The ability of talent development professionals to pursue new knowledge and expand their skills will be a determining factor for success in the future of work. And given that it is an important responsibility to develop others, we should remember the importance of developing ourselves. (Galagan et al., 2020, p. xii)
We spent 2022 exploring how we, as nursing professional development (NPD) practitioners, can build our personal capabilities in the areas of communication, emotional intelligence, decision-making, cultural inclusion, collaboration, and leadership. Using the Association for Talent Development (ATD) Capability Model, which was developed through extensive research, we delved deeply into the model's Building Our Personal Capabilities domain and looked at ways to improve our personal skills to be more future ready. We ended the year challenging NPD practitioners to fully embrace lifelong learning and commitment to their own personal growth in the interprofessional learning environment.
The resounding support from our readers throughout the year affirmed our belief that the challenges facing the general healthcare environment were placing tremendous burden on our healthcare professionals to the point of emotional exhaustion and professional burnout. Many readers shared stories about fatigue, unrelenting staffing shortages, and the difficulty in finding time and energy to devote to building their personal capabilities. However, nearly everyone was in agreement that the latter was absolutely essential to our current and future healthcare readiness and sustainability. So, this year, we will continue to delve into the ATD Capability Model further by focusing on the other two domains, Developing Professional Capability and Impacting Organizational Capability.
As with the Building Personal Capability domain, the other two domains have key capabilities within them. Developing Professional Capability includes learning sciences, instructional design, learning technologies, training delivery and facilitation, knowledge management, coaching, evaluating impact, and career/leadership development. Impacting Organizational Capability includes business insight, consulting and business partnering, organizational development and culture, change management, talent strategy and management, and data/analytics. Taken together, developing ourselves in all of these domains allows us to become more future ready and able to handle the increasing demands of our work environments and growing stressors, which ultimately benefits our learners and our organizations (Galagan et al., 2020).
Among these three domains, Developing Professional Capabilities has traditionally received the most organizational attention. One reason may be due to its relative ease in finding continuing education offerings that hone in on adult learning principles, brain-based learning theory, developing learning scenarios (such as role plays and other simulations), facilitation and/or debriefing skills, use of emerging technologies for learning, and educational evaluation methods. For example, Mahoney (2021) brings new light to the instructional design process and explores creative ways to reach learners. Kinney (2021) and Hicken (2021) explore a variety of training facilitation techniques that create increased connection with learners and lead to a more positive environment. Perceived talent with these professional capabilities are often the first items noted on resumes and other documents related to job performance, so their importance cannot be underestimated.
In addition, NPD practitioners tend to place greater emphasis on this domain as topics related to professional capabilities most directly related to workplace competencies, which engender broader support by upper-level management. The Nursing Professional Development Scope and Standards of Practice, 4th Edition (Harper & Maloney, 2022), further delineates, in Standard 13: Education, the importance of NPD practitioners identifying their personal learning needs, expanding their role, and increasing their knowledge.
In our view, the future success of the NPD practitioners within the interprofessional educational environments will demand greater attention in the area of professional and organizational capabilities. As we continue to explore this model and how NPD practitioners can optimize their development to better serve our learners, we invite you to share your thoughts on these capabilities and what you might want to focus on this year. Perhaps there is an area that you feel you need to develop more fully, such as using emerging technologies to enhance learning under the Developing Professional Capabilities domain, or delving into business insight or data/analytics under the Impacting Organizational Capability domain. E-mail us at mailto:[email protected] and mailto:[email protected] to join the conversation.
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