1. What are the significant professional milestones in your Nursing Professional Development (NPD) career?

MK: Early in my career, I spent significant time as an educator in academia and in the community. I belonged to professional organizations, but I was not aware of an organization specifically focused on professional development. Joining the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD), at that time called National Nurses for Staff Development Organization (NNSDO), was definitely the first milestone in my career in professional development! I had attended several national conventions prior to becoming engaged in the work of the organization. I decided my staff and I could both contribute new knowledge to the field and continue our own learning, by committing to membership and involvement in the life of the organization. At a convention in the 1990s, I brought eight NPD specialists as new members to attend a national convention, many of them presenting posters. This represented a milestone for my department and my NPD specialists. Service on the ANPD Board, another milestone, offered the opportunity to work with other ANPD leaders who were eager to move the organization forward. As a nurse leader and a researcher, partnering with current president Joan Warren to advance members' knowledge and use of evidence in practice and research was a rewarding milestone. Generating columns for the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development on evidence-based practice and research proved to be another milestone, encouraging members to recognize that evidence and research are part of their professional development role. Finally, an exceptionally rewarding milestone was receiving the Belinda Puetz Award, a significant honor and recognition in the field of professional development.

2. How have you seen the specialty of NPD grown/change during your career?

MK: The specialty truly has grown forward in significant and important ways. ANPD leaders have advanced organizational change by their work standardizing competencies and updating the content of the certification exam, among other achievements. In the early years, so many presentations at the annual convention focused on preparation for Joint Commission surveys and Life Support training. Now, the extensive topics highlighted in both posters and podium presentations document expertise and innovation in practice! The articles published in the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development reflect greater depth and breadth of topics, including an increased number of research articles. There seems to be recognition now that an NPD specialist needs to be as well educated as possible, whereas in the early decades, there were gaps in the preparation for this role. ANPD members seem to better understand that the current work environment demands more outcomes, an important concept to grasp for success in this specialty.

3. What do you see as significant trends or gaps in NPD practice, from your perspective as an expert in leadership and research?

MK: Changes in the healthcare environment will prove to be a challenge for all disciplines, including NPD specialists. The emphasis now is on how well interprofessional teams work together to improve patient outcomes and better manage transitions of care. How are professional development specialists participating on teams and coaching their clinical nurses to participate on teams? We now live in the world of metrics. How are NPD specialists reporting outcomes? Does their work show that instructing and mentoring clinical staff makes a difference in patient care and safety outcomes? Professional development continues to be a developing field. I see missed opportunities, particularly with regard to the use of data. Research and evidence in the field seems to continue focusing on process, such as measuring employee satisfaction with a class or how well knowledge is retained. Although this is an important foundation, is the next step taken to rigorously measure retention by how well nurses and other staff apply this new knowledge to patient care to prevent complications? Is staff performance observed, such as done in Crew Resource Training? If the competency verification process is delegated to peers, a positive way to encourage group accountability, is the link between the NPD and staff well connected to standardize the process for error prevention? New roles are being developed constantly, such as nurse navigator, resource or discharge nurses, and trials of alternative care delivery models. These rapid changes mean the NPD practice needs to be nimble and to adapt to new ways for developing staff. The NPD role requires expertise in technology, use of instructional techniques incorporating social media, up-to-date evidence, and attention to self-learning that stretches NPD knowledge by delving into literature generated by other disciplines.

4. What insights can you share related to the value of NPD in healthcare organizations now and in the future?

MK: I often called our NPD specialists the "glue" that held a unit or service together, because they are boundary walkers, riding the line between frontline staff and managers to ensure that policies, procedures, and change initiatives were safely implemented. Many of them held dual roles both as clinical nurse and educator. The value of the NPD often depends on how the healthcare institution structures the role, because structure drives how others in the organization view the NPD's value and integration into the patient care enterprise. If the NPD is separated from the daily work of patient care and lives in a department unconnected to care, they may be viewed as less valued because visibility is critical. We found that a mixed centralized and decentralized structural model provided the key balance, whereby the NPD reports to a director of Professional Resources or Development, as example, but lives on the service and is accountable to the unit or service manager for prioritizing the work, being part of the leadership team, and being fully integrated into the work environment. Increasingly, health organizations are forming into systems to meet the challenges of the Accountable Care Act. Blending policies and procedures, IT systems, products, and equipment, as well as juggling new roles and cultures, is not easy. The best way to show value as an NPD is to say "yes" and "we can do this." NPDs can emerge as innovative leaders if they remember that their responsibility is not to stop the future but to shape it.

5. What advice do you have for NPD specialists in the context of today's healthcare and learning environments?

MK: Step up to the action and be the change you wish for! I have heard NPD specialists say they have no power in their organization. Power does not have to be written into a job description; it can be perceived as power that comes from assuming accountability for important initiatives in your healthcare organization and successfully producing the deliverables. The current environment is one of continuous change, with so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of your NPD role. For example, leading an interprofessional team of nurses, physicians, physical therapists, and others to educate and exercise vigilance on inpatient units to turn around outcomes, to achieve zero pressure ulcers, falls, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, or central line-associated blood stream infections is a win for the NPD, the team, the manager, and hospital. Coaching others to lead interprofessional teams strengthens the team's professional development. Leading by example is powerful. The NPD is a wonderful role, because daily you have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of both the caregiver and the vulnerable patient receiving care.