRNs across states and
settings (Rounds, Zych, & Mallary, 2013).
APNs also may work in many different settings.
They practice anywhere from hospitals, doctor offices, emergency department, walk in clinics,
the operating rooms, and even in jails and prisons.
They also work with many different types of
patient like elderly, pediatric, acute/chronic illness, women’s health and psychiatric.
Some will
even go on to specialize in specific areas such as cardiology, neurology, pulmonology, oncology,
nephrology, etc.
