Professional growth 

a.k.a.

“From novice to expert” 

According to Patricia Benner the professional growth consist of five stages: Novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert. At the beginning of ones professional carreer a person is inflexible in his/ her professional behaviour and incapable to foresee what might happen in different situations. When a person gains more experience he/ she will be more capable to recognize different meaningful components of a situation. This is because advanced beginner already has some konwledge and know-how, but to go further he/ she needs more in-depth experience to become a competent professional. Even in this third stage a competent person lacks speed and flexibility, but can rely on advanced planning and his/ her organizational skills. He/ she can identify different situations faster and more accurate than advanced beginner. Proficient workers already starts to see the “big picture” instead of individual events which gives them ability to modify their plans and react accordingly. An expert is a person who gets the job done. He/ she has a wide range of professional skills combined with in-depth experience, so that he/ she can rely in his/ her intuition more than rules or guidelines. An expert can identify relevant knowledge from irrelevant and focus on what really matters so that he/ she can reach the goal. (Healtresearchfunding. 2023.) 

Professional growth is a life long process where a person will gain more professional competencies by doing, by learning and by educating oneself. One must challenge him-/herself to achieve more professional know-how and if needed, jump away from ones comfort zone. Only by challenging your way of working, your values and yourself as a professional, you can obtain better professional competencies.  

Sources:

Healtresearchfunding.org. Patricia Benner Novice to Expert Nursing Theory Explained. 2023. Available: https://healthresearchfunding.org/patricia-benner-novice-to-expert-nursing-theory-explained/. Quoted 21.12.2023

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