25 professional goals for nurses, from your next review to a specialty certification

Professional goals for nurses: examples

Professional goals are about your own growth as a nurse, and the ones every job shares, like a mentor or a course, are in career goals.

• Join one nursing association and go to 4 of its meetings or webinars this year.
• Go to one nursing conference this year and share 3 things you learned with your unit.
• Read one nursing journal article a month for a year and write 3 lines about each.
• Spend one shift with the team of another unit or specialty this year.
• Write one short reflection a month on a shift that taught you something.

SMART goals for nurses: examples for your evaluation

Each example turns a vague line on a review form, like "improve my skills", into a count with a date, the test behind SMART goals.

• Finish one course on a skill your unit uses every day, such as reading an ECG, by 31 March.
• Renew your life support certificate at least one month before it runs out.
• Ask your manager for feedback once a month for 6 months, and pick one thing to work on each time.
• Read your unit's 5 most used procedures and have each one signed off by the person who trains your team, within 8 weeks.
• Earn 12 hours of continuing education by 30 June, 2 hours a month.

Nursing certification and learning goals

A specialty certification is the longest goal on this list, and some, like the CCRN described below, begin with a set number of hours of direct care.

• Pick one specialty certification this month and copy its rules from the certifying body's own website.
• Log your hours of direct care every week toward the total your certification asks for.
• Study for your certification exam 3 hours a week for 12 weeks.
• Take 2 full practice exams before your exam date.
• Finish one course toward a nursing degree every term this year.

Leadership goals for nurses: precepting and teaching

Teaching new staff is a way to lead without a new title, and mentoring is counted the same way in other jobs, as software engineer goals show.

• Precept 2 new nurses or students this year, from their first shift to their last.
• Teach a 10 minute session at a team meeting once a quarter.
• Write a one-page guide to a task new staff find hard, and have 3 colleagues check it.
• Join one unit committee and go to 10 of its meetings this year.
• Take charge of the shift 4 times this quarter and write down one lesson after each.

Goals for nurses at work: shifts, rest and team

NIOSH, the US agency for safety at work, explains that shift work and long hours can lead to health and safety risks, so rest goals belong on a nurse's list too.

• Sleep 7 hours or more before 4 shifts out of 5 for a month.
• Take your full break, away from the unit, on 3 shifts out of 4 for a month.
• Finish the free NIOSH online course for nurses on shift work and long hours: 2 parts, 12 modules.
• Start your handover notes an hour before the end of the shift on 10 shifts this month.
• Turn down extra shifts on at least 2 of your days off each month for 6 months.

What is a good goal for nurses?

A good goal for nurses counts what you control. How a patient does depends on the whole team, the illness and much more, and it belongs in care plans, not in your review. Hours toward a certification, courses finished, students precepted and breaks taken are yours. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best, and "be a better nurse" is a do your best goal.

A certification is a count from the start. In the US, the CCRN (Adult) from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses asks for a current, unencumbered US RN or APRN license and 1,750 hours of direct care of acutely or critically ill adults in the past 2 years, 875 of them in the most recent year. A second path asks for 2,000 hours over 5 years, 144 of them in the most recent year. Other specialties and other countries have other rules, and so does continuing education, so check with the body that sets yours.

Rest is part of the job. The CDC says adults aged 18 to 60 need 7 or more hours of sleep, and NIOSH runs a free online course for nurses on the risks of shift work and long hours, and on what nurses and managers can do about them. Every job has its own counts: for real estate agents they are calls and open houses, and for nurses they are hours, courses and the people you teach.

How to track goals for nurses

Log each hour, course and shift on the day it happens, and bring the totals to your review. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head.

Hours and courses are amounts that add up toward a total, such as 1,750 hours. Shifts with a full break are a day count, the shape most work challenge ideas use.

A year of shifts runs together, and the review asks what changed. A jar that fills a little with every hour and every course shows the year in one picture.

Frequently asked questions

What are good professional goals for nurses?

Join a nursing association and go to 4 meetings, precept 2 new nurses or students, study 3 hours a week for a certification, and take your full break on 3 shifts out of 4. Each one has a number you can check at your review.

What is an example of a SMART goal for nurses?

"Finish one course on reading an ECG by 31 March" is a SMART goal: it is specific, you can count it, and it has a date. "Get better at ECGs" is not, because nobody can tell when it is done.

What goals should a nurse set for an evaluation?

Pick a few goals you control, each with a number and a date: a course, a step toward a certification, a teaching role and a rest goal. Leave patient outcomes to care plans, because they depend on the whole team.