Term Paper on "Past Present and Future"

Term Paper 5 pages (1643 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Future

A reflection upon where I was in my personal and professional life when I began the University of Phoenix program.

How did you feel about the role of learning and its importance to your personal growth and development? When I first began the University of Phoenix program I was nervous and apprehensive, but I felt as though it was something I had to do, and I knew that I could do it. I was very serious about pursuing my education. The role of learning is very important to me and I have grown and developed a great deal since I started in the University of Phoenix program both personally and professionally. Even when I first began the program I knew that I wanted to be a lifelong learner, but in the past the opportunity for me to attend college was not available. As soon as I realized that I could attend through the University of Phoenix I set my mind to doing so and told myself that my personal life would have to be adjusted to allow for my schooling, because learning is highly important if I want to continue to grow as a person and as a productive member of society. I feel this is especially necessary now because the healthcare field is struggling somewhat with the shortage of nurses (Peterson, 2001).

What was your level of professional competence in problem solving, written and oral communication skills, information retrieval and utilization and collaboration? Before I started the program at the University of Phoenix I considered myself to be only moderately competent in my problem solving skills. Both my written and my oral communication skills were at approximately the 12th-grade level. At this level I could retrieve information effectively and I could also process that information and disseminate it to the individuals that needed it. However, there was still more that I needed to learn and my skills needed improvement so that I could be more effective in problem solving.

What were your career goals? At the time that I started on my journey at the University of Phoenix my career goals were to move up the corporate ladder and also to help make effective changes in the healthcare system at my place of employment - Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, NY. These changes were very important to me, as they would help to improve the care that patients would receive, and patient care is the most important issue that any Medical Center can be involved with. Having good leadership is also vital to making that high level of patient care a reality (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2001).

Part Two: An Evaluation of the growth I experienced during my University of Phoenix program of study.

Evaluate how your courses and experiences in your University of Phoenix program have contributed to your growth, problem solving, written and oral communication skills, information retrieval and utilization, collaboration. Identify the two (2) general education courses and the two (2) core courses taken during your program of study that had the greatest impact on your current or potential employment. Explain why you selected these courses and how (be specific) they have positively impacted your personal and/or work life. The courses that have helped me the most have been:

Critical Thinking - I chose this course as one of the most helpful for me because it provided me with something that I knew I needed work on. Without critical thinking skills an individual does not perform well in business, and this is especially true of the field of healthcare, where critical thinking can also be critical to saving lives and ensuring that all patients get the best care that they possibly can. I know that I can be more helpful to a larger number of people if my skills are finely honed.

Ethical Reasoning (capstone course) - This course was selected by me because ethics are a vital aspect of business. Sadly, however, not every business person remembers this or cares about it. I do care, though, and in the healthcare field of business ethics become even more significant because people's lives are at stake. The length of their lives and the quality of their lives are both highly important issues that can be affected by the ethical beliefs and opinions of those that treat them. It is for this reason that ethical reasoning has so much significance for my career.

Organizational Behavior - the way that an organization behaves as an entity and the way that all of the people in that organization interact affects not only the people that work for that organization but the people that are customers or clients of the organization as well. The organizational behavior class taught me about the subtleties in business and how the nuances that come from the differences that people have can be used to help the organization instead of causing problems. It is true that these differences can cause conflict, but conflict is not always a bad thing. The main idea behind conflict is to steer it properly so that it is used to showcase new and opposing ideas instead of cause fights and disagreements (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2001). In a healthcare setting this becomes even more important because fighting amongst workers can severely lower patient care, and that is obviously dangerous.

Project Management - the management of projects is another vital skill for those in a business setting, and they are used in healthcare quite often. Healthcare companies are always looking for ways to improve productivity, cut costs, take care of people, and still ensure that they are performing at a level that everyone involved can be happy with. Projects are often undertaken in business, and they sometimes do not go the way that they were originally intended to. Mismanagement is often the reason for this, and learning how that problem can be avoided was very important to me and will be important to my colleagues as well.

Recommend any changes or accommodations that would have enhanced or improved your University of Phoenix experience. Explain how your recommendations will enhance or improve the program for future students. I would not change that much about the program, because I think it is very worthwhile and well done as it is. However, I did find that the instructors did not always participate as much as I would have liked and some of the training simulations were not as effective as they could have been had they been done differently.

Part Three: An analysis of the impact of completing the University of Phoenix bachelor's program on my current and future professional goals.

Now that you have completed your program of study, how do you feel about the role of lifelong learning and its importance to your personal growth and development? Now That the program of study is done I feel as though my journey is just beginning. Lifelong learning has always been something that has mattered to me, and this has simply been reinforced by what I learned and the experiences that I had while I was attending the University of Phoenix.

What are your personal, professional, and educational goals for the next five years? Within the next five years I want to obtain my Masters in Business Management/Health Care or Masters in Community Health.

What programs will you attend? I will attend either the University of Phoenix or the State University of New York-Potsdam.

What skills or competencies will you continue to develop, Why? Critical Thinking, Team Building, and Ethical Reasoning will be the main skills that I will continue to work on. The reason for this is that they are some of the most important for the job that I do. Being able to think critically could be life and death for someone… READ MORE

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