Smarter Goals
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name
Tutor’s Name
Date
Smarter Goals
Develop one academic goal you have while at the University. It could be for this course, for your degree, for your studying, or another area. Fill out each area of this worksheet. Your description should answer the questions in the Mnemonic and provide a clear explanation for each part.
| Name | ||
| Goal | My goal is to achieve nursing competency. | |
| Date | ||
| The reason this goal is essential to me. | There are various reasons as to why my goal of achieving nursing competency is crucial to me. Firstly, it will motivate me to pursue further studies in my field, thus creating a career path. Secondly, it will boost my commitment to my field of study. It will make my resume appear more professional and enable me to deliver quality patient care services in my future workplace.
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| Step | Mnemonic | Description |
| 1 | Specific Exactly what is it you want to achieve in your work or personal life? Good goal statements explain: what, why, who, where and when. If your goal statement is vague, you will find it hard to achieve because it will be hard to define success. | I aim to become a competent nurse so that I can be able to offer quality services to all my patients. I want every patient to get satisfied with my services too. My aim is also to promote my profession of nursing and help make the education substantial. |
| 2 | Measurable You must be able to track progress and measure the result of your goal. Good goal statements answer the question: how much or how many. How will I know when I achieve my goal? | I will be able to tell if I have achieved my goal when first I score excellent grades in my nursingdegree. Also, when I can accurately apply the skills learnt and think logically. Also, when I can communicate using the nursing terminology with other nurses. |
| 3 | Agreed Your goal must be relevant to and agreed with all parties; examples include your manager & employees. | Every nurse is required to be competent in the nursing field to offer quality services to patients. In any job interview, the interviewers mostly focus on how competent an individual is before offering them a job. Thus, the pursuit of my goal will equip me with knowledge and make me very marketable after completing my studies. |
| 4 | Realistic The goal should be stretching but realistic and relevant to you and your company. Ensure the actions you need to take to achieve your goal are things you can do and control. Is this goal achievable?
| My goal of becoming a competent nurse is very much attainable. All I have to do is be attentive in all my lectures to ensure I capture much, if not all, information from my lecturers. I should also do more research on my field to ensure I discover information not taught in class. I can also examine myself to see if I can master all the terminologies to test my understanding. |
| 5 | Time-Bound Goals must have a deadline. A good goal statement will answer the question: When will I achieve my goal? Without deadlines, it’s easy to put goals off and leave them to die. It’s a good idea to set some short-term milestones along the way to help you measure progress as well as a deadline. | I plan to have achieved my goal of becoming a fully competent nurse within two years after my graduation. |
| 6 | Evaluate- what is working & not working? Barriers? Seeking win-win? | Since I began working on my goal, I have managed to venture into research where I use peer review to expand my thinking. I have also been able to self-test my understating of the terminologies, which I see much improvement. However, capturing all the details presented by the lecturer has been a big challenge since, at times, the students make noises during lectures, which distracts my attention and makes it hard to capture all the details. Other lecturers fail to be audible enough, making it hard for them to sit behind. |
| 7 | Reassess- what changes need to be made & take action?
(Since you may not be able to do this part yet, list what actions you would take if you found you were not reaching your goal) | In cases where I find myself unable to achieve my goal within the stipulated time, I will get forced to do further research and enrol in extra courses that will boost my understanding. |