Career Planning
The Donner-Wheeler Model
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Phase one: scanning your environment
Phase two: completing your selfassessment and reality check
Phase three: creating your career vision
Phase four: developing your strategic
career plan
Phase five: marketing yourself
Scanning
Taking stock of the world in which you
live
 What are the current realities/current
trends?
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Self-Assessment
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Recognizing the attributes that make
you who you are and what you have
to offer to the environment
Who am I?
Values
 Knowledge and skills
 Interests
 Accomplishments
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Reality Check
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Seeking feedback about your
strengths and weaknesses…expand
your view of who you are by reflecting
on what others’ say about you
How do others see me?
Take the initiative
 Seek formal and informal feedback
 Listen and accept positive feedback
 Acknowledge areas where change is
needed
 Ask for ideas on how to develop new
skills
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Creating your career vision
Looking at what is possible
 Making use of your resources
 Having the ability to harness and
focus your energy
 What do I really want to be doing????
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Developing your plan
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Putting down on paper the specific
strategies you will use to change your
career
Goals
A purpose or objective towards which
an endeavour is directed
 They need to be specific, time framed,
reachable and relevant
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How can I achieve my
career goals?
Action steps
 Resources
 Timelines
 Indicators of success
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Marketing yourself
Articulating who you are, what you
want and what you can do
 Persuading others that what you have
to offer meets their current needs
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How to best market
yourself?
Establish a network
 Acquire a mentor or coach
 Develop your written and verbal
communication skills: professional
speaking, presentations & interviews
 Have a targeted resume and cv
 Business cards
 publications
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Portfolios
Tool to help you identify, collect and
reflect upon and value your
experiences, learning and
accomplishments
 Helps you see how you are
developing as a professional
 Provides a system for identifying your
goals for future learning and
development
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How to do it?
Begins with reviewing your past and
gathering documents
 Requires ongoing maintenance
 Save anything that identifies your
skills, attributes, contributions and put
that in your portfolio
 Can be used as a means of
completing your QA for CNO
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What do I want from my portfolio?
 What goals do I have in mind?
 Components: beliefs about nursing,
life review, learning plan/learning log,
self-assessment, peer feedback, any
attachments
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