Professionalism

It’s sad that I googled the definition of “professional development” before I started writing this. Maybe it’s because this is my first real job ever! Lol. But I decided to create my own meaning of professional development. To me, it simply means learning and growing. As any intern/worker/professional gains knowledge through learning and work experience, they grow and develop into great thinkers that contribute to society. This is what professional development is, and should be. Anyone who works, no matter in what position or setting, should be able to learn and apply the learned information to his/her self as well as society. There are many aspects through which a working man or woman may do so. It could be as simple as learning to get to work on time, or more effort consuming as diagnosing a patient after analyzing test and x-ray results. Also, showing good professionalism after learning about the formalities and skills behind it is a component of professional development. All of these aspects mentioned involve learning and growing, so I feel that these two components should be combined to yield professional development.

At this stage of my career, I should be focusing on the learning everything that I can so I can gain the characteristics of a professional. I have to present myself in a clean matter. I have to shake hands with new people that I am introduced to at work. I have to learn and improve my communication skills with co-workers. There are so many ways that I can build my skills and improve in the professional world. I just have to focus on learning and applying.

Professional development needs do evolve over time as the professional world is changing and developing as well. In the corporate world, companies often expand by joining other relative companies. This demands an increased need of professional development in each individual that is involved with these companies, since there is a huge change. Another example is the growing and changing field of medicine. As this field changes, more demand in professional development is expected as new medical discoveries and technologies form and medical professionals must learn and adjust themselves to these new advances. So, I feel that professional development needs are always going to evolve, as long as the concept of change exists.